SMS Kaiser Barbarossa with of armor plating, and the secondary casemates received of armor protection. Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Emperor of Germany, believed that a strong navy was necessary for the country to expand its influence outside continental Europe. As a result, he initiated a program of naval expansion in the late 1880s; the first battleships built under this program were the four "Brandenburg"-class ships. These were immediately followed by the five "Kaiser Friedrich III"-class battleships, of which "Kaiser Barbarossa" was a member. "Kaiser Barbarossa"s keel was laid down on 3 August 1898, at the Schichau-Werke in Danzig, under construction number 640. She
Kaiser did not imply that this new emperor had dominion over all German territories, especially since the "Austrian Kaiser" would have been offended as Austria, inhabited by Germans, was still considered part of the German lands. There were only three Kaisers of the (second) German Empire. All of them belonged to the Hohenzollern dynasty, which, as kings of Prussia, had been de facto leaders of lesser Germany (Germany excluding Austria). In English the (untranslated) word "Kaiser" is mainly associated with the emperors of the unified German Empire (1871–1918). The Kaisers of the Austrian Empire (1804–1918) were: The Kaisers of the German