L 20 α was a design plan for a class of battleships to be built in 1918 for the Kaiserliche Marine during World War I. The design was selected on 2 October 1917, and construction was to have started 11 September 1918. The ships would have been significantly larger than the preceding Bayern-class battleships, at 238 m (781 ft) long, compared to 180 m (590 ft) for the preceding ships. The ships would have been the first German warship to have mounted guns larger than 40.6 cm (16 in). However, Germany's declining war situation and the transfer of emphasis within the Navy from capital ships to submarines meant that the ships would never be constructed.