The ship was a regular participant in the annual fleet training maneuvers conducted with the exception of the mid-1880s, when she was temporarily replaced by newer vessels.

She participated in several cruises in the Baltic and Mediterranean, often escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II on official state visits.

[4] Deutschland was ordered by the Imperial Navy from the Samuda Brothers shipyard in London, UK; her keel was laid in 1872.

At around the time Batch's squadron was working up for the summer cruise, the German consul in Salonika, then in the Ottoman Empire, was murdered.

Further attacks on German citizens living in the area were feared, and so Batsch was ordered to sail to the Mediterranean Sea to stage a naval demonstration in June 1876.

After the threat of violence subsided in August, Batsch departed with Kaiser and Deutschland; the other two ironclads remained in the Mediterranean for the rest of the summer.

The squadron was again sent to the Mediterranean, in response to unrest in the Ottoman Empire related to the Russo-Turkish War; the violence threatened German citizens living there.

The squadron, again under the command of Batsch, steamed to the ports of Haifa and Jaffa in July 1877, but found no significant tensions ashore.

The fleet then held training maneuvers in the North Sea under command of Rear Admiral Friedrich von Hollmann.

Deutschland and the rest of II Division became the training squadron for the fleet in 1889–1890, the first year the Kaiserliche Marine maintained a year-round ironclad force.

The squadron escorted Wilhelm II's imperial yacht to the Mediterranean; the voyage included state visits to Italy and the Ottoman Empire.

[13] During the winter of 1892–1893, Deutschland participated in a training squadron alongside the old ironclad König Wilhelm and the new coastal defense ships Siegfried and Beowulf.

[14] In November 1893, the Deutschland, König Wilhelm, and Friedrich der Grosse were joined by the brand-new pre-dreadnought battleship Brandenburg, under the command of Otto von Diederichs.

[17] Prince Heinrich, with his flag aboard Deutschland, departed Germany in December 1897 with Gefion; the two ships arrived in Hong Kong in March 1898.

[18] While most of the Squadron went to the Philippines to safeguard German interests during the Spanish–American War in the summer of 1898, Deutschland, Gefion, and Irene remained in Chinese waters.