SMS Victoria Louise was the lead ship of her class of protected cruisers, built for the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) in the late 1890s.

The experience of Japanese cruisers during the contemporaneous First Sino-Japanese War showed the benefit of larger 21 cm (8.3 in) guns, which were adopted for the main battery of the Victoria Louise class.

[9] Victoria Louise was ordered under the contract name "L" and was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen on 8 or 9 April 1896,[a] though preparatory work had begun in workshops at the yard on 15 October 1895.

[10] She was launched sideways on 29 March 1897 in the presence of Frederick Augustus II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg, who gave a speech during the ceremony.

At that time, the ship was temporarily decommissioned and placed in reserve for improvements to be made at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Wilhelmshaven.

In October 1901 and March 1902, Victoria Louise briefly served with the Artillerie-Inspektion (Artillery Inspectorate), though she remained formally assigned to I Squadron during those periods.

Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Ludwig Borckenhagen, at that time the deputy commander of I Squadron, used Victoria Louise as his flagship from 23 November to 14 December 1902.

She operated as the flagship of Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) Ernst Fritze, the commander of II Battle Squadron for that exercise.

Victoria Louise then returned to I Scouting Group for a subsequent round of maneuvers held from 30 November to 12 December in the Baltic and North Seas.

Victoria Louise, now based in Kiel, went on a series of short cruises in the Baltic and North Seas in the weeks following her recommissioning.

While in Madeira, Portugal and Tenerife in the Canary Islands, the commission aboard Victoria Louise carried out the balloon tests between 28 July and 2 August.

While there in January 1909, she went to Messina, Italy, where she joined her sister ship Hertha to provide assistance to the city after a major earthquake.

Grossadmiral (Grand Admiral) Hans von Koester was Germany's official representative, and he hoisted his flag aboard Victoria Louise for the duration of the ceremonies.

Following the conclusion of the event, Victoria Louise departed for a training cruise in the West Indies that ended with her return to Kiel on 10 March 1910.

That year, she went to the Mediterranean once again, and in September and October, she stopped in Corfu, where her crew was present for the installation of a statue at the Achilleion palace,[15] which Kaiser Wilhelm II had purchased in 1907.

From there, Victoria Louise began her overseas training cruise, which included stops in Iceland, North America, and the West Indies.

[18] Victoria Louise departed for the 1912 training cruise on 10 August; she stopped shortly thereafter in Antwerp, Belgium, where King Albert I visited the ship.

In December, Victoria Louise stopped in Piraeus, Greece; there King Constantine I and his wife Sophia, Wilhelm II's sister, celebrated Christmas aboard the cruiser.

[18] Following the start of World War I on 28 July 1914, Victoria Louise was mobilized into V Scouting Group, which was tasked with training cadets in the Baltic Sea.

[15][19] Shortly after 09:00 on 18 October, the British submarine HMS E1, commanded by Noel Laurence, attempted to torpedo Victoria Louise at a range of 460 m (1,510 ft).

E1 launched two torpedoes, but they ran too deep and missed; Victoria Louise turned to starboard at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph), the maximum speed she could make by that point.

Shortly thereafter, and partly because of this incident, the naval command decided that the very weak armor protection of the Victoria Louise-class ships precluded further activity, and the unit was disbanded on 28 October.

Following Germany's defeat in the war, the Admiralty Chief issued an order on 4 July 1919 striking Victoria Louise from the naval register, effective on 1 October.

This included removing internal bulkheads to create cargo holds (and strengthening the remaining hull structure to make up for the loss of those bulkheads); converting to a single shaft propulsion system (and moving the remaining engine further aft); and installing four boilers taken from the pre-dreadnought battleship Brandenburg, which was being broken up at the time.

Victoria Louise retained her armor deck, even though it reduced storage capacity and made transferring cargo to and from the ship more difficult, because it was prohibitively expensive to remove.