SMS Wettin
 SMS Wettin in 1910
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The SMS Wettin was the second ship of the Wittelsbach class , a class of five ships of the line of the Imperial Navy .
construction
For the second liner of the Wittelsbach class, the new building D , the keel was stretched at the Ferdinand Schichau shipyard in Gdańsk on October 10, 1899 . Around 20 months later, the new building was ready for launch, which took place on June 6, 1901. The baptismal address was given by Johann Georg von Sachsen , who represented his sick uncle, King Albert . The baptism in the name of the Saxon ruling house was carried out by Johann Georg's wife, Princess Maria Isabella .
In August 1902 the Wettin was ready for the shipyard test drives and the transfer to Kiel . The acceptance run was very positive, also because the contractually required maximum speed was already reached with the machines not fully extended. Although not yet officially located in service that met Wettin in Swinoujscie with the Hohenzollern on which Kaiser Wilhelm II. Was staying together and reached on August 11, 1902 Kiel.
Peace time
On October 1, 1902, the Wettin was officially put into service as the first ship of her class. After all tests had been completed, in January 1903 she was assigned to the I. Squadron, which at that time was under the command of Vice Admiral Prince Heinrich of Prussia . In the years that followed, the Wettin and her squadron took part in various exercises and maneuvers.
In March 1905, the Wettin was also involved in the towing of Mecklenburg , which had got stuck in the Great Belt . In the spring of 1909 it was lightly rammed by SMS Kaiser Karl der Große , with no serious damage. The Wettin took part in the spring maneuvers of 1911 as the oldest active liner, but was decommissioned on June 30, 1911 in Kiel.
As early as December 1, 1911, the Wettin was put back into service to replace its sister ship Schwaben , which had received a major overhaul, as an artillery training ship. The Wettin had previously been overhauled and equipped for the new purpose by installing special equipment. She was placed under the ship artillery inspection and received Sønderborg as the new base. In March and April 1912, the battleship was temporarily assigned to the Lehrgeschwader and on June 1, together with SMS Stuttgart and SMS Augsburg to salvage the near Romsoe accrued Great cruiser SMS Blücher used. In the same year, the Wettin also took part in the autumn maneuvers, during which she was the III. Squadron was assigned. Then the ship continued its training activity.
Use in the First World War
With the outbreak of the First World War , the Wettin joined the newly formed IV Squadron in August 1914, the flagship of which was the Wittelsbach . As part of this association, the ship took part in forays into the eastern Baltic Sea from September 3 to 9 and from September 22 to 26 . From September 11 to 20, and again from December 5, 1914 to April 2, 1915, the liner was used in the outpost and security service in the North Sea , mainly on the Elbe estuary and the Jade estuary . At the beginning of May 1915, the IV. Squadron made another advance in the Baltic Sea, which led to the north of Gotland . From May 28 to July 5, 1915, the Wettin was used again in the outpost service in the North Sea, until the 4th Squadron finally left the area of the high seas and was subordinated to the Commander-in-Chief of the Baltic Sea, Grand Admiral Prince Heinrich of Prussia.
The IV. Squadron was called in in the Baltic Sea for an enterprise against the Gulf of Riga , which should support the advance of the army on Riga . The head of the IV. Squadron, Vice-Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt , took over the management of this company, to which the I. Squadron and the I. and II. Reconnaissance Groups from the North Sea were assigned . The Wettin took part in the closure of the Pernau harbor during the fighting . After the company was closed, the ship remained in Libau and took part in an advance towards Gotland from September 9-11, 1915 . It then served as a watch ship in Libau.
Since the ships of the Wittelsbach class were poorly protected against hits from mines and torpedo and were hopelessly inferior to the new Russian liners of the Gangut class , they were withdrawn from active operations in November 1915 and combined under Vice Admiral Walter Engelhardt to form the Baltic Sea readiness division . They thus replaced the ships of the Kaiser Friedrich class that were decommissioned. The Wettin left on November 10th together with the Swabians , the Wittelsbach and the great cruiser SMS Prinz Heinrich Libau in the direction of Kiel. On November 19, the crew of the ship was reduced by 389 men who were urgently needed on other ships of the Navy due to the tense personnel situation in the Imperial Navy.
The standby division was disbanded on January 31, 1916 and the Wettin was assigned to the I. Marine Inspection as a drill and training ship. In May 1916 the 24 cm guns were removed. On July 17, 1916, the Wettin was finally decommissioned and completely disarmed. She then served several offices in Kiel as a residential ship and was moved to Cuxhaven in August 1917 . There she was used as a residential and office ship for several minesweeping flotillas as well as for the leader of the minesweeping and clearing associations.
Whereabouts
After the end of the First World War, the Wettin was put into service again on October 1, 1919 and was used as a mother ship for minesweepers from 1919 to February 11, 1920 . On March 11, 1920, she was removed from the list of warships and sold on November 21, 1921. The following year the liner was broken up in Rönnebeck .
Commanders
| October 1, 1902 to September 1904 | Sea captain Georg Alexander von Müller |
| September 1904 to September 1906 | Sea captain Georg Friedrich Scheibel |
| September 1906 to September 1907 | Sea captain Wilhelm Becker |
| October 1907 to September 1909 | Sea captain Wilhelm Souchon |
| September 1909 to September 1910 | Sea captain Paul Behncke |
| September 1910 to June 30, 1911 | Sea captain Hermann Nordmann |
| December 1, 1911 to September 1912 | Sea captain Georg Hebbinghaus |
| September 1912 to July 1914 | Sea captain Karl Seiferling |
| July 1914 to January 1916 | Sea captain Eduard Varrentrapp |
| January to February 1916 | Frigate Captain Carl Feldmann |
| February 1916 | Corvette Captain Walter Mehnert |
| February to April 1916 | Corvette Captain Gerhard Stubenrauch |
| April to June 1916 | Frigate Captain Carl Feldmann |
| June 17th to July 17th 1916 | Corvette Captain Ernst Hoffmann |
| October 1, 1919 to February 11, 1920 | unknown |
literature
- Gröner, Erich / 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. 39-41 .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 8 : Ship biographies from Undine to Zieten . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 79-81 .