SMS Elsass. was the second of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Braunschweig class in the German Imperial Navy, laid down in 1901 and commissioned 1904. She was named for the German province of Elsass, now the French region of Alsace. Her sister ships were Braunschweig, Hessen, Preussen and Lothringen.The ship served in the II Squadron of the German fleet after commissioning, though by the outbreak of World War I, she had been moved to the IV Squadron.