Flugzeukreuzer Carrier (Germany) GW1936

 The aircraft cruisers originated from the experience gained with the aircraft mother ships. They were much faster than the mostly reconstructed aircraft freighter and thus were able to follow the fast ships of the fleet and provide immediate aerial reconnaissance for the fleet at sea. The first German ship was the small cruiser Stuttgart , which was rebuilt in the spring of 1918 to the aircraft cruiser. It was also planned to convert her sister ship Szczecin to the aircraft cruiser, but the capacity of only three aircraft on board, as in the Stuttgart, proved too small for the needs of aerial reconnaissance. Therefore, one wanted to convert fast and large ships like the old cruiser Roon to aircraft cruisers , which would be able to carry about 10 to 12 aircraft.Towards the end of the First World War , however, it was recognized that aircraft carriers with wheeled aircraft would be the solution to the problem and plans for the first German aircraft carrier, the Ausonia , should be implemented. The end of the war prevented the completion of the passenger ship, whose fuselage and machinery were completed soon after the start of the war at the time of its halt, to the aircraft carrier and the planned conversion of other passenger ships to carriers
With the advent of aircraft carriers, the construction of aircraft cruisers was unnecessary. Only Sweden finally built another in the early 1930s, the Gotland , which served well into World War II in this task and was rebuilt in 1944 to the Flakkreuzer .