SMS Prinz Adalbert ('His Majesty's Ship Prince Adalbert') was an armored cruiser built in the early 1900s for the Imperial German Navy. She was named after the earlier screw corvette Prinz Adalbert, and was the lead ship of her class.

Prinz Adalbert was built at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel. Her keel was laid in April 1900, and she was launched in June 1901. Her completion in January 1904 had been delayed by an excess of construction projects at the Imperial Dockyard. She was armed with a main battery of four 21 cm (8.3 in) guns, a significant improvement over the previous armored cruiser, Prinz Heinrich, which carried only two 24 cm (9.4 in) guns. The ship was capable of a top speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).

Upon commissioning, Prinz Adalbert served as a gunnery training ship, a role she held for the majority of her career. She trained with the Home Fleet, later renamed the High Seas Fleet, throughout the early 1900s, and she made several visits to foreign countries. After the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, she was assigned to the reconnaissance forces in the Baltic and was tasked with protecting the German coast from Russian attacks. After her sister ship was sunk in November 1914, she became the flagship of the cruiser squadron in the Baltic. She conducted operations against Russian forces, including bombarding the port of Libau in support of the German Army. She was torpedoed by a British submarine in July 1915, but was able to return to port and was repaired. She was torpedoed a second time on 23 October 1915; the torpedo detonated her ammunition magazines, rapidly sinking the ship. Only three men were rescued from a crew of 675, in the worst German naval loss in the Baltic during the war.

Prinz Adalbert was one of two cruisers in the Prinz Adalbert class; the other was named Friedrich Carl. Both were ordered under the Second Naval Law of 1900, which called for a force of fourteen armored cruisers that would be able to serve in Germany's colonial empire and scout for the main German fleet in home waters. The need to fill both roles was the result of budgetary limitations, which prevented Germany from building vessels specialized to each task. The Prinz Adalbert design was based on that of the previous armored cruiser, Prinz Heinrich, but incorporated a more powerful armament and more comprehensive armor protection.

Prinz Adalbert displaced 9,087 metric tons (8,943 long tons) as built and 9,875 t (9,719 long tons) fully loaded. She had an overall length of 126.5 m (415 ft), a beam of 19.6 m (64 ft 4 in) and a draft of 7.43 m (24 ft 5 in) forward. She was powered by three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, with steam provided by fourteen coal-fired Dürr water-tube boilers. The engines were rated to produce 16,200 metric horsepower (16,000 ihp) for a maximum speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), though she slightly exceeded these figures on speed trials. She carried up to 1,630 t (1,600 long tons; 1,800 short tons) of coal, which enabled a maximum range of up to 5,080 nautical miles (9,410 km; 5,850 mi) at a cruising speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). The ship's crew consisted of 35 officers and 551 enlisted men.

The ship was armed with four 21 cm (8.3 in) guns arranged in two twin-gun turrets, one on either end of the superstructure, a significant improvement over Prinz Heinrich, which carried only two guns in single turrets. Her secondary armament consisted of ten 15 cm (5.9 in) guns in individual casemate mounts. For defense against torpedo boats, she carried a battery of twelve 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns, also in individual mounts. She was also equipped with four 45 cm (17.7 in) underwater torpedo tubes, one in the bow, one in the stern, and one on each broadside. The ship was protected by a 100-millimeter (3.9 in) armored belt consisting of Krupp cemented armor, along with an armored deck that was 40 to 80 mm (1.6 to 3.1 in) thick. Her main battery turrets had faces 150 mm (5.9 in) thick and her conning tower had an equal amount of armor on its sides.

Prinz Adalbert was ordered under the provisional name "B" and built at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel under construction number 27. Her keel was laid in April 1900 and she was launched on 22 June 1901. The launching ceremony was attended by Kaiser Wilhelm II, his wife Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, his brother Admiral Prince Heinrich and Wilhelm's son, Prince Adalbert of Prussia. The ceremony of christening the ship was performed by Princess Irene of Prussia, wife of Prince Heinrich, who then delivered a speech. Fitting-out work proceeded slowly, in large part the result of the Imperial Dockyard attempting to build too many ships at once, but the work was eventually completed by 12 January 1904. Prinz Adalbert was commissioned into the Imperial German Navy the same day for sea trials, with Kapitän zur See ('Captain at Sea') Hermann Jacobsen in command; the ship was slated for service as a gunnery training ship. She had cost the Imperial German Government 16,371,000 Goldmarks. Sea trials were completed by 30 May, after which Prinz Adalbert began her duties as a gunnery training ship.

In September, the ship took part in the annual autumn maneuvers with the rest of the Heimatflotte ('Home Fleet'). A special training unit consisting of reserve ships, training ships like Prinz Adalbert, and a flotilla of torpedo boats was created in early 1905; Prinz Adalbert was the flagship of the unit from 1905 to 1907, flying the flag of Konteradmiral ('Rear Admiral') Hugo Zeye. Prinz Adalbert and the light cruiser Berlin escorted the Kaiser's yacht Hohenzollern to Sweden for a visit to King Oscar II in July 1905. The following month, she joined the light cruisers Undine and Nymphe for training maneuvers off Swinemünde; the exercises were to test the ships against a simulated night attack by torpedo boats. The tests were observed by Konteradmiral Ludwig Schröder, the Inspector of Naval Weapons, aboard Prinz Adalbert. Wilhelm II boarded Prinz Adalbert for the conclusion of the exercises, in which the ship towed an old torpedo boat filled with cork while the light cruisers and torpedo boats fired on it with live shells. Prinz Adalbert did not participate in the 1905 autumn maneuvers, though she was present for the naval review at the end of the exercises on 13 September. In February 1906, the tender Fuchs was assigned to support Prinz Adalbert. From 17 to 28 June, the cruiser served as the flagship of Prince Heinrich, then the commander of the Baltic Sea Naval Station. During this period the ship traveled to Norway to take part in the coronation festivities for King Haakon VII.