Designations were, for the earlier ships, of “cruiser-corvette”, and “heavy cruisers” for the armoured ones. During the war, 21 more were planned, but 13 completed. In 1914, the Kaiserliches Marine possessed 40 light cruisers, half of them rather old (1890s), only six protected cruisers, and eight armoured cruisers.
Comparable to entente cruisers, they were often given smaller calibers for their main artillery (210 instead of 240 mm, 150 rather than 152 mm, but compensated with the dreaded 88 mm). After a global hunt which lasted until 1915, the remainder served with distinction in most battles until the end of the war. German cruisers – The Kaiserliches Marine’s cavalry: When the great war broke out, the situation of the Kaiserliches Marine was such that there were relatively few cruisers compared to battleships, and a part of them was far from home, in Asia, Egypt, or South Africa, watching over German interests.
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