SMS Kaiser Friedrich III ("His Majesty's Ship Emperor Frederick III") was the lead ship of the Kaiser Friedrich III class of pre-dreadnought battleships. She was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft in Wilhelmshaven in March 1895, launched in July 1896, and finished in October 1898. The ship was armed with a main battery of four 24-centimeter (9.4 in) guns in two twin gun turrets supported by a secondary battery of eighteen 15 cm (5.9 in) guns.

Sea trials and modifications lasted more than a year, and once she entered active service in October 1899, the ship became the flagship of Prince Heinrich in I Squadron of the German Heimatflotte (Home Fleet). I Squadron was primarily occupied with training exercises throughout each year, and also made numerous trips to other European countries, particularly Great Britain and Sweden–Norway. In 1901, the ship was severely damaged after striking submerged rocks in the Baltic Sea; the incident contributed to design changes in later German battleships to make them more resistant to underwater damage.

Kaiser Friedrich III was extensively modernized in 1908; her secondary guns were reorganized and her superstructure was cut down to reduce top-heaviness. After returning to service in 1910, Kaiser Friedrich III was placed in the Reserve Formation; she spent the next two years laid up, being activated only for the annual fleet maneuvers. The years 1913 and 1914 passed without any active service until the outbreak of World War I in July 1914. Though obsolete, Kaiser Friedrich III and her sister ships served in a limited capacity as coastal defense ships in V Battle Squadron in the early months of the war, tasked with defending Germany's North Sea coastline. The ships conducted two operations in the Baltic but did not encounter any hostile warships. By February 1915, Kaiser Friedrich was withdrawn from service and eventually decommissioned in November, thereafter being employed as a prison ship and later as a barracks ship. She was scrapped in 1920.

After the Imperial German Navy ordered the four Brandenburg-class battleships in 1889, a combination of budgetary constraints, opposition in the Reichstag (Imperial Diet), and a lack of a coherent fleet plan delayed the acquisition of further battleships. The former Secretary of the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office), Leo von Caprivi, became the Chancellor of Germany in 1890, and Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) Friedrich von Hollmann became Secretary of the Reichsmarineamt. Hollmann requested a new battleship in 1892 to replace the ironclad turret-ship Preussen, built twenty years earlier, but the Franco-Russian Alliance, signed the year before, put the government's attention on expanding the Army's budget. Parliamentary opposition forced Hollmann to delay until the following year, when Caprivi spoke in favor of the project, noting that Russia's recent naval expansion threatened Germany's Baltic Sea coastline. In late 1893, Hollmann presented the Navy's estimates for the 1894–1895 budget year, again with a request for a replacement for Preussen, which was approved. The new ship abandoned the six-gun arrangement of the Brandenburgs for four large-caliber pieces, the standard arrangement of other navies at the time.

Kaiser Friedrich III was 125.3 m (411 ft 1 in) long overall and had a beam of 20.4 m (66 ft 11 in) and a draft of 7.89 m (25 ft 11 in) forward and 8.25 m (27 ft 1 in) aft. She displaced 11,097 t (10,922 long tons) as designed and up to 11,785 t (11,599 long tons) at full load. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines that drove three screw propellers. Steam was provided by four Marine-type and eight cylindrical boilers, all of which burned coal and were vented through a pair of tall funnels. Kaiser Friedrich III's powerplant was rated at 13,000 metric horsepower (12,820 ihp; 9,560 kW), which generated a top speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph). She had a cruising radius of 3,420 nautical miles (6,330 km; 3,940 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). The crew comprised between 658 and 687 officers and enlisted men.

The ship's armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the central superstructure. Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/40 guns carried in a mix of turrets and casemates. Close-range defense against torpedo boats was provided by a battery of twelve 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/30 quick-firing guns, all mounted in casemates. She also carried twelve 3.7 cm (1.5 in) machine cannon; these were later removed. There were six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, all in above-water swivel mounts. The ship's belt armor was 150 to 300 mm (5.9 to 11.8 in) thick, and the main armor deck was 65 mm (2.6 in) thick. The conning tower and main battery turrets were protected with 250 mm (9.8 in) of armor plating, and the secondary casemates received 150 mm (5.9 in) of armor protection.

Kaiser Friedrich III's keel was laid on 5 March 1895 at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Wilhelmshaven, under construction number 22. Kaiser Wilhelm II, the son of the ship's namesake, hammered the first rivet into the keel. She was ordered under the contract name Ersatz Preussen, to replace the elderly armored frigate Preussen. Kaiser Friedrich III was launched on 1 July 1896 and Wilhelm II was present again, this time to give the launching speech. The ship was commissioned on 7 October 1898 and began sea trials in the Baltic Sea. Of major concern was how the three-shaft arrangement would perform on a ship the size of Kaiser Friedrich III; the preceding Brandenburg class had used two shafts. After the trials were completed in mid-February 1899, Kaiser Friedrich returned to Wilhelmshaven and was decommissioned so defects identified during the trials could be remedied. The work lasted longer than originally planned, her main battery guns had not yet been delivered, and the ship remained out of service for much of the year.

Upon recommissioning on 21 October, Kaiser Friedrich III was assigned to II Division of I Squadron of the Heimatflotte (Home Fleet), which was commanded by Vizeadmiral Paul Hoffmann. She took the place of the ironclad Baden, which had been decommissioned the previous day. Kaiser Friedrich III became the flagship of II Division, commanded by Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Wilhelm Büchsel. Before she could join her division, Kaiser Friedrich III and the aviso Hela were sent to escort the Kaiser's yacht Hohenzollern on a trip to Britain for the Kaiser to visit his grandmother, Queen Victoria. The ships left Germany on 17 November and stayed in Dover from 18 to 20 November, before proceeding to Portsmouth on the 20th, remaining there for three days. On their return they stopped in Vlissingen in the Netherlands, from 24 to 29 November, before continuing to Kiel, where they arrived on 1 December.