# LAUNCHING OF KRIEGSMARINE CRUISER PRINZ EUGEN 1938 KIEL SHIPYARD GERMANY 73712

This silent German newsreel shows the launching of the Prinz Eugen, an enlarged Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser which served with the Kriegsmarine of Germany during World War II. The entire launch process is seen, with groups of workers moving the blocks holding the hull in position on the ways. Adolph Hitler and ministers attend the christening ceremony and can be seen at the 10 minute mark. Most of the superstructure and weaponry for the ship will be installed after launch. The vessel was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy and was the third ship of the Hipper-class heavy cruisers. Like her sister ships, Admiral Hipper and Blücher, she was built in the mid-1930s. During the planning and design stage, she was known as "Kreuzer J" (Cruiser J). Her keel was laid at the Krupp Germania shipyard in Kiel on 23 April 1936, and her full cost would be 104.5 million Reichsmark. Prinz Eugen was launched on 22 August 1938 and commissioned on 1 August 1940. Considered a "lucky ship", she survived to the end of the war, although she participated in only two major actions at sea. The ship sank following Operation Crossroads at Kwajalein Atoll in 1946 and its upside-down hull remains beached nearby. Prinz Eugen saw action during Operation Rheinübung, an attempted breakout into the Atlantic Ocean with the battleship Bismarck in May 1941. The two ships destroyed the British battlecruiser Hood and severely damaged the battleship Prince of Wales in the Battle of Denmark Strait. Prinz Eugen…

- Kind: Film
- Genres: War, Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/73712GermanFilmLaunchingOfTheCrusierPrinceEugen)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/73712GermanFilmLaunchingOfTheCrusierPrinceEugen?play=1)