Work continued on the ships' design while the navy pushed for funding in the Reichstag, which was finally approved in March 1894, placing pressure on the design staff to complete their work so construction could begin. By May, the design staff had produced sketch XVI, which discarded the traditional two-gun turret used by most navies in favor of four single-gun turrets in the lozenge arrangement used in contemporary French battleships like . If weight permitted, all four were to be 28 cm guns, but the option to reduce the wing turrets to was available if necessary. The secondary battery was to be sixteen of the 10.5 cm guns, with at least some in twin turrets, but over the following months the battery was increased to 15 cm guns, as it was the accepted view at the time that secondary guns would do the most damage in a close-range fight. This view, which advocated the so-called "hail of fire" principle, was seemingly vindicated by the Japanese cruisers' victory over a more heavily-armed Chinese fleet at the Battle of Yalu later in 1894. The smaller, faster-firing guns were intended to inflict serious damage on the superstructures of enemy battleships and demoralize the crew.
