High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! SMS Braunschweig was the first of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Braunschweig class in the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). She was laid down in 1901 and commissioned in October 1904, at a cost of 23,983,000 marks. She was named after the then Duchy of Brunswick (German: Braunschweig). Her sister ships were Elsass, Hessen, Preussen, and Lothringen.