Design work on the class began as early as 1910, with great consideration given to the armament of the new vessels. It had become clear that other navies were moving to guns larger than , and so the next German battleship would also have to incorporate larger guns. The Weapons Department suggested a gun, but during a meeting on 11 May 1910, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the State Secretary of the "Reichsmarineamt" (Imperial Naval Office), decided that budgetary constraints precluded the adoption of larger weapons. The following year, in the aftermath of the Agadir Crisis, Tirpitz quickly seized on public outcry over the British involvement in the crisis to pressure the "Reichstag" (Imperial Diet) into appropriating additional funds for the Navy. This provided the opening for more powerful battleships, so Tirpitz requested funds for ships armed with guns in mid-1911.