This newspaper published a small item according to which the armoured cruiser ‘A’ which was to be launched at Kiel on 19 May was to be named Deutschland (1)as flagship of the German navy and not Hermann Müller. (2)
Notes
1. This was the first German so-called pocket battleship Deutschland, laid down as the Ersatz Preussen at the yard of the Deutsche Werke at Kiel on 5 February 1929, launched 19 May 1931, end 1931 completed, maiden voyage in May of the next year, commissioned 1 April 1933, renamed Lutzow in November 1939, heavily damaged due to a British air attack on 20 March 1945, scuttled by her own crew on 4 May of the same year at Swinemünde, raised by the Soviet Union in 1946, commissioned as the Lutzow on 26 September, but ordered to be destroyed on 19 March of the next year and scuttled on 20 July 1947 using demolition charges. With a displacement of 12,100 ton standard and 16,200 ton full load were her dimensions 186 x 21,6 x 7,4 metres or 610”x 71’x 24’. Her 8 MAN diesel engines supplied 52,050 hp allowing a speed of 28,5 knots and with a speed of 20 knots was the range 8,900 nautical miles. Her crew numbered 1,150 men. She was armed with 6-28cm guns, 8-15cm guns, 6-10,5cm guns, 8-3,7cm guns, 10-2xm guns, 8-53,3cm torpedo tubes and carried with her 2 Arado 196 seaplanes launched with a catapult. The armour consisted of a 80mm belt and 40mm deck while the front of the gun turrets was protected by 160mm. Her sister ships were the Admiral Graf Spee and the Admiral Scheer.
2. Hermann Muller (Mannheim 18 may 1976-Berlin 20 March 1931) was a German politician and twice Reichs chancellor in the Weimar Republic and responsible for the reconstruction of the German navy.
