What were the Admiral Hipper cruisers meant to do?

What were the Admiral Hipper-class cruisers meant to do?

Their role was never convincing: treaty symmetry and Hitler's fleet ambitions pushed Germany toward heavy cruisers without a clear operational concept.

The central criticism is that the German navy lacked a clear operational need for the Hipper class. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement encouraged a symmetrical fleet structure instead of an asymmetric answer to British strength. Hitler also wanted status ships that appeared to match foreign categories. The resulting cruisers consumed great displacement without delivering benefits proportionate to their size because no stable role governed the compromises.