Bismarck was the first of two Bismarck-class battleships built for the Kriegsmarine. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936, launched in February 1939, and commissioned into the German fleet in August 1940. Bismarck and her sister ship Tirpitz were the largest warships ever built by Germany. Her naval career, while cut short by her sinking in 1941, was highly influential and left its mark in Naval History.