A series of conceptual designs was begun by the Reichsmarine (Navy of the Realm) in 1932 to determine the ideal characteristics of a battleship built to the 35,000 long tons (36,000 t) limit of the Washington Naval Treaty. These early studies determined that the ship should be armed with eight 33 cm (13 in) guns, have a top speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph), and have strong armor protection.[2] At the time, the German Navy was constrained by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that had ended World War I, which restricted battleships to a maximum displacement of 10,000 long tons (10,000 t). Not only that, as the result of naval limitation the German naval engineers become less experienced in naval designing due to lack of extensive experimentation.