The
Brandenburg
class battleships were the first blue water warships of the
Kaiserliche Marine
and can be categorized as the first German pre-dreadnought ships.Imperial German Navy was founded in 1871 under the auspices of
Kaiser Wilhem I
. The German Navy was created around the small Prussian Navy. Initially the Germans ordered several obsolete ironclads. However, the new German Navy was only capable for coastal defense operations and could not be considered as an instrument for the
WeltPolitik
and for the projection of German power worldwide.In 1888 the most modern ships of the German fleet were the six
Siegfried
class (3.400 tons) and two
Odin
class coastal defense ships. The new
Kaiser Wilhem II
the architect of the German Naval expansion, decided to challenge
England’s hegemony in the seas. As first step he
established in 1888 the Imperial Naval Office (
Reichmarineamt
) a governmental agency monitoring the design, development and financing of the new fleet units. Under the leadership of Vice-Admiral
Alexander von Monts,
the Imperial Naval Office started to implement the naval visions of
.