High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! SMS Hindenburg was a battlecruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine and the third ship of the Derfflinger class. She was named in honor of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, the victor of the Battle of Tannenberg and the Battle of the Masurian Lakes, as well as Supreme Commander of the German armies from 1916. The ship was the last capital ship of any type built by the German navy during World War I.