The Bismarck-class corvettes were ordered as part of a major naval construction program in the early 1870s, and they were designed to serve as fleet scouts and on extended tours in Germany's colonial empire.

Most of the members of the class were sent on extended foreign cruises throughout their careers, frequently to support the expansion of Germany's colonial empire through the 1880s.

Bismarck was involved in the seizure of the colony of Kamerun in 1884, and she, Gneisenau, and Stosch were used to secure the protectorate of Wituland in 1885–1886, which later became German East Africa.

[1] By the mid-1870s, the fleet of corvettes available to the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) was rapidly ageing, with several vessels already twenty years old.

Cruising vessels required a much longer radius of action than the ironclads, and steam engines were not yet reliable or efficient enough to rely on them alone, necessitating the retention of traditional sailing rigs.

[3] After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the Kaiserliche Marine began an expansion program to strengthen the fleet to meet the demands imposed by Germany's increased economic activities abroad and to prepare it for a potential future conflict with France.

The naval command determined that modern screw corvettes were necessary for scouting purposes, as well as overseas cruising duties to protect German interests abroad.

The ships' hulls were constructed with transverse iron frames with one layer of wood planks, which were sheathed with zinc to prevent biofouling on extended cruises abroad, where shipyard facilities were not readily available.

During this cruise, her captain signed a friendship treaty with the ruler of the Society Islands, and she interfered with Samoan internal affairs before being recalled to Germany.

Storm damage while on the way back forced her to seek repairs in Australia, and from there she was diverted to South American waters, where she protected German interests in the region during the War of the Pacific between Chile, Peru, and Bolivia.

The second deployment lasted from 1884 to 1888; during this period, Germany began to seize colonies in Africa and the Pacific; Bismarck was closely involved in the acquisition of Kamerun in 1884, sending men ashore to suppress revolts against German economic activities in the country.

To fulfill these tasks, the ship was heavily modified from her original configuration, having most of her guns removed in favor of a variety of torpedo weapons.

By the early 1890s, the German torpedo-boat force had increased to the size that Blücher could no longer fill both roles, and so the task of developing tactics was given to the aviso Blitz.

She was initially based in Kiel in the Baltic Sea, under the command of Alfred von Tirpitz, who at that time advocated for the use of small, cheap torpedo boats to defend Germany, rather than the expensive battleships he would later champion.

In 1907, Blücher suffered a boiler explosion that badly damaged the ship and killed thirty men, though most of her crew were ashore at the time of the accident.

Deemed too old to warrant repairing, Blücher was instead sold to a Dutch company that used her as a coal storage hulk in Vigo, Spain; her ultimate fate is unknown.

Most of this deployment was spent in East Asian waters, where she was involved with mediating disputes over Germany's growing colonial empire in the Pacific Ocean and securing trade agreements with foreign governments.

[21] Beginning in early 1886, Stosch underwent an extensive modernization in preparation for her service as a training ship for naval cadets and later Schiffsjungen.

She also engaged in settling disputes involving foreign governments, including over the murder of a pair of German citizens in Morocco in 1895 and during the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903.

She spent the last half of 1881 visiting ports in several South American countries during the War of the Pacific to protect German interests against civil disturbances in the conflict.

In October 1911, Moltke was renamed Acheron and she served in this capacity until 1920, when she was sold to ship breakers in July and subsequently dismantled for scrap.

The first, in 1882, was to protect German nationals in Egypt during the 'Urabi revolt, though by the time she arrived, British forces had largely defeated the rebels, allowing Gneisenau to return home without having to take action in the conflict.

Her training duties frequently involved long-distance overseas cruises, typically either to the Mediterranean Sea or the West Indies and South America.

On these cruises, Stein and other training ships visited foreign ports and responded to problems that arose involving German nationals abroad.