The ships honored Prussian military reformers Gerhard von Scharnhorst and August von Gneisenau. Their service as a class turned two separate commemorations into a durable naval pairing. The later fast battleships with the same names reinforced that association, because each generation is remembered chiefly through what the two ships did together. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau therefore became a paired naming tradition across German warship generations.
Notable Point · 5:17-6:25
Why Scharnhorst and Gneisenau became paired names
The armored-cruiser pair linked the names of Prussian reformers Gerhard von Scharnhorst and August von Gneisenau in later German naval memory.