From the 1860s to the 1880s, Prussia and later the German Empire built a series of screw corvettes to expand and modernize its fleet of cruising warships. In total, twenty-three ships of the type were built, mostly between six different ship classes. The first two ships, the Nymphe class, were built in the early 1860s as Prussia began to prepare for an eventual conflict with Denmark over the Schleswig-Holstein Question, though only Nymphe entered service in time for the Second Schleswig War in 1864. During the war, Prussia purchased the two Augusta-class corvettes that had been secretly ordered by the Confederate States Navy from France, after the French Emperor Napoleon III blocked their delivery to the Confederates. The three ships of the Ariadne class were laid down in the late 1860s and early 1870s, and these were followed by two Leipzig-class corvettes in the early 1870s. The six-ship Bismarck class was built in the mid-1870s to early 1880s, and was followed by another group of six ships, the Carola class. A further two vessels, Nixe and Charlotte, were built in the early 1880s specifically to serve as training ships, a role that many of the older corvettes had begun to fill by that time.
Nymphe was the only ship of the type to see action against an enemy warship, taking part in the Battle of Jasmund during the Second Schleswig War in 1864 and an attack on a blockading French squadron during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Augusta was activated during the Franco-Prussian War to raid French shipping in the Atlantic Ocean, capturing three ships carrying war materiel, two of which were taken as prizes and the third sunk. Nymphe's sister Medusa was in Japan during the war, where she was blockaded by a French squadron and saw no combat. Throughout the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s, German corvettes went on numerous deployments abroad, frequently to South America, the Mediterranean Sea, China, and the central Pacific Ocean. These voyages were aimed at protecting Prussian and later German nationals abroad, German economic interests, and later the establishment and patrolling of the German colonial empire.
As the ships were replaced with newer vessels, beginning with several unprotected cruisers, they were frequently converted into training ships. In addition to training in German waters, this role involved overseas training cruises, typically to the Mediterranean and the West Indies. While on these cruises, the ships were frequently called to carry out the same responsibilities as front-line warships, protecting Germans during periods of unrest in foreign countries and showing the flag. Most of the corvettes were sold for scrap between the 1880s and 1920s, but two were lost in accidents; Augusta was sunk by a cyclone in the Gulf of Aden in 1885 and the Bismarck-class ship Gneisenau was wrecked in a storm off Málaga in 1900. Nixe, the last surviving ship of the type, was converted into a lighter in the early 1920s and was ultimately broken up in 1930.
| Armament | The number and type of the primary armament |
|---|---|
| Displacement | Ship displacement at full combat load |
| Propulsion | Number of shafts, type of propulsion system, and top speed generated |
| Service | The dates work began and finished on the ship and its ultimate fate |
| Laid down | The date the keel assembly commenced |
| Commissioned | The date the ship was commissioned |