SMS was the third member of the seven-vessel of light cruisers, built for the German (Imperial Navy) in the early 1900s. She and her sister ships were ordered under the 1898 Naval Law that required new cruisers be built to replace obsolete vessels in the fleet. The design for the class was derived from the preceding , utilizing a larger hull that allowed for additional boilers to increase speed. Named for the German capital of Berlin, the ship was armed with a main battery of ten guns and had a top speed of .
served with the main fleet's scouting forces for the majority of her early career. Between her commissioning in 1905 and 1910, the ship's annual training routine consisted of unit and fleet training exercises, visits to foreign countries, and in 1908 and 1909, several long-distance training cruises into the central Atlantic Ocean. In 1911, the ship was involved in the Agadir Crisis over the French annexation of part of Morocco, which resulted in a diplomatic defeat for Germany. was reduced to reserve status in late 1912, remaining out of service until the start of World War I in July 1914. She was used to support German coastal defense forces and to scout for the High Seas Fleet. On two different occasions, she had to tow her sister ships during the war: after she struck naval mines; and after having been torpedoed by a submarine. was reduced to a tender in early 1917 and saw no further active service for the rest of the war.
Among the handful of vessels permitted to Weimar Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, was initially used as a stationary training vessel before being modernized between 1921 and 1922. She thereafter served as a training ship for naval cadets, and over the course of the mid-1920s, embarked a series of long-distance training cruises. The furthest of these, lasting from late 1927 to early 1929, saw the ship voyage as far as East Asia. was decommissioned in March 1929 and kept in reserve until 1935, when she was converted into a barracks ship, a role the vessel filled through World War II. After the war, she was loaded with chemical weapons and scuttled in the Skagerrak in 1946.
Design
The German 1898 Naval Law called for the replacement of the fleet's older cruising vessels—steam corvettes, unprotected cruisers, and avisos—with modern light cruisers. The first tranche of vessels to fulfill this requirement, the , were designed to serve both as fleet scouts and as station ships in Germany's colonial empire. They provided the basis for subsequent designs, beginning with the that was designed in 1901–1903. The principle improvements consisted of a larger hull that allowed for an additional pair of boilers and a higher top speed.
was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced as designed and up to at full load. The ship had a minimal superstructure, which consisted of a small conning tower and bridge structure. Her hull had a raised forecastle and quarterdeck, along with a pronounced ram bow. She was fitted with two pole masts. She had a crew of 14 officers and 274–287 enlisted men, which varied over the course of her career.
Her propulsion system consisted of two triple-expansion steam engines driving a pair of screw propellers, with steam provided by ten coal-fired Marine-type water-tube boilers. The boilers were vented through three funnels located amidships. Her propulsion system was rated at for a top speed of . carried up to of coal, which gave her a range of at .
The ship was armed with a main battery of ten SK L/40 guns on single mounts. Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle; six were located on the broadside, three on either side; and two were placed side by side aft. The guns could engage targets out to . They were supplied with 1,500 rounds of ammunition, for 150 shells per gun. For defense against torpedo boats, she carried ten Maxim guns on individual mounts. She was also equipped with two torpedo tubes with five torpedoes. They were submerged in the hull on the broadside. In 1915, was modified to carry 80 naval mines.
The ship was protected by a curved armored deck that was up to thick; it sloped down at the sides to provide a measure of protection against enemy fire. The conning tower had thick sides, and the guns were protected by thick gun shields.
Service history Construction – 1910
was ordered under the contract name and was laid down at the (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig in 1902. She was launched on 22 September 1903, and the Mayor of Berlin, Martin Kirschner, gave a speech and christened the ship. After completing fitting-out work, she was commissioned for sea trials on 4 April 1905. Initial testing lasted until 15 June, and she immediately thereafter joined , the yacht of Kaiser Wilhelm II, on a voyage that began on 18 June. The ships went to a series of sailing regattas over the course of the next few weeks; the first was on the Elbe river, followed by Kiel Week, and finally Travemünde Week. The two ships then embarked on the Kaiser's annual summer cruise in July, during which they visited Gefle, Norway, from 12 to 16 July. There, Wilhelm II was met by King Oscar II of what was then Sweden–Norway. then escorted for a cruise into the Baltic Sea that culminated with a visit to the island of Björkö, off the coast of Finland; there, Wilhelm met his cousin, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia between 23 and 24 July. The voyage concluded with a visit to Copenhagen, Denmark, from 31 July to 3 August, where Wilhelm met with King Christian IX of Denmark. arrived back in Kiel, German, on 8 August.
