The contract for construction of the Panzerschiff E (Ersatz Hessen) was
signed with the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel on January 25, 1934. The
ship was laid down on February 14 of the same year, but the construction
process was halted on July 5, 1934 and the slipway was cleared. In
practice, the elements of the hull that had already been built were
removed from the slipway. Important, however, was the fact that the
contract for the construction of the ship remained valid and it was to
be resumed as soon as the modified design had been approved. The most
important decision concerning the addition of the third gun turret was
made on June 27, 1934 and that was the reason to suspend the
construction for some time. However, the 28-cm caliber of the main
battery was retained. This decision was taken solely to avoid further
delays and the design itself allowed for the subsequent re-armament of
the battleship. During the design process, it was recommended that the
barbettes were chosen in such a way as to allow for the installation of
the larger caliber guns (330, 250 or 380 mm). It was estimated that the
re-armament procedure would take approximately 12 to 15 months. The
alteration of the number of the main battery guns affected the change of
the previous classification from Panzerschiff (armored ship) into
Schlachtschiff (battleship). For the second time the ship was officially
laid down on July 6, 1935. The hull was launched on December 8, 1936 and
the christening ceremony speech was given by Colonel General Freiherr
von Fritsch. The ship's godmother was the widow of the late Julius
Maerker - commander of the armored cruiser Gneisenau. The launching
ceremony did not go without a minor incident. Due to defective drag
weights, the launched hull could not be completely stopped, so it hit
the wall of the opposite Hindenburg Embankment. Luckily for the ship,
the quay sustained more damage than the hull. Further fitting out work
continued according to schedule and on May 21, 1938 the ship was
commissioned into the Kriegsmarine. Captain Erich Förster, former
commander of the light cruiser Karlsruhe, became her commanding officer.
