Something noteworthy: Germany did not sign, nor participate in the Washington Naval Treaty, with the legal result it was not bound to the limmitations implied in this agreement. It was however bound innitially to the restrictions imposed by the Versailles Treaty, though these were overruled by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. So legally teh Germans could produce a cruiser of more than 10,000 tons, as they were not bound to the Washington Naval Treaty. They were also not restricted to the gunscalliber on a warship either, so theoretically could have put any type of gun to their liking on the ship.
Historically the Hipper Class was designed to mount the newly developped "treaty" 8 inch gun, rather than the more German 19 cm (7.5 inch) and 21 cm (8.2 inch) guns of Krupp design. The Germans also "officially" stated the Hipper to be a 10,000 ton ship for politcical purposes , just as any nation did when producing something that was actually larger. As such the Hipper was not much different to the Japanese so called 10,000 ton cruisers (Myoko, Takao, Mogami and Tone classes), or the Italian Zara class, that all were overweight on purpose. It is interesting though the Hipper class at first was designed to mount the 19 cm gun and later on even the more common 5.9 inch gun (four tripple turrets), to make use of existing logistics, though in the end overruled by the SKL of the Kriegsmarine to mount 8 inch in the end to get parrity with other heavy cruisers in terms of size of their main artillery. For political reasons the more common 21 cm (8.2 inch) size of previous large cruiser designs from around the turn of the century was not used. (though the germans could have used it very well within the agreement restrictions.)
Also noteworthy is the way the cruisers of the Deutschland class were treated. They were labbeled as capital ships, as they were legal replacements of older, obsolete pre-Dreadnought type battleships that were overage. Though seen as cruisers by the Kriegsmarine, the politcal purpose of these three "Panzerschiffe" was to be maintained in peacetime. In case of war, these cruisers were to be used in a classical way for cruiser warfare, namely, hunting and disturbing enemy commerce. They were not supposed to fight other warships though, if they could avoid such a thing. If they did , the mission was clear the safety of the ship and its crew were priority over winning an actual fight, which is clearly why Langsdorff disengaged when he could, at River Plate. (Admiral Graf Spee also was running short on ammunition by then, as the loadout was just 100 shells for each main gun, when fully loaded. More than 60% was expended, including all HE rounds, leaving the less effective AP rounds mainly. AP on the 11 inch gun was not effective against lightly armored targets, like British Leander and Kent class cruisers, as these had mostly unarmored parts. Against a Renown these AP rounds could have been much more effective.)