Built to evade the Treaty of Versailles tonnage limit, these 'pocket battleships' combined battleship-calibre 28cm guns with cruiser speed and diesel range for commerce raiding. Admiral Graf Spee's raiding cruise ended at the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939.
For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Der Panzerkreuzer "A" wurde vom Reichspräsidenten von HindeGeorg Pahl · CC BY-SA 3.0 de · sourceThe German heavy cruiser DEUTSCHLAND (later re-named “Lützow”). One of three heavy cruisers of the Deutschland Class (sister ships ADMIRAL SCHEER and ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE). Deutschland was built by the Deutsche Werke shipyaPhoto by Imperial War Museum staff · Public domain · source