Dreadnought battleship SMS Baden. This model was built by Georg Dürr in a scale of 1:100 and it is displayed in our section dedicated to the navies of World War I, on deck 5 of the museum.
SMS „Baden“ was the last dreadnought battleship commissioned by the German Imperial Navy. She was one off the two completed units of the Bayern class, while the two other planned ships, „Sachsen“ and „Württemberg“, remained incomplete by the end of the war and were scrapped.
The Bayern class was for the German Empire the last step for the arms race that preceded World War I. In 1910 it had become clear that the 30,5 cm caliber for the main guns of battleships was no longer enough. After long considerations, a caliber of 38 cm was chosen. The German Fourth Naval Law was passed in 1912 to modernize and expand the Imperial Navy and the funds for the construction of the first two units were secured in 1913. By the end of the year, the construction of „Baden“ and „Bayern“ started. While the construction of the „Bayern“ went on without many complications, that of the „Baden“ at the Schichau-Werke in Danzig (today’s Gdańsk in Poland) was delayed due to the Russian incursion in East Prussia. Neither of the ships were operational for the Battle of Jutland. SMS „Bayern“ was commissioned in July 1916 and served in the Baltic Sea, while „Baden“ was commissioned in March 1917, to become the flagship of the High Seas Fleet.
She saw no real action during the war. The ship joined the ongoing mutiny of the Imperial Navy on November the 9th 1918. This was a crucial step in the November Revolution and the cancelation of the plans for a last German large scale naval action before the Armistice, two days later. SMS „Baden“ was interned with the rest of the German fleet in Scapa Flow after the war. She was the only capital ship that was not successfully scuttled on June the 21st 1919. The Royal Navy managed to beach her before she sunk. She was thoroughly studied, used as a target ship, and finally scuttled in 1921. The artillery experiments on the „Baden“ convinced the British Admiralty to use an „all or nothing“ armor distribution in their next ships, like those of the Nelson class.
This model was built by Georg Dürr in a scale of 1:100 and it is displayed in our section dedicated to the navies of World War I, on deck 5 of the museum.