The Bismarck-class corvettes were ordered as part of a major naval construction program in the early 1870s, and she was designed to serve as a fleet scout and on extended tours in Germany's colonial empire.

She was armed with a battery of ten 15 cm (5.9 in) guns and had a full ship rig to supplement her steam engine on long cruises abroad.

Beginning in early 1886, Stosch underwent an extensive modernization in preparation for her service as a training ship for naval cadets and later apprentice seamen.

She also engaged in settling disputes involving foreign governments, including over the murder of a pair of German citizens in Morocco in 1895 and during the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903.

Stosch and her sister ships were intended to patrol Germany's colonial empire and safeguard German economic interests around the world.

By the end of November, she was seaworthy enough to be transferred to Swinemünde and then to Wilhelmshaven by a shipyard crew, where fitting out work was completed, including the installation of her guns.

[4] Stosch was reactivated on 1 April 1881 for a deployment to the Far East under the command of Kapitän zur See (KzS—Captain at Sea) Louis von Blanc, where she was to serve as the flagship of the overseas cruiser squadron in the region.

[4] At the time, Stosch, who was the head of the Kaiserliche Admiralität (Imperial Admiralty), had implemented a plan whereby Germany's colonies would be protected by gunboats, while larger warships would generally be kept in reserve, with a handful assigned to a flying squadron that could respond to crises quickly.

[5] Stosch left Germany on 15 April, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Batavia in the Dutch East Indies on 18 July, where she met the previous flagship of the squadron, the corvette Freya.

Stosch then proceeded to Chefoo, where she met the rest of the squadron, which consisted of the screw frigate Hertha and the gunboats Iltis and Wolf.

The squadron assembled in Chefoo in mid-June, and on 16 June, Stosch and Wolf sailed to Chemulpo with a diplomatic delegation to negotiate a trade treaty with Korea, then under the Joseon dynasty.

Stosch then returned to Chefoo before proceeding to Hakodate, Japan, where she met the corvette Elisabeth, which had recently arrived to replace Hertha.

On 25 September, Stosch and Wolf began an exploration of the Hai River while they were carrying the diplomat Max von Brandt on the way to Tianjin, from which he was to travel overland to Beijing.

[4] On 6 March 1883, Stosch, which had sailed south to Amoy, began a cruise in the East Asian region, at times in company with other members of the squadron.

The squadron met in the Wusong roadstead on 19 August in response to anti-European unrest in the area, owing to China's conflicts with France over Tonkin and Annam that led to the Sino-French War.

Stosch went to Japan to rest her crew, but renewed violence in Shanghai forced her return, along with Prinz Adalbert and Wolf to protect German nationals in the city.

On 16 September, Prinz Adalbert was detached to South American waters, leaving only Wolf and the gunboat Nautilus in the squadron with Stosch.

She did not remain there long; in February, she received orders to sail to East African waters to serve as flagship of a new cruiser squadron being formed there.

[6] On 1 March 1885, Stosch departed Chemulpo for Hong Kong, where she received amended orders instructing her to first stop in Australia to help mediate disputes between Germany and Great Britain over the German acquisition of colonies in the Bismarck Archipelago and Kaiser-Wilhelmsland and defend the claims by force if necessary.

At the same time, Paschen was ordered to form a new squadron, based on Stosch, Prinz Adalbert, and Gneisenau, to support the colonies in West Africa.

Stosch went to Cape Town on 11 October for maintenance, and while she was out of service for repairs, Paschen, who was now promoted to Konteradmiral, temporarily transferred his flag to Prinz Adalbert.

The Admiralität dissolved the squadron on 21 December and ten days later, Stosch was decommissioned for extensive modernization that included installing new boilers and replacing the old 15 cm guns with new quick-firing models.

The ships visited ports throughout the Mediterranean individually and as a squadron, and they participated in celebrations commemorating the 25th anniversary of King George I of Greece from 27 October to 5 November in Piraeus.

[10] Stosh's training duties were interrupted on 29 June when she was sent along with the coastal defense ship Hagen, the protected cruiser Kaiserin Augusta, and Marie to Morocco in response to the murder of two German citizens in the country.

The winter cruise went to both the West Indies and the Mediterranean; while she was in Tangiers, she and Charlotte placed pressure on the Moroccan government to pay the compensation for the two murders in 1895.

She was briefly used as a hulk at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel, though she was sold in October to a Dutch ship breaking firm and scrapped.