Brummer-class gunboat

The Brummer class was a pair of armored gunboats built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1880s. The class comprised Brummer and Bremse. The ship was ordered to serve in Germany's coastal defense system alongside the Sachsen-class ironclads and Wespe-class gunboats. They were significantly less well armed and protected compared to the Wespes, but they were lighter and faster vessels. They also introduced compound armor to the German fleet.

Both ships spent most of their careers in the reserve fleet, though Brummer saw more active service than Bremse. The former initially served as the flagship for a division of torpedo boats in the mid-1880s, and beginning in 1892, she was assigned to the gunnery training school. Bremse was only activated in 1891, 1893, and 1902 for fisheries protection patrols, a task Brummer also performed at times between the mid-1890s and mid-1900s. Bremse was reduced to a hulk in 1903 and sold into civilian service in 1910, but Brummer remained in the fleet's inventory, also as a hulk, until after World War I. She was broken up in 1922.