The Treaty of Versailles, imposed on a defeated Germany in 1919, bore particularly heavily on the former Imperial Navy. The rebuilt Reichsnrarirre (national fleet) was allowed to possess only six coast defence armoured ship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineerings' orand six light cruiscrs.These were in fact obso­lete vessels, superseded by more modern designs in every possible opponent, pre-dreadnought battleship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineerings and small light cruisers of pre-1914 vintage. The Treaty recognised the fact that they would eventually wear out, and 20 years was the service-life permitted; the major ship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineering-replace­mcnts must not exceed 10,000 tons, and light cruisers were limited to 6000 tons.

Curiously, the Treaty did not specify the means of calculating displacement tonnage, nor was there any stipulated upper limit of gun-calibre.The latter question was left to a Conference of Allied Ambassadors, which permitted the gun-calibre of the new training cruiser En:derr to be increased from 10_5cm to 15ctn.Theopted, however, to stick to 28cm for the even­tualreplacements, as anything bigger would risk provoking the Allies. Retaining 28cm-calibre guns also eased the problems of the designers, who would have been hard put to get 30cm or 38cm guns into a design intended to displace only 10,000 tons in `standard' conch - tion.

In the 1920s the Reidurrraritae envisaged a role for the future : a French attack in the Baltic in support of its treaty obligation to Poland, at least a cruiser squadron, probably rein­forced by a one of the surviving `semi-dreadnoughts' dating from before the . Contrary to what has previously been written about these ship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineerings, they were not at this stage intended for conrtierce-raiding.The Reichsmarine was too weak to take any risks which would involve it in a confrontation with France's large navy.

In 1923 work started on the first new designs, but it was suspended the following year when the economy collapsed. The new head of the Navy, Admiral Wolfgang Zenker, was anxious to get the process restarted, and in 1925 the team prepared three new sketch designs, making five in all:Only when the French withdrew from the Ruhr in the following year could thebegin to think seriously about the construction of heavily gunned ship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineerings. It had been hoped to lay down `A' in 1926, but a final design had not yet been selected and the ship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineeringyards were demanding work ofany kind, so another light cruiser and a flotilla of torpedo boats were ordered that year. The delay was beneficial, however, for it gave time to absorb the lessons learned in the 1926 Fleet Manoeuvrcs.The principal 'discovery' was the obvious one that higher speed conveyed great tactical advantages.

Two new designs were offered, of which Admiral Zenker chose 'C' because lie liked the combination of 28cm guns and the relatively high speed of 2Gkts.'I'hc use of diesels would be a further advantage, giving the new ship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineering long range for ocean fare. It also won the support ofVice Admiral Erich Raeder, Coander of the Baltic Fleet, whose ideas on coerce-raid­ing were beginning to take shape.The designation for the new design was panzerscfri(j(annoured ship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineering) to avoid any suggestion that a battleship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineering was planned.

The ~ voted the first credit for the new ship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineering in [927; she was designated Ersatz Preussen ( replacement), as required by law.'1'here was considerable opposition to the new ship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineering, and it was decided to defer the order until the election for a newtook place in May 1928. Even then, it was November 1928 before final approval was given.The Socialists campaigned under the banner of'Battleship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineerings or Child Welfare?', but 810,000 Germans voted for Hitler's National Socialist Party and won the Nazis 12 seats in the .Their votes helped to secure political approval for the new Jtanzer.arhn, and the Navy was to show its gratitude. At the launch of the new ship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineering Chancellor Briining gave voice to the symbolism: `...witnessed by the entire world, the German people have demonstrated that, despite the shackles imposed upon them and all their economic problems, they have the strength to guard their peaceful co-exis­tence with the rest of Europe'. The name chosen was :larrd, bestowed by President Paul von Hindcnburg.

When Hitler cane to power in 1933 the rebuilding of the Reich.cmnrine was proceeding well, with theclose to completion. The second ymrzersrhin; Admiral Srheer, would be in service before the end of 1934, and the third, Admiral CrafSJjee was to be ready early in 1936. A fourth had -already been approved by the Reiclrstag and Hitler approved the construction of a fifth, . However, it was to be kept secret because Raeder intended to build a pair of 26,000-ton ship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineerings.This was the first intimation that thewas to be cut short; the fourth unit was ordered asand no.5 became17. These ship bunker bunkering shipping ship bunker bunkering shippingping maritime marine engineerings became the , andrespectively, and were to be armed with three triple 28cm turrets each, ordered as long-Icad items for pnnzersrhiffe 4, 5 and 6 (tire sixth was never laid down).Meanwhile the formidable Nazi propaganda machine made much of the Deutsdrlnnd's technical innovations, which allowed the design to remain inside the 10,000 tons permitted by the