SMS Wörth was one of four German pre-dreadnought battleships of the Brandenburg class, built in the early 1890s. The class also included Brandenburg, Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm, and Weissenburg. The ships were the first ocean-going battleships built for the Kaiserliche Marine. Wörth was laid down at the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel in May 1890. The ship was launched on 6 August 1892 and commissioned into the fleet on 31 October 1893. Wörth and her three sisters carried six heavy guns rather than four, as was standard for most other navies' battleships. She was named for the Battle of Wörth fought during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871.
A 1902 lithograph of Wörth
SMS Wörth in 1899
Illustration of a Brandenburg-class battleship with torpedo boats in the foreground
Brandenburg-class battleship
The Brandenburg class consisted of four pre-dreadnought battleships built for the German Kaiserliche Marine, the first modern battleships of the fleet. The four ships of the class—Brandenburg, Wörth, Weissenburg, and Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm—were the first ocean-going capital ships built for the German fleet in nearly two decades, owing to reluctance in the Reichstag to fund large projects. They followed a series of small coastal defense ships, and though in retrospect they anticipated the buildup that created the High Seas Fleet, they were ordered as part of a construction program that reflected the strategic and tactical confusion that affected many navies in the 1880s. The design process that resulted in the Brandenburg class was very lengthy, with proposals that ranged from outdated casemate ships to versions with two twin-gun turrets placed side by side. The designers ultimately settled on ships that were armed with an unusual main battery of six 28 cm (11 in) guns at a time when all foreign battleships were built with four or fewer heavy guns.
SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm
Leo von Caprivi, the Chef der Admiralität (Chief of the Admiralty) during the 1880s
A lithograph of the Siegfried-class coastal defense ship SMS Heimdall
The French Amiral Baudin class, which heavily influenced the Brandenburg design