The Iltis class was a group of six gunboats built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

The first four members of the class were deployed to China as part of the East Asia Squadron after entering service, which was based in Qingdao.

Their subsequent careers were largely uneventful, apart from Jaguar's suppression of uprisings in German colonial holdings in the central Pacific in 1908–1909.

At the start of World War I, Iltis, Tiger, and Luchs were disarmed to convert merchant ships into auxiliary cruisers, while Jaguar remained in service and fought in the Siege of Qingdao.

Panther had returned to Germany shortly before the start of World War I, and spent the conflict patrolling the western Baltic Sea.

The German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) abandoned gunboat construction for more a decade after Eber, launched in 1887.

The Oberkommando der Marine (Naval High Command) requested a total of nine gunboats to be operational by the end of the decade.

Their superstructure consisted primarily of a conning tower with an open bridge atop it, along with a smaller deck house further aft.

[3][4] The only armor protection carried by the ships was 8 mm (0.31 in) of steel plate on the conning tower, which was suitable only against rifle bullets and shell fragments.

[8] The ships was rated to steam at a top speed of 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph) at 1,300 metric horsepower (1,300 ihp), though all members of the class exceeded these figures in service.

Iltis and Jaguar carried a maximum of 190 t (190 long tons) of coal, and had a cruising radius of about 3,080 nautical miles (5,700 km; 3,540 mi) at a speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph).

At the same speed, Tiger and Luchs were capable of only 2,580 nautical miles (4,780 km; 2,970 mi), from a maximum capacity of 203 t (200 long tons) of coal.

Panther and Eber, meanwhile, carried 283 t (279 long tons) of coal and could sail for 3,400 nautical miles (6,300 km; 3,900 mi) at that speed.

[17] Luchs was initially intended to serve on the American Station, but she was reassigned to the East Asia Squadron before she entered service in 1900, as a result of the start of the Boxer Uprising in China.

[18] Iltis was heavily involved in the initial operations by the Eight Nation Alliance to suppress the Boxers, and then fight Qing troops supporting them.

The ship's captain, Wilhelm von Lans, was seriously wounded during the battle and received the Pour le Merite for his actions.

[17] After Luchs arrived, some of her men and guns were transferred to Schamien, which was purchased to serve as a river gunboat during the fighting in China.

[21] Iltis saw no further significant action for the remainder of her time in East Asian waters, though her crew remained on alert during the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing government in 1911 and 1912.

[22] During the revolution, Jaguar, Tiger, and Luchs patrolled several Chinese ports to be available in the event the fighting began to affect Germans in China.

[21] [23][24] After the start of World War I in July 1914, Iltis was disarmed; some of her weapons and crew were sent to convert a captured Russian merchant vessel into the auxiliary cruiser Cormoran, while the rest were used to strengthen the defenses of Qingdao.

[25][26] Tiger and Luchs were similarly disarmed; their guns and part of their crew were used to equip the steamer Prinz Eitel Friedrich.

She was initially sent to the American Station after entering service in 1902, and she was soon sent to Haiti to intervene in the Markomannia incident, where she sank the Haitian gunboat Crête-à-Pierrot.

Panther returned to Haiti in 1904 to pressure the Haitian government to pay a settlement after the murder of a German diplomat in the country.

Eber thereafter sailed for then-neutral Brazil, where she remained until the Brazilian government entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente in October 1917.