Admiral Scheer & Lützow

Panzerschiffe Admiral Scheer (foreground) and Lützow (originally Deutschland) in 1939. Lützow, the first sister, lacked the tower bridge of Scheer.

"They were the first major warships to use welding and all-diesel propulsion. The ships' hulls were constructed with transverse steel frames; over 90 percent of the hulls used welding instead of the then standard riveting, which saved 15 percent of their total hull weight. This savings allowed the armament and armour to be increased. On 11 June 1927, the Reichsmarine had decided that the new ships would be armed with two triple turrets mounting 28 cm guns.

When the particulars of the design became known by the Allies, they attempted to prevent Germany from building them. The Reichsmarine offered to halt construction on the first ship in exchange for admittance to the Washington Treaty with a ratio of 125,000 long tons (127,000 t) to Britain's allotment of 525,000 long tons (533,000 t) of capital ship tonnage. In doing so, this would effectively abrogate the clauses in the Treaty of Versailles that limited Germany's naval power. Britain and the United States favoured making concessions to Germany, but France refused to allow any revisions to the Treaty of Versailles. Since the ships did not violate the terms of the Treaty, the Allies could not prevent Germany from building them after a negotiated settlement proved unattainable."