| abstract | - The M-class cruisers were a class of light cruisers planned, but never built, by the German Navy before World War II. The ships were designed for commerce raiding in the Atlantic Ocean. The design for the first three ships suffered from a number of problems, and so the fourth and fifth ships were substantially redesigned. The name of the class is taken from the letter designating the first projected unit. As long as the ships were not named, they were referred to by letters assigned in the chronological order of their planned construction. The first planned unit would have been the thirteenth German cruiser and was therefore listed as cruiser M in the navy's documents. Had any of the ships been built, the class would have been named after the first completed unit.
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