Intended for overseas duty, Bussard was armed with a main battery of eight 10.5-centimeter (4.1 in) guns, and could steam at a speed of 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph).

Through the 1870s and early 1880s, Germany built two types of cruising vessels: small, fast avisos suitable for service as fleet scouts and larger, long-ranged screw corvettes capable of patrolling the German colonial empire.

General Leo von Caprivi, the Chief of the Imperial Admiralty, sought to modernize Germany's cruiser force.

[3] The ship was armed with a main battery of eight 10.5 cm (4.1 in) K L/35 guns in single pedestal mounts, supplied with 800 rounds of ammunition in total.

She was launched on 23 January 1890; fitting-out work was completed quickly, and the new cruiser was ready for commissioning into the Imperial fleet on 7 October 1890.

In July 1893, she and her sister ship Falke assisted in the suppression of a local revolt led by Mata'afa Iosefo in Samoa.

They were joined by the old British corvette HMS Curacao, and the three vessels bombarded rebel positions on 7 July, forcing their surrender.

[8] While en route to China on 6 August 1900, a boiler room exploded aboard Bussard, due to a blown out manhole gasket; the explosion killed three sailors and seriously wounded another three men.

She remained in active service for only a brief time; she was stricken from the naval register on 25 October 1912 and was broken up for scrap the following year in Hamburg.