SMS Iltis was the third and final member of the Wolf class of steam gunboats built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1870s.

The ship was ordered as part of a construction program intended to begin replacing the old Jäger-class gunboats that had been built a decade earlier.

During that period, the ship was initially commanded by Kapitänleutnant (Captain Lieutenant) Wilhelm Büchsel, but he was replaced by KL Oscar Klausa later in April.

In late January 1881, she and the screw corvette Freya, along with several Chinese gunboats, searched unsuccessfully in Mirs Bay for a group of pirates who had attacked the German barque Occident.

Iltis then took over survey operations in the area, with the probable intention of searching for a suitable location to establish a coaling station.

But the move proved to be unnecessary, and the ship was instead diverted to the Pescadores Islands, where the German brig August had run aground and her crew had been robbed by pirates.

Civil unrest against foreigners broke out in China later in 1882, and Iltis spent much of the rest of the year patrolling the coast, ready to intervene if necessary.

French colonial activities in Tonkin, which would eventually lead to the Sino-French War, caused riots in China directed against Europeans, who had fled Guangzhou to Shamian island in the Pearl River.

By that time, the cruiser squadron had been strengthened, and now consisted of the frigate Elisabeth, the corvettes Stosch, Stein, and Leipzig, and Iltis and Wolf.

After the outbreak of war between France and China later that year, unrest against Europeans spread along the Chinese coast, prompting the ships of the squadron to be deployed to protect Germans throughout the country.

[8] In 1885, the cruiser squadron was disbanded, and most of the ships were sent elsewhere, leaving only Iltis, Nautilus, and Elisabeth, though the last vessel was also transferred to eastern African waters in June.

[9] Iltis had, meanwhile, left Yap on 31 August and stopped in Manila in the Philippines to report on her actions in the south Pacific; there, she received orders to return home.

She passed through Singapore on 18 September, where her orders were cancelled owing to an increase in attacks against foreigners in China in response to the Chinese defeat in the Sino-French War.

On the way home, dysentery broke out among the crew, forcing the ship to stop in Malta on 14 July, where twelve sailors were sent ashore to recuperate.

Iltis resumed the voyage home on 27 July, eventually arriving back in Wilhelmshaven, where she was decommissioned on 3 September for an extensive overhaul and modernization.

She sailed to Guangzhou in late October where clashes had broken out between Chinese and European customs officials, and her intervention prevented the conflict from spreading to the settlement on Shamian.

Iltis spent the rest of the year touring Chinese ports, and after stopping in Yantai her crew contracted cholera from an outbreak in the city.

Captain Constantin von Hanneken, a German artillerist advising the Chinese government, invited Iltis to observe shooting practice in Weihaiwei in October.

Chinese opposition to Catholic missionaries led to widespread attacks against foreign holdings in Hankou, which included destruction of consulates and murder of Europeans.

Iltis joined a small flotilla that included a vessel each from the French, British, and United States fleets, which suppressed the violence by mid-July.

Iltis left the area on 12 July, and thereafter cruised in the Bohai Sea, until a resumption of violence led to her return to the Yangtze.

[12] Marine biofouling had begun to severely affect the ship's hull by this time, so Iltis proceeded to the Chinese naval base at Port Arthur to be drydocked for cleaning on 7 August.

She thereafter cruised in the Yellow Sea, and was present to observe the Battle of the Yalu River between the main Japanese and Chinese Beiyang Fleet on 17 September That month, Leutnant zur See (Lieutenant at Sea) Herwarth Schmidt von Schwind temporarily took command of the ship until KL Friedrich von Ingenohl arrived in November.

Due to the war, the German naval command decided to reestablish the East Asia Cruiser Division, and Iltis and Wolf were assigned to it.

[13] The treaty only covered the northern area, and Japan soon invaded Formosa, prompting the European powers to send warships there to protect their nationals.

The ship entered the Yangtze in June in company with the protected cruiser SMS Prinzess Wilhelm to sail to Nanjing, where rebels threatened a group of German military advisers.

[13] At around 05:00 on 23 July, Iltis sailed from Yantai, bound for Qingdao; the skies were cloudy, and wind was estimated to be a 2 on the Beaufort scale.

The stormy sea enveloped Iltis in spray and quickly broke her hull in two, between the engine room and crew compartment.

Iltis's bell was returned to Germany and initially display at the Museum für Meereskunde in Berlin, but was lost during World War II.