Ormuz was built for NDL in Bremen as the transatlantic liner "Zeppelin". She was completed in 1915 but NDL decided to lay her up for the duration. In 1919 she was surrendered to the British who gave her a Cunard crew and with two US senior officers aboard she spent a year as a US troopship returning US troops to the USA. Under White Star management she was handed to Orient Line and re-named Ormuz for the Australia run via the Suez Canal when she had been refitted as a two-class all cabin ship. The name Ormuz was adopted after the original ship of that name that served until 1915. In 1927 she was returned to NDL and with the name Dresden became a transatlantic liner as originally intended.
In 1934 Dresden was chartered for KDF cruises but grounded off the island of Bokn in Norway on the first cruise and she was pulled off but beached on the Island of Karmoy for inspection of the damage. During the next couple of days she began to list and then fell on her port side becoming a total loss. The wreck was sold in August to a company in Stavanger who scrapped her in situ.