The ship began life in 1923 as the München, one of the first new liners Norddeutscher Lloyd built after the First World War for its service between Bremen and New York. After a serious fire at her New York pier in 1930 she was rebuilt and renamed General von Steuben, honouring the Prussian officer who had helped train George Washington's army – a gesture towards American travellers. In the 1930s she was used mainly for cruises, from 1938 simply as Steuben.
During the Second World War she served as an accommodation ship and, from 1944, carried wounded soldiers and refugees across the Baltic. On 10 February 1945, after leaving Pillau with thousands of people on board, she was hit by two torpedoes from the Soviet submarine S-13 – the same boat that had sunk the Wilhelm Gustloff less than two weeks earlier. She went down in about twenty minutes. Only about 650 people were rescued; the number of dead is estimated at around 4,000 or more.
