SMS Gneisenau
"Gneisenau" was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, Germany in 1904, under construction number 144. She was launched on 14 June 1906, and commissioned into the fleet nearly two years later on 6 March 1908. The ship cost the German government 19,243,000 goldmarks. The ship had been designed for service with the High Seas Fleet, though it was found to be too weak for service with the battle fleet; instead it was deployed overseas, a role in which it performed well.
SMS Zieten
SMS "Zieten" was the first torpedo-armed aviso built for the Imperial German Navy ("Kaiserliche Marine"). She was built in Britain in 1875–1876, and was the last major warship built for Germany by a foreign shipyard. Ordered as a testbed for the new Whitehead torpedo, "Zieten" was armed with a pair of torpedo tubes, and was capable of a top speed of , making her the fastest ship in the German fleet at the time. "Zieten" proved to be the first torpedo-armed vessel in a series of avisos that ultimately developed into the first light cruisers. In addition to her impact in German warship design, "Zieten" also influenced numerous other navies, who built dozens of similar avisos and torpedo vessels of their own.