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The Deutschland (later re-named Lützow), was the lead ship of her class that served in the German Kriegsmarine before and during World War II. The ship was originally classified as a Panzerschiff (armoured ship) by Germany but reclassified as a heavy cruiser in February 1940. The British nicknamed the three ships of this class as pocket battleships.
Their size and characteristics were severely limited by the Treaty of Versailles, which limited Germany to ships of no more than 10,000 tons displacement. A number of technical innovations (including large scale use of welding to make the hull lighter) were used to build a formidable warship within this restricted weight. Even so, the Deutschland was 600 tons overweight, although for political reasons her announced displacement was always given as the 10,000 tons of the treaty limit.
Two other very similar (but not identical) ships were built in her class, the Admiral Graf Spee and the Admiral Scheer. As the Deutschland was the lead ship, she was the least advanced and lacked the distinctive high conning tower/bridge and masts of the Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee (which made the latter ships superficially resemble contemporary battleships).