After the war, the five "Braunschweig"s were among the vessels that the new "Reichsmarine" was permitted to retain by the Treaty of Versailles. "Lothringen" and "Preussen" were converted into parent ships for minesweepers to clear the minefields in the North Sea that had been laid during the war, but the other three were modernized in the early 1920s and served with the fleet into the 1930s. "Braunschweig" and "Elsass" were eventually stricken from the register in 1931, and along with "Lothringen" and "Elsass" were thereafter broken up. "Hessen" remained in service until late 1934, when she was decommissioned and converted into a radio-controlled target ship, a role she filled through World War II. Ceded as a war prize to the Soviet Union, she was commissioned as "Tsel" and used as a target until 1960 when she was scrapped.