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 38 cm (15 in) torpedo tubes, and was capable of a top speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph), making her the fastest ship in the German fleet at the time. Zieten was 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.

Zieten served for the first two decades of her career with the torpedo boat flotilla. In 1878–1880, she was captained by Alfred von Tirpitz, the future architect of the High Seas Fleet. In 1882, she cruised the Mediterranean Sea with several other German warships, and was present during the British bombardment of Alexandria, where she protected German interests. Zieten was used as a fishery protection ship from 1899 until 1914, when the outbreak of World War I necessitated her mobilization as a coastal patrol ship. She served in this capacity for the duration of the war, and was stricken from the naval register in December 1919. The ship was finally sold for scrapping in August 1921, after forty-five years of service.

In 1869, the Prussian Navy sent then-Korvettenkapitän (KK) Alexander von Monts to Austria to examine the new Whitehead torpedoes then being developed there. Albrecht von Stosch, the commander in chief of the new Imperial German Navy, approved a plan to develop a torpedo arm for the German fleet a part of his fleet plan of 1872. Stosch envisioned a variety of torpedo craft, including small torpedo boats for use in coastal areas and larger vessels capable of operating at sea. He placed Monts in charge of the program in 1873. That year, Stosch's naval construction program called for a tender for the new torpedo boats. Because German firms had no experience building a ship of this type, the navy placed an order from the British firm the Thames Iron Works, which was to be built to the firm's design. The new vessel, named Zieten after the 18th century cavalry commander Hans Joachim von Zieten, was to be the last major warship purchased by the German navy from a foreign shipyard.

In addition to the planned role as a tender for torpedo boats, she was also intended to serve as a test platform for the new self-propelled torpedo. Up to the mid-1870s, the German navy had only experimented with a handful of torpedo ships, all of which were equipped with the old spar torpedo. Zieten spent much of her early career taking part in experiments with early torpedoes and as a tender for torpedo boats. The ship's design provided the basis for both later German avisos—the Blitz class—and all subsequent light cruisers, but also inspired numerous foreign designs, such as several classes of French, Italian, and Austrian avisos and torpedo craft.

Zieten was 69.5 meters (228 ft) long at the waterline and 79.4 m (260 ft 6 in) long overall. She had a beam of 8.56 m (28 ft 1 in) and a draft of 3.8 m (12 ft 6 in) forward. She displaced 1,001 metric tons (985 long tons; 1,103 short tons) as designed and up to 1,170 t (1,150 long tons; 1,290 short tons) at full load. The hull was constructed with transverse iron frames and contained eight watertight compartments. Initially, Zieten had only a small bridge forward, but in 1899, a new superstructure was built; it included a conning tower with a compass platform. A chart house was also added forward of the funnel.

Zieten was a good sea boat with a gentle motion, but she was very crank. She was very maneuverable, but she handled poorly in a head sea. In bad weather, she took on considerable amounts of water and was very dangerous. The ship had a crew of 6 officers and 88 enlisted men, though later in her career the figure rose to 7 and 99, respectively. During her career as a fishery protection ship, the number of enlisted sailors rose further, to 104. Zieten carried a number of smaller boats: one picket boat, one cutter, two yawls, and one dinghy. Later in her career, the picket boat was removed and two barges were added.

The ship's propulsion system consisted of two horizontal 2-cylinder double-expansion steam engines manufactured by John Penn and Sons. The engines drove two 3-bladed propellers that were 3.05 m (10 ft) wide in diameter. Steam was provided by six coal-fired, cylindrical fire-tube boilers, also manufactured by John Penn and Sons, which were vented through a single funnel amidships. The boilers were replaced with new models in 1891 during a refit at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel. As built, Zieten was fitted with a schooner rig with a sail area of 355 square meters (3,820 sq ft) to supplement her steam engines, but this was later reduced to only an auxiliary gaff sail.

The engines were rated at 2,000 metric horsepower (1,970 ihp), but only managed to reach 1,807 metric horsepower (1,782 ihp) at maximum power. With the new boilers, the engines reached 2,376 metric horsepower (2,343 ihp). Her top speed as designed was to have been 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph), but with her original boilers, she could make 15.9 knots (29.4 km/h; 18.3 mph) at full power. This speed nevertheless made Zieten the fastest ship in the German fleet. With the new boilers, she could steam at up to 16.3 knots (30.2 km/h; 18.8 mph). Zieten could carry up to 130 t (130 long tons; 140 short tons) of coal, which allowed her to steam for 1,770 nautical miles (3,280 km; 2,040 mi) at a cruising speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph). During the refit, she also had one electricity generator, with an output of 10 kilowatts (13 hp) at 67 volts, installed.