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In the 1880s, Germany built a series of coastal defense ships to protect its coastline on the North and Baltic Seas. During the 1870s and early 1880s, the Imperial German Navy had built a number of ironclad warships of various designs. In the mid-1880s, however, dissatisfaction with the s and the rise of the ''Jeune École'' doctrine persuaded Leo von Caprivi, then the chief of the Imperial Navy to turn away from capital ship construction in favor of coastal defense ships and torpedo boats.〔Sondhaus, pp. 160–165〕 As a result, the next class of large warships, the , was significantly smaller than the earlier ironclads, and armed with a main battery of only three large-caliber guns. These vessels were intended only for defense of German harbors.〔Gardiner, pp. 242, 246〕 Six of them were built between 1888 and 1894.〔Gröner, pp. 10–11〕 Another two ships of the were built to a modified design between 1892 and 1896.〔 All eight of the ships were heavily modernized between 1898 and 1904; the reconstruction included lengthening the ships and equipping them with new boilers.〔Gardiner, p. 246〕 All eight ships were mobilized briefly at the start of World War I in August 1914 as the VI Battle Squadron, though by August 1915, they had all been withdrawn from service and employed in secondary roles.〔Gardiner & Gray, p. 142〕 All were stricken from the naval register in 1919 after the end of the war and subsequently discarded; three of the ships, , , and were converted into merchant ships and served in this capacity throughout the 1920s. The rest were broken up for scrap by the early 1920s.〔Gröner, pp. 10–12〕 These coastal defense ships turned out to be a temporary diversion for the German fleet. In 1888, before any of the ''Siegfried''s or ''Odin''s had been laid down, Caprivi was selected to replace Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who had been forced out of the position by the new Kaiser, Wilhelm II; Caprivi in turn was replaced by Vice Admiral Alexander von Monts.〔Sondhaus, p. 177〕 Monts, a veteran naval officer, opposed Caprivi's policy on coastal defense, and instead proposed building four new s. These ships replaced what would have been the last two of the coastal defenders for which Caprivi had called.〔Sondhaus, pp. 179–180〕 This set Germany on the trend of building large, ocean-going battleships for the next two decades.〔Gardiner, pp. 247–249〕〔Gardiner & Gray, pp. 145–149〕 Indeed, Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz characterized the period the ''Siegfried'' and ''Odin'' classes were built, up to the passage of the First Naval Law in 1898, as the "wasted decade".〔 ==''Siegfried'' class== (詳細はLeo von Caprivi became the chief of the Imperial Navy, he discarded the fleet policy of his predecessor, Albrecht von Stosch, in favor of creating a fleet that could defend Germany's coast. To that end, he called for the construction of new coastal defense ships that were larger than the unsuccessful s but smaller than the s. They were to be sufficiently seaworthy to permit use in the North Sea, with armament and armor strong enough to allow them to engage larger, foreign battleships. Caprivi requested ten such vessels, though only eight would be built, the first six to the ''Siegfried'' design.〔Sondhaus, p. 165〕 The six ''Siegfried'' class ships were used in fleet maneuvers throughout the 1890s,〔Sondhaus, pp. 194–195, 221〕 until they were reconstructed at the end of the decade. The modernization included re-boilering and lengthening, both of which improved the ships' speed. They were mobilized at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, but remained on active service for only a year; in August 1915, they were withdrawn and used for secondary roles, primarily as barracks ships. All of the ships, save , were scrapped after the end of the war. ''Frithjof'' was converted into a merchant ship instead, and operated until 1930, when she too was broken up for scrap.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「List of coastal defense ships of Germany」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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