Boxer Uprising

Illustration of Fürst Bismarck

In Singapore on 4 August, the ship received orders to escort the troop ships Frankfurt and Wittekind to Qingdao, the capital of the German Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory in China. The three ships arrived there on 13 August, and four days later, Vizeadmiral (VAdm—Vice Admiral) Emil Felix von Bendemann, the commander of the East Asia Squadron, transferred his flag from the protected cruiser Hertha to Fürst Bismarck. At the time, in addition to Hertha, the squadron consisted of the protected cruisers Hansa, Kaiserin Augusta, and Irene and the unprotected cruisers Gefion and Seeadler, the latter having arrived in the region just days before Fürst Bismarck. Not long after Fürst Bismarck reached Hong Kong, the Detached Division, which consisted of the four pre-dreadnought battleships of the Brandenburg class and the aviso Hela arrived with additional troop ships. The squadron was further reinforced over the following month with the cruisers Geier, Schwalbe, and Bussard, the gunboats Luchs and Tiger, the torpedo boats S90, S91, and S92, and the hospital ship Gera. German forces contributed 24 warships and 17,000 soldiers to the Eight Nation Alliance, which assembled 250 warships and 70,000 soldiers in total to combat the Boxers. An agreement with Russia saw the German Generalfeldmarshall (Field Marshal) Alfred von Waldersee placed in command of the multinational force.^{[12][lower-alpha 3]}

Bendemann decided to implement a blockade of the Yangtze, and so went there with Fürst Bismarck, Gefion, Irene, and the gunboat Iltis, as well as the ships of the Detached Division, though he sent the battleship Wörth to cover the landing of troops at Taku. Landing parties from the ships went ashore in Shanghai to protect Europeans there. Bendemann sent Seeadler and Schwalbe up the Yangtze to protect German, Austro-Hungarian, and Belgian nationals upriver, Bussard to Amoy, and Luchs and S91 to Canton. Bendemann based his flagship in Shanghai, and on 25 September, Hertha arrived with the new German ambassador to China, Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein to meet with Bendemann before proceeding on to Beijing. By this time, Allied forces had seized Beicang at the mouth of the Hai River, but the port frequently froze over in the winter, so additional harbors were necessary to adequately supply the forces fighting ashore. Bendemann therefore took most of his fleet to attack the ports of Shanhaiguