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Starting in the 1880s, the German ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) began building a series of cruisers. The first designs—protected and unprotected—were ordered to replace aging sail and steam-powered frigates and corvettes that were of minimal combat value. After several iterations of each type, these cruisers were developed into armored and light cruisers, respectively, over the following decade. All of these ships were built to fill a variety of roles, including scouts for the main battle fleet and colonial cruisers for Germany's overseas empire. The armored cruisers in turn led to the first German battlecruiser, . The protected and unprotected cruisers had been withdrawn from active service by the 1910s, though some continued on in secondary roles. Most of the armored and light cruisers saw action in World War I, in all of the major theaters of the conflict. Their service ranged from commerce raiding patrols on the open ocean to the fleet engagements in the North Sea such as the Battle of Jutland. Many of the ships were sunk in the course of the war, and the majority of the remaining vessels were either seized as war prizes by the victorious Allies, scuttled by their crews in Scapa Flow in 1919, or broken up for scrap. The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to surrender most of its remaining vessels. Only six old pre-dreadnought battleships and six old light cruisers could be kept on active duty. These ships could be replaced when they reached twenty years of age, and the cruisers were limited to a displacement of .〔See: Treaty of Versailles Section II: Naval Clauses, Articles 181 and 190〕 In the 1920s, Germany began a modest program to rebuild its fleet, now renamed the ''Reichsmarine''. It began with the new light cruiser, , in 1921, followed by five more light cruisers and three new heavy cruisers, the . A further five heavy cruisers—the —were ordered in the mid-1930s, though only the first three were completed. At the same time, the German navy was renamed the ''Kriegsmarine''. Plan Z, a more ambitious reconstruction program that called for twelve P-class cruisers, was approved in early 1939 but was cancelled before the end of the year following the outbreak of World War II. Of the six heavy cruisers and six light cruisers that were finished, only two survived the war. One, , was sunk following nuclear weapons tests during Operation Crossroads in 1946; the other, , saw service in the Soviet Navy until she was scrapped around 1960. ==Protected cruisers== (詳細はfrigates and corvettes. General Leo von Caprivi, then the Chief of the ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy), ordered several new warships, including two s laid down in 1886, the first protected cruisers to be built in Germany. Design work on their successor, , began the following year, though she was not laid down until 1890. Five more ships of the followed in the mid-1890s. These ships, the last protected cruisers built in Germany, provided the basis for the armored cruisers that were built starting at the end of the decade. All of these ships were intended to serve both as fleet scouts and overseas cruisers, since Germany's limited naval budget prevented development of ships optimized for each task. Most of the German protected cruisers served on overseas stations throughout their careers, primarily in the East Asia Squadron in the 1890s and 1900s. participated in the seizure of the Kiautschou Bay concession in November 1897, which was used as the primary base for the East Asia Squadron. ''Kaiserin Augusta'', , and assisted in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, and saw action during the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–03, where she bombarded several Venezuelan fortresses. , ''Prinzess Wilhelm'', and ''Kaiserin Augusta'' were relegated to secondary duties in the 1910s, while the ''Victoria Louise'' class was used to train naval cadets in the 1900s. All eight ships were broken up for scrap in the early 1920s. 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 cruisers of Germany」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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