The Ironclad Turret Ship SMS Grosser Kurfurst, or “Great Elector" was commissioned on May 6, 1878, just in time to participate in the Imperial German Navy’s summer training cruise. That cruise would prove disastrous for both the ship and the Navy.
The “Great Sedition Trial” uncovered shocking connections at the time with the German reich that we were fighting, and challenged the idea that the nation was of a single mind during the war. It also challenged exactly how far the national commitment to freedom of speech and opinion reached, especially in extraordinary times.