The ship was then assigned to the fleet, though she did not take part in the annual fleet maneuvers held in late August and early September. Following the conclusion of the exercises, (KK—Corvette Captain) Hugo Kraft took command of the ship. She officially joined the fleet's Reconnaissance Unit on 29 September, taking the place of the light cruiser that was decommissioned at that time; s crew transferred to , replacing her initial crew that had been assembled just for trials. then joined the other vessels of the Reconnaissance Unit for squadron training in the Baltic in November. Fleet maneuvers in the North Sea followed in December. The years 1906 and 1907 consisted of a similar routine of training exercises: unit exercises were held in the North Sea and the Skagerrak early in the year, followed by fleet maneuvers in May and June, summer cruises in July and August, and the annual large-scale fleet maneuvers held every August and September. Further unit and fleet maneuvers were conducted toward the end of both years. In October 1907, (FK—Frigate Captain) Arthur Tapken relieved Kraft as the ship's commander.
At the urging of the commander of the High Seas Fleet, Admiral Prince Heinrich of Prussia, the fleet conducted four major training cruises into the Atlantic Ocean in early 1908 and 1909. In both years, the fleet cruised to Spain twice, in February and July. During the February cruises, visited Vigo, Spain, and during the July cruises, she stopped in A Coruña, Spain, and Horta, Azores in 1908 and Vilagarcía in 1909. escorted Wilhelm II on another cruise abroad, this time with the Kaiser aboard the fleet flagship, the pre-dreadnought battleship , on a cruise to Helgoland and then to Bremerhaven that lasted from 8 to 11 March 1908. The routine of unit and fleet maneuvers followed the same pattern as in previous years. In 1910, Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff replaced Heinrich as the fleet commander, and he ended the program of Atlantic cruises, instead preferring to focus on training exercises in the North and Baltic Seas. The year's summer cruise returned to Norwegian waters. In September, KK Heinrich Löhlein took command of the ship.
Agadir Crisis
The year 1911 began with a squadron cruise to Norway. In May, was dry-docked for several weeks for maintenance, after which she rejoined the fleet for maneuvers in the Baltic Sea that ended with a cruise back to the North Sea and a visit to Emden. On 27 June, s crew received orders to deploy to the coast of west Africa during the Agadir Crisis to replace the gunboat there. Earlier that year, French troops had occupied Fez, the capital of then-independent Morocco, prompting German fears that France planned to annex the country in violation of the Algeciras Conference of 1906. Germany sought compensation elsewhere for its colonial empire. Berlin got underway on 28 June and passed through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. She steamed through the Strait of Dover during the night of 30 June – 1 July and reached Agadir, Morocco, three days later. Since there was no way to coal in Moroccan waters, the German command decided to retain so that a German warship could be kept on station at all times. On 20 July, the gunboat arrived to relieve , allowing her to return to Germany. While they operated in Agadir, and made alternating trips to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands to replenish their coal stocks.
While was in Agadir, a French Army unit disguised as merchants entered the port and raised the French tricolor over the city's kasbah and announced the French annexation of the port. Löhlein telegraphed the German command in Berlin to determine what course of action he should take in view of the French provocation, and he was instructed to avoid conflict. The dispute was eventually resolved diplomatically, and the French flag was temporarily removed from the kasbah, though the crisis was resolved with Germany accepting the French position in Morocco and marked a serious defeat for German interests in Africa. The deployment was marked by trouble communicating between and the long-range Nauen Transmitter Station in Germany, as French stations in the region would not relay German signals; was forced to rely on merchant ships fitted with transmitters in the area to communicate with the German government.
By October, the situation had calmed, and the planned change of command for was able to take place as scheduled on 3 November, with FK Wilhelm Tägert replacing Löhlein. and were thereafter recalled, and the cruiser got underway on 28 November. On the way back, she visited Mogador, Casablanca, and Tangiers in French North Africa. While passing through the Bay of Biscay, she encountered a severe storm that damaged the ship and delayed her voyage north by five days. She had to stop at Portsmouth, Britain, to coal and repair some of the storm damage. She passed back through the Strait of Dover on 12 December and arrived back in Kiel two days later.
After returning home, was assigned to the Reconnaissance Unit. She participated in squadron and fleet maneuvers held in the North Sea in February and March 1912. Another series of exercises were held in the Baltic in July and August, followed by the annual fleet maneuvers in August and September. On 27 September, she arrived in Kiel where Tägert and part of the crew left the ship to prepare the new cruiser to be commissioned on 1 October. The rest of s crew took the ship to Wilhelmshaven, where she was decommissioned on 29 October and placed in reserve, where she remained through mid-1914.
World War I