There were five Kaiser class battleships built for the German Navy, the other four being Friedrich Der Grosse, Kaiserin, Konig Albert and Prinzregent Luitpold. This third design of German dreadnought, the largest in the world at that time, was a vast improvement on their previous 18,569-ton Nassau and 22,808-ton Helgoland class ships. As they were the first large German warships to be powered by steam turbines, Kaiser and Konig Albert were deployed on a six-month long exercise to test the reliability of the turbines. Between December 1913 and June 1914, that deployment took them as far as South America.

Of the five Kaiser class battleships, only Konig Albert missed the battle of Jutland (May 31st 1916). Throughout the battle, the German flagship Kaiser fired 224-12 inch shells. The only warship to fire more large shells at Jutland was Germany’s battleship Markgraf. This ship was credited with firing 254-12 inch shells. Kaiser took partial credit for sinking the British cruiser Defence; this ship blew up and went down with all 903 crew. The German flagship was also involved in damaging the battleship Warspite and the armored cruiser Warrior, with Warrior sinking the following day. Kaiser’s damage assessment at the end of the battle showed she had only taken two hits and lost one crewmember. Following the German surrender two years later, all surviving German warships including the five Kaiser class battleships were interred at Scapa Flow/Orkney Islands/Northern Scotland. To prevent these warships being used by the conquerors of Germany, their crews scuttled the fleet June 21st 1919. Kaiser was raised in 1929 only to be scrapped at Rosyth/Scotland in 1930.