Seeadler was built at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig in late 1890, launched in February 1892, and commissioned in August of that year.

Following her commissioning, she joined the protected cruiser Kaiserin Augusta in 1893 on a visit to the United States for the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas.

She had spent over thirteen years abroad since her 1899 modernization, the longest period of continuous overseas service of any major German warship.

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) SK L/35 quick-firing (QF) guns in single pedestal mounts, supplied with 800 rounds of ammunition in total.

But first, Seeadler and the protected cruiser Kaiserin Augusta conducted a goodwill visit to the United States, a belated celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage across the Atlantic.

The ships left Kiel on 25 March, but due to a mistaken estimate for the amount of coal that would be necessary to cross the Atlantic, Seeadler ran out of fuel while en route.

The colonial army, the Schutztruppe (protection force), was unavailable to reinforce the police troops, and so Seeadler and Möwe bombarded the slavers and neutralized the threat.

A rebellion in the Portuguese colony threatened German nationals residing in the city; Seeadler evacuated the civilians and took them to Zanzibar, where they arrived on 15 November.

Condor was to reinforce Seeadler and Cormoran was to continue on to the Pacific, but the latter remained in the area temporarily to strengthen the German naval force in the region.

This was done both to observe the damage to German economic interests in Moçambique and as a show of force to prevent British encroachment on Delagoa Bay, which was the only supply port for the independent Transvaal.

[10] After completing her repairs, Seeadler was ordered to German South-West Africa on 28 April to assist the Schutztruppe in suppressing a local rebellion.

On 2 October, she steamed to Zanzibar to take the deposed Sultan Khalid bin Barghash to Dar es Salaam following the brief Anglo-Zanzibar War.

On 20 December, Seeadler was again called to Lourenço Marques after the German consul Graf von Pfeil was attacked by Portuguese colonial police.

The two ships then toured the islands with the governor of German Samoa, Wilhelm Solf, and the Samoan chief, Mata'afa Iosefo, aboard Seeadler.

[14] On 24 April 1901, Seeadler was ordered to steam to the island of Yap in the Carolines to assist the stranded Norddeutscher Lloyd postal steamer SS München.

A pair of tugboats had managed to pull the steamer free by the time Seeadler arrived on 3 May, though the cruiser's crew assisted with repairs to the ship's damaged hull.

[15] On 2 January 1903, her sister Bussard arrived to take her place in East Asian waters, allowing Seeadler to return to the South Seas Station.

[14] During this period, Cormoran was replaced by Condor; the two cruisers were joined by Seeadler's old consort from East Africa, the survey vessel Möwe.

[16] In early 1905, Seeadler conducted goodwill visits to the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), before returning to Qingdao in April.

On 28 June, with the Russo-Japanese War winding down following the decisive Japanese victory at the Battle of Tsushima, Seeadler was detached from the East Asia Squadron, permitting her return to the South Seas Station.

By this time, the situation in East Africa had calmed, and the light cruiser Thetis, which had also been sent to suppress the Maji-Maji uprising, was sent back to Germany.

The only significant event came in early November 1911, when Seeadler pulled the Hamburg-Bremen-Afrika Linie steamer SS Irmgard free after she ran aground off Quelimane.

And at the end of December, the princes Leopold and Georg of Bavaria visited Seeadler in Dar es Salaam while on an overseas tour.

She had spent nearly thirteen and a half years abroad, the longest uninterrupted period of overseas service of any major German warship.

After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, she was reduced to a hulk for storing naval mines since she was no longer fit for active service.