The five ships of the Deutschland class were the last pre-Dreadnougth battleships build in Germany. Based on the previous Braunschweig class, the new ships were slightly better protected, but lost a bit of the good maneuverability. The artillery of those ships was kept quite similar to the one of their predescessors.

With their old fashioned design, those ships were only use as second line battleships during World War I, but all took part in the Battle of Jutland. Because of their age those ships were among the few battleships, Germany was allowed to keep after World War I, two of them even saw action in World War II. For more information on this, see the Kriegsmarine page about Schleswig Holstein  and Schlesien . 

The Deutschland was used as fleet flagship until 1913. It took part in the Battle of Jutland and was used as a barrack ship since 1917. In 1920 it was stricken from fleet lists and broken down between 1920 and 1922 in Wilhelmshaven.