The "Nassau" class was a group of four German dreadnought battleships built for the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy) in the mid-1900s. The class comprised , the lead ship, , , and . All four ships were laid down in mid-1907, and completed by late 1910. Though commonly perceived as having been built in response to the British , their design traces its origin to 1903; they were in fact a response to "Dreadnought"s predecessors of the . The "Nassau"s adopted a main battery of twelve guns in six twin-gun turrets in an unusual hexagonal arrangement. Unlike many other dreadnoughts, the "Nassau"-class ships retained triple-expansion steam engines instead of more powerful steam turbines.