German warship Hannover at the Levensau high bridge

The term Linienschiff for warship is a translation of the French term navire de ligne.  The Hannover was one of the Deutschland class and was put into service in 1907; scrapped in Bremmerhaven between 1944 and 1946.

Details of the ship:

Displacement: structure: 13,191 tonnes Maximum: 14,218 tonnes
Length: waterline: 125.9 m overall: 127.6 m  
Beam 22.2 m 
Draught 8.21 m 
Armament 4 SK - 28 cm L/40
Sk 14 - 17 cm L/40
20 Sk - 8.8 cm L/35
By 1921:
6 underwater torpedo tubes diameter 45 cm (1 front, 1 rear, 4 sides) 
Armour
Belt: 240 mm
Deck: 40 mm
Towers: 280 mm
Control center: 250 mm
Citadel: 170 mm
Propulsion system:
3 standing 3-cylinder Triple expansion steam engines
12 coal-fired steam boilers (from 1915: 8 of them oil-fired)
2 three-leaf (diameter 4.8 m) and
1 four-leaf (diameter 4.5 m) bolts
Engine power: 17,768 hp shaft speed: 114/min  
Fuel storage 1540 tons of coal  
Speed: 18.5 knots

Range: 4800 nautical miles at 10 knots 
Crew: 35 officers and 708 men

The Levensau High Bridge

This spans the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal between the city area of Suchsdorf of the Schleswig-Holstein provincial capital Kiel on the south side and the village of Levensau on the north side of the canal. The road and railway bridge was designed over 1893-1894 by Hermann Muthesius, to take the railway lines Kiel-Flensburg and Kiel-Eckernförde over the yet unfinished canal. At 163 meters it had the longest span of the original canal bridges, the height over the channel in the middle of the bridge is about 42 metres. Kaiser Wilhelm II praised the work as the most beautiful bridge built under him on the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal. Originally, there were four towers with two gates on the bridge. On the bridge itself, there was thus room for a tavern and even a small station, at which trains stopped into the 1960s.  The towers were removed in the separation of road and railway track in 1954. Of the original bridge the iron arches and the bridge heads were preserved.

In the two abutments of the old bridge several thousand bats winter over each year. The Levensau bridge is currently the largest known wintering grounds in Central Europe for the big Abendsegler type.

The bridge is due to be replaced soon; the south pillar of the old bridge may be retained.