Balanced armored cruisers before SMS Blücher

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were the large German armored cruisers lost with Maximilian von Spee's squadron at the Battle of the Falklands. They immediately preceded SMS Blücher in the development sequence, while Blücher occupied the uncertain space between an armored cruiser and the emerging battlecruiser. The Scharnhorst class remained a balanced cruiser design intended for worldwide deployment. Its combination of fighting power and reach raises a wider procurement possibility: Germany might have gained more from continuing this cruiser line while building fast dreadnought battleships for the main fleet. The class belongs firmly to the armored-cruiser tradition and sets the baseline for judging Germany's turn toward battlecruisers.