Design by the German Germaniawerft.
Before and during the First World War was in the Netherlands a discussion going if the Dutch navy had to built battleships. A similar discussion found place in the end 30’s dealing with the building of 3 battle cruisers. These large units were all destined for service in the Dutch East Indies. The correspondent of another Dutch newspaper De Sumatra Post interviewed at Medan the former minister Colijn (1) and asked for his opinion. His successor proposed the building of just one battleship for the East Indies defence. The advice report of the defence commission was also signed by Colijn. He feared for problems while the battleship was to be paid completely by the colonial finance and just one battleship in the Dutch navy wasn’t enough and the questions like harbour- and docking facilities, naval base and personnel were still not solved. Despite this all he thought it wasn’t a good idea to wait longer with the reorganisation of the navy and the budget for the battleship needed to be approved. The edition dated 26 December reported that the Dutch cabinet and the Dutch East Indies government were still negotiating about the defence but that the building was proposed for the year 1914.(2).
Notes
1. Hendrikus Colijn (Burgerveen 22 June 1869-Ilmenau 18 September 1944) was in 1911-1913 minister of war and in 1911-1912 minister of navy. He was succeeded as minister of navy by Jean Jacques Ram bonnet (Wijhe 8 March 1864-Rotterdam 3 August 1943) a liberal navy officer who resigned on 26 June 1918.
2. Never realized. The last battleship the Netherlands built was the Hr.Ms. De Zeven Provinciën some times called a pre-dreadnought, launched on 15 March 1909 and in 1933 the scene for a mutiny.
