The Schwalbe class of unprotected cruisers were the first ships of the type built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy).

Schwalbe and Sperber spent their active careers abroad, usually in Germany's African colonies or in the Pacific.

They returned to service at the turn of the century for another tour overseas; Schwalbe joined the forces that battled the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900 before being decommissioned a second time in 1902.

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.

[1] In the early 1880s, the fleet's colonial cruisers consisted of a motley collection of older sailing ships that were suitable only for training purposes.

[2] At that time, the navy largely relied on gunboats to patrol the colonies, supported by a flying squadron of cruisers as necessary.

As the overseas empire grew in size, it became increasingly untenable to rely on this structure to enforce German claims on its colonies.

Commerce protection duties mandated an auxiliary sailing rig, while the need to conduct police actions in the colonies required a crew large enough that a landing party could be spared.

The ships' hulls were constructed with a transverse framing composed of steel, and were covered with a layer of wood and copper sheathing to protect them from marine biofouling on extended voyages overseas.

They suffered from severe weather helm, and tended to roll badly in a beam sea; their metacentric height was .665 m (2 ft 2.2 in).

The ships' engines provided a design speed of 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph) from 1,500 metric horsepower (1,500 ihp).

Four were placed in sponsons fore and aft to give a measure of end-on fire, and the remaining four amidships on the main deck.

Schwalbe remained in the colony after the rebellion was suppressed, but Sperber left for the South Seas Station in German New Guinea.

In mid-1893, Schwalbe was recalled to Germany for a major overhaul, and Sperber was similarly ordered to return at the end of the year, but while en route she was sent to German Southwest Africa instead.

During her deployment to China, she helped blockade the Yangtze and sent landing parties ashore to control unrest in Ningbo.