Deutschland was the lead ship of her class of heavy cruisers (often termed pocket battleships) which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II. Ordered by the Weimar government for the Reichsmarine, she was laid down at the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel in February 1929 and completed by April 1933. Originally classified as an armored ship (Panzerschiff) by the Reichsmarine, in February 1940 the Germans reclassified the remaining two ships of this class as heavy cruisers. In 1940, she was renamed Lützow, after the unfinished Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser Lützow was sold to the Soviet Union the previous year.

The ship saw significant action with the Kriegsmarine, including several non-intervention patrols in the Spanish Civil War, during which she was attacked by Republican bombers in the Deutschland incident. At the outbreak of World War II, she was cruising the North Atlantic, prepared to attack Allied merchant traffic. Bad weather hampered her efforts, and she sank or captured only a handful of vessels before returning to Germany. She then participated in Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway. Damaged at the Battle of Drøbak Sound, she was recalled to Germany for repairs. While en route, she was torpedoed and seriously damaged by a British submarine.

Repairs were completed by March 1941, and in June she left Germany for a commerce raiding operation in the Atlantic. Before reaching the Atlantic, she was torpedoed by a British aircraft and had to return. After repairs, Lützow returned to Norway to join the forces arrayed against Allied shipping to the Soviet Union. She ran aground during Operation Rösselsprung, a planned attack on Convoy PQ 17, and returned to Germany for repairs. She next saw action at the Battle of the Barents Sea with the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, which ended with a failure to destroy Convoy JW 51B. Engine problems forced a series of repairs culminating in a complete overhaul at the end of 1943, after which the ship remained in the Baltic as a training ship. In October 1944 Lützow re-entered front line service with Task Force Thiele, participating in shore bombardments of Russian positions in support of the German army. Sunk in shallow waters in the Kaiserfahrt in April 1945 by Royal Air Force (RAF) bombers, Lützow was used as a stationary gun battery until 4 May 1945, when she was disabled by her crew. Raised by the Soviet Navy in 1947, she was subsequently sunk as a target in the Baltic.

Deutschland was 186 meters (610 ft) long overall and had a beam of 20.69 m (67 ft 11 in) and a maximum draft of 7.25 m (23 ft 9 in). The ship had a design displacement of 12,630 t (12,430 long tons; 13,920 short tons) and a full load displacement of 14,290 long tons (14,520 t), though the ship was officially stated to be within the 10,000-long-ton (10,160 t) limit of the Treaty of Versailles. Deutschland was powered by four sets of MAN 9-cylinder double-acting two-stroke diesel engines. The ship's top speed was 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph), at 54,000 PS (53,260 shp; 39,720 kW). At a cruising speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), the ship could steam for 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km; 12,000 mi).

Since the Treaty of Versailles limited the total strength of the Reichsmarine to 10,000 men, Deutschland could not take on a full complement. Only 33 officers, 595 enlisted men and 15 civilians could be taken aboard, 474 of them came from the light cruiser Emden, which was temporarily decommissioned to provide men for Deutschland. After 1935, when Adolf Hitler renounced the Treaty of Versailles and concluded the Anglo-German Naval Agreement these restrictions were lifted and Deutschland received a full complement of 43 officers, 943 sailors and 14 civilians. When Deutschland prepared for war patrols, more officers and crew were taken aboard in order to establish prize crews for captured merchant ships.

Deutschland's primary armament was six 28 cm (11 in) SK C/28 guns mounted in two triple gun turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. The ship carried a secondary battery of eight 15 cm (5.9 in) SK C/28 guns in single turrets grouped amidships. Her anti-aircraft battery originally consisted of three 8.8 cm (3.5 in) L/45 guns, though in 1935 these were replaced with six 8.8 cm L/78 guns. Two SL-2 stabilized anti-aircraft director posts were also installed for these guns, one above the signals bridge and one abaft the funnel. In 1940, the 8.8 cm guns were removed, and six 10.5 cm (4.1 in) L/65 guns, four 3.7 cm (1.5 in) guns, and ten 2 cm (0.79 in) guns were installed in their place. By the end of the war, her anti-aircraft battery had again been reorganized, consisting of six 4 cm (1.6 in) L/60 guns, ten 3.7 cm guns, and twenty-eight 2 cm guns.

The ship also carried a pair of quadruple 53.3 cm (21 in) deck-mounted torpedo tubes placed on her stern. The ship was initially not equipped with seaplanes but became in 1935 the first German warship to install a catapult, seaplane handling cranes and a Heinkel He 60 floatplane. Deutschland's armored belt was 60 to 80 mm (2.4 to 3.1 in) thick; her upper deck was 17 mm (0.67 in) thick while the main armored deck was 17 to 45 mm (0.67 to 1.77 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 140 mm (5.5 in) thick faces and 80 mm thick sides. In Autumn 1937 a FMG G(gO) "Seetakt" set radar operating on a Wavelength of 80 cm was installed; in 1942, a FuMO 26 set was added.

Deutschland was ordered by the Reichsmarine from the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel as Ersatz Preussen, a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought battleship Preussen. Her keel was laid on 5 February 1929, under construction number 219. The ship was launched on 19 May 1931; at her launching, the ship accidentally started sliding down the slipway while German Chancellor Heinrich Brüning was giving the christening speech and before German President Paul von Hindenburg could christen the ship with the traditional bottle of Sekt. After the completion of fitting out work, initial sea trials began in November 1932. The ship was commissioned into the Reichsmarine on 1 April 1933.