The ship was then disarmed and all but abandoned in the harbor. Her 15 cm guns were placed as coastal batteries in Denmark. When the Soviet army approached in early 1945, the ship was towed out into the outer harbor and sunk as a block ship, on 23 March 1945. A Polish salvage firm raised the wreck on 12 September 1951 and subsequently broke the ship up for scrap metal. "C" Turret remains in Trondheim, Norway at Austrått Fort; the Norwegian government offered without success to return the turret to Germany for display in a museum. The 15 cm guns in Denmark were taken over by the Danish military; two of the turrets were moved to Stevnsfort in 1952. The guns were put into reserve in 1984, but continued to be fired during annual training. They fired their last shot in 2000, after which the fortress was turned into a museum.