The SMS Lübeck was a Bremen class

Bremen class cruiser

The Bremen class also referred to as the Hamburg class was a group of seven light cruisers built for the German Imperial Navy and used during the First World War.-Ships in class:*SMS Bremen *SMS Berlin *SMS Lübeck...

 light cruiser

Light cruiser

A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...

 of the Kaiserliche Marine

Kaiserliche Marine

The Imperial German Navy was the German Navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, which primarily had the mission of coastal defense. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded...

, named after the city of Lübeck

Lübeck

The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...

. Laid down on 12 May 1903 by AG Vulcan Stettin, launched on 26 March 1904 and commissioned on 26 April 1905 she was the first Kaiserliche Marine ship to have a steam turbine

Steam turbine

A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....

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In 1914 she was reclassified as a coast defence ship, subsequently a training ship and survived the war.