The class comprised Wespe, Viper, Biene, Mücke, Scorpion, Basilisk, Camaeleon, Crocodill, Salamander, Natter, and Hummel.

Intended for use as part of Germany's coastal defense plan, the Wespes were armed with a 30.5 cm (12 in) MRK L/22 gun, which was very large for vessels of their size.

Most members of the class were broken up, but Salamander sank on the way to the scrap yard in 1910; Wespe, which had been converted into a dredger in 1911, sank in a storm in 1926; and Hummel, having been converted into a floating anti-aircraft battery during World War II, was sunk by Allied bombers in the final days of the war in May 1945.

[1] Nevertheless, in the fleet plan of 1872 created by General Albrecht von Stosch, the new Chief of the Admiralty for the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) of the recently-unified German Empire, a force of seven monitors and two floating batteries was projected.

With mine barriers and heavy coastal batteries to protect these, it was thought unnecessary to have gunboats to keep the enemy at bay.

If the enemy could pass the outer limits of these shallow waters, they could safely anchor and prepare an attack or landing.

It noted that in these circumstances, these boats offered a small target, while their guns could penetrate up to 20 cm (7.9 in) of armor at medium distances.

[5] Already by 1861, in a memorandum written by General Helmuth von Moltke, the Prussian military had settled on armored gunboats.

[11] At the time, the Wespe class combined the heaviest gun in the German navy with an armor protection that was comparable to that of many ironclad battleships.

[12] But in practice, the ships proved to be disappointments, as their severe roll badly hampered their stability as a gun platform, meaning that accurate fire was all but impossible in heavier seas.

Two further armored gunboats, the Brummer class, were lighter, carried compound plate, and were armed with smaller guns.

[13] The naval historian Lawrence Sondhaus characterizes the Wespe design as having "generated less controversy than the Ausfallkorvetten, but [they] were equally ill conceived.

"[2] David Lyon takes a more positive view, stating that "no doubt they would have been useful vessels in any war off Germany's coast, in their earlier years.

They had no rigging, only a signals mast The ships had a crew that consisted of three offiers and seventy-three to eighty-five enlisted men.

Four cylindrical fire-tube boilers provided steam to the engines, and they were vented through a single, tall funnel.

[4][16] The Wespes were armed with a 30.5 cm (12 in) MRK L/22 built-up gun on a pivot carriage which put its trunnions 3.7 m (12 ft) above the water.

[15][16] The gun had a limited arc of train, and aiming was primarily accomplished by turning the ship in the direction of the enemy.

Because of their shallow draft and flat bottoms, the Wespe-class ships could be run aground on sandbars along the coast, as semi-fixed coastal artillery batteries.

Later in their careers, a small, armored conning tower with 20 mm (0.79 in) thick sides was installed atop the superstructure.

[18][22] After commissioning in November 1876, Wespe conducted sea trials and test shooting of the 30.5 cm gun, before being placed in reserve in March 1877.

The rest of the members of the class also commissioned for sea trials after completing construction, before being placed in reserve for the first few years of their careers.

The following year, Wespe, Salamander, Viper, and Mücke participated in maneuvers in the North Sea with the screw corvette Stein.

Through much of this period, Mücke or Crocodill served as the flagship, both of the temporarily activated flotillas and also the Reserve Division of the Baltic.

Biene was converted into a floating workshop, and Basilisk was used for a time as a test ship for hull leakage experiments.

Mücke was used in hull leakage tests, and Natter was renamed Stromquelle I (Power Source I) for use as a stoker barge in Wilhelmshaven.

[33] In 1918 during World War I, Viper took part in the salvage operation to refloat the dreadnought battleship Rheinland, which had run aground off the coast of Finland.