SMS Tiger was the third member of the Iltis class of gunboats built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s. The ships were built to modernize the German gunboat force that was used to patrol the German colonial empire. They were ordered in three groups of two ships, each pair incorporating design improvements. Tiger, along with Luchs, was armed with a main battery of two 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns, had a top speed of 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph), and could cruise for more than 2,500 nautical miles (4,630 km; 2,880 mi).

After entering service in 1900, Tiger was sent to the Far East to join the East Asia Squadron based in Qingdao, China. The ship spent much of her career cruising in the waters of the Far East. She did not participate in any fighting during the Boxer Uprising in China in 1900–1901, and instead patrolled the Yellow Sea. In early 1904, after the start of the Russo-Japanese War, the ship was used to evacuate Germans from Incheon, Korea, to avoid the fighting taking place in the country. During the Xinhai Revolution in China in 1911–1912, Tiger went to several cities to ensure the fighting did not affect Germans living in them. After the start of World War I in July 1914, Tiger was disarmed; her guns and part of her crew were used to equip the steamer Prinz Eitel Friedrich as an auxiliary cruiser. Tiger was subsequently scuttled during the Siege of Qingdao in October 1914.

The German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) abandoned gunboat construction for more a decade after Eber, launched in 1887, instead focusing on larger unprotected cruisers beginning with the Schwalbe class. By the mid-1890s, the navy began planning replacements for the older vessels of the Wolf and Habicht classes. The new ships were scheduled to begin construction by 1900, but the loss of the gunboat Iltis in a storm necessitated an immediate replacement, which was added to the 1898 naval budget. The new ship was planned to patrol the German colonial empire; requirements included engines powerful enough for the ship to steam up the Yangtze in China, where the new gunboat was intended to be deployed. Six ships were built in three identical pairs; each pair incorporated incremental improvements over the preceding set, and Tiger was one of the second pair, along with Luchs.

Tiger was 65.2 meters (213 ft 11 in) long overall and had a beam of 9.1 m (29 ft 10 in) and a draft of 3.56 m (11 ft 8 in) forward. She displaced 894 metric tons (880 long tons) as designed and 1,108 t (1,091 long tons) at full load. The ship had a raised forecastle deck and a straight stem. Her superstructure consisted primarily of a conning tower with an open bridge atop it. She had a crew of 9 officers and 121 enlisted men.

Tiger's propulsion system consisted of a pair of horizontal triple-expansion steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-fired Thornycroft boilers. Exhaust was vented through two funnels located amidships. Tiger could steam at a top speed of 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph) at 1,300 metric horsepower (1,300 ihp). The ship had a cruising radius of about 2,580 nautical miles (4,780 km; 2,970 mi) at a speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph).

Tiger was armed with a main battery of two 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/40 guns, with 482 rounds of ammunition. One was placed on the forecastle and the other at the stern. She also carried six 37 mm (1.5 in) Maxim guns. The only armor protection carried by the ship was 8 mm (0.31 in) of steel plate on the conning tower.

Tiger was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig under the contract name Ersatz Wolf in November 1898. She was launched on 15 August 1899, and at the launching ceremony, she was christened after the earlier gunboat SMS Tiger by the director of the shipyard, Kapitän zur See (Captain at Sea) Curt von Prittwitz und Gaffron. She was commissioned into active service on 3 April 1900 to begin sea trials. Testing was completed quickly, and already on 31 May, Tiger was deemed ready to deploy to East Asia. She moved to Kiel for final fitting out that lasted from 2 to 6 June, and then sailed to the North Sea, where on 16 June she was inspected by Kaiser Wilhelm II in the mouth of the Elbe river. The next day, she sailed for the Far East.

Tiger stopped in numerous European ports along the way, and in Port Said, Egypt, she met the armored cruiser SMS Fürst Bismarck, which was also on her way to East Asian waters. The two ships thereafter cruised together, stopping in Perim at the southern end of the Red Sea to replenish coal stocks from 21 to 23 July. Tiger ran aground off Obock, French Somaliland, and had to be pulled free by a tugboat from Djibouti. Tiger was not seriously damaged in the accident, but she nevertheless sailed back north to Aden to take on coal before continuing her voyage. Fürst Bismarck carried on without her.