High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The German navy built a large quantity of cruisers of various types. Most of these were built during the navy's existence as the Kaiserliche Marine of Imperial Germany. The first German cruisers were built in the mid-1870s, shortly after the formation of the Empire during the Franco-Prussian War. These first ships were small, fast vessels that were based on earlier avisos. The first protected cruiser, SMS Kaiserin Augusta, was laid down in 1890. The first German armored cruiser, Furst Bismarck, was laid down 6 years later. This type eventually evolved into the battlecruiser, the first of which was SMS Von der Tann. Following the end of World War I, most of these ships were either scrapped, scuttled in Scapa Flow, or turned over to the victorious Allied powers. Данное издание представляет собой компиляцию сведений, находящихся в свободном доступе в среде Интернет в целом, и в информационном сетевом ресурсе "Википедия" в частности. Собранная...