SMS Hagen was the final vessel of the six-member of coastal defense ships built for the German Imperial Navy. Her sister ships were,,,, and. Hagen was built by the Kaiserliche Werft Kiel shipyard between 1891 and 1893, and was armed with a main battery of three guns. She served in the German fleet throughout the 1890s and was rebuilt in 1900 - 1902. She served in the VI Battle Squadron after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, but saw no action. Hagen was demobilized in 1915 and used as a barracks ship thereafter. She was ultimately sold for scrap in 1919 and subsequently dismantled.
Design
In the late 1880s, the German Kaiserliche Marine grappled with the problem of what type of capital ship to build in the face of limited naval budgets. General Leo von Caprivi, the new Chef der Admiralität, requested a series of design proposals, which ranged in size from small coastal defense ships to heavily-armed ocean-going battleships. Caprivi ordered ten coastal defense ships to guard the entrances to the canal, since even opponents of the navy in the Reichstag agreed that such vessels were necessary. The first six of these, the, were based on the smallest proposal. Hagen was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of. She displaced at full combat load. Her propulsion system consisted of two vertical 3-cylinder triple-expansion engines. Steam for the engines was provided by four coal-fired boilers. The ship's propulsion system provided a top speed of and a range of approximately at. Hagen had a crew of 20 officers and 256 enlisted men. The ship was armed with three 24 cm K L/35 guns mounted in three single gun turrets. Two were placed side by side forward, and the third was located aft of the main superstructure. They were supplied with a total of 204 rounds of ammunition. The ship was also equipped with eight 8.8 cm SK L/30 guns in single mounts. Hagen also carried four torpedo tubes, all in swivel mounts on the deck. One was at the bow, another at the stern, and two amidships. The ship was protected by an armored belt that was amidships, and an armored deck that was thick. The conning tower had thick sides. Hagens armor consisted of new Krupp steel, a more effective type of armor than the compound steel the other members of the class received.
Service history
Hagen was laid down in 1891 at the Kaiserliche Werft shipyard in Kiel. She was launched on 23 October 1893, and completed on 2 October 1894. In July 1895, Hagen, the protected cruiser, and the old corvettes and were sent to Morocco in a naval demonstration following the murder of two German nationals in the country. The German government had demanded 250,000 marks as an indemnity, and the naval squadron was sent to secure it. After returning to Germany, Hagen served on active duty with the fleet. In 1897, Hagen participated in the annual summer maneuvers in the IV Division, along with and. Her other three sisters were assigned to the III Division. The following year, she was taken into drydock at the Kaiserliche Werft shipyard in Danzig for an extensive reconstruction. The ship was lengthened to, which increased displacement to. Her old boilers were replaced with eight new Thornycroft boilers, and a second funnel was added. Her secondary battery was increased to ten 8.8 cm guns, and the 35 cm torpedo tubes were replaced with three tubes. Work was completed by 1900. She then returned to service with the fleet, where in 1903 she was in the II Squadron, alongside, Heimdall, and. She remained on active service until the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, when she was mobilized into VI Battle Squadron for coastal defense, along with her sister ships and the two s. On 31 August 1915, the VI Battle Squadron was demobilized, and Hagens crew was transferred to other warships. She was then used as a barracks ship in Libau, Danzig, and Warnemünde. On 17 June 1919, she was stricken from the naval register. She was sold for scrapping to Norddeutsche Tiefbaugesellschaft of Berlin and broken for scrap.
