SMS Gneisenau
SMS "Gneisenau" was an armored cruiser of the German navy, part of the two-ship . She was named after August von Gneisenau, a Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars. The ship was laid down in 1904 at the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen, launched in June 1906, and completed in March 1908, at a cost of over 19 million goldmarks. She was armed with a main battery of eight guns, had a top speed of , and displaced at full combat load.
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.