SMS Graf Spee

**Count Spee**
	Side elevation of the Mackensen- class
Ship data
flag	German Empire
Ship type	Battle cruiser
class	Mackensen- class
Shipyard	Schichau-Werke , Danzig
Build number	958
building-costs	approx. 66,000,000 marks
Launch	September 15, 1917
Whereabouts	1921/22 in Kiel scrapped
Ship dimensions and crew
length	223.0 m ( Lüa )
width	30.4 m
Draft	Max. 9.3 m
displacement	Construction: 31,000 t; Maximum: 35,300 t
crew	1,186 men
Machine system
machine	32 marine boilers; 4 steam turbines; 2 oars
Machine ; performance	90,000 PS (66,195 kW)
Top ; speed	28.0 kn (52 km / h)
propeller	4 three-leaf 4.2 m
Armament
	8 × Sk 35.0 cm L / 45 (720 shots); 14 × Sk 15.0 cm L / 45 (2.240 shots); 8 × Flak 8.8 cm L / 45 (3,600 rounds); 5 × torpedo tube ⌀ 60 cm (4 in the sides, 1 in the bow, under water, 20 shots);
Armor
	Belt: 30-300 mm; Citadel: 220 mm; Deck: 25-120 mm; Barbettes : 290 mm; Towers: 100-300 mm; Front command post: 180-350 mm; aft command post: 150–200 mm; Torpedo bulkhead: 50-60 mm; Transverse bulkheads: 30–250 mm;

SMS Graf Spee was a ship of the Imperial Navy . It belonged to the type of battle cruiser , which in the Imperial Navy until the end of the First World War were called large cruisers for budgetary reasons. The ship was named in honor of Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee .

The Graf Spee was commissioned as the second ship of the Mackensen class, initially designed for seven and later for four units . Contrary to the original plans to equip the ships with 38 cm guns, they were armed with 35 cm guns to avoid size and weight problems. When Great Britain then laid down battlecruisers with 38.1 cm guns with the Renown class , the last three ships (referred to as the replacement Yorck class ) were also designed for 38 cm guns.

The Graf Spee was laid down on November 30, 1915 at the Schichau shipyard in Danzig . It was founded by Margarete Countess of Spee christened and launched on 15 September 1917 from the stack . The Graf Spee was 223 meters long, 30.4 m wide, 9.3 m draft, and a displacement of 35,300 tons. The armament consisted of eight 35-cm guns, fourteen 15-cm guns and eight 8.8-cm guns and five torpedo tubes. The maximum speed was designed for 28.8 knots, the range of 8,000 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 14 knots. The crew should consist of 1,186 men.

More than a year before the planned completion, further construction was stopped on November 17, 1918 after the end of the war. The Graf Spee was still in Danzig and was later broken up in Kiel from 1921 to 1923.

The three sister ships of Graf Spee had a similar fate: none was completed. The construction of the Mackensen , which started in 1917 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, was stopped 14 months before completion and the ship was scrapped in 1921. The work on the replacement Freya , which is also at Blohm & Voss, was stopped about 21 months before completion. The ship was launched after the war was over, but was immediately scrapped. The replacement Friedrich Carl was no longer launched and was still scrapped on the slipway of the Reichsmarinewerft (formerly Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven ) from 1920 to 1922.

Other ships named Graf Spee

Several German warships were named after Maximilian Graf von Spee :

The Admiral Graf Spee (1934–1939), an ironclad in World War II .
The school frigate Graf Spee (1959–1967) of the German Navy .

literature

Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970 . JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-88199-474-2 , p. 302-304 .
Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 1 : Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 , p. 85-87 .
Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 3 : Ship biographies from the Elbe to Graudenz . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 238 (Approved licensed edition by Koehler's publishing company, Hamburg approx. 1990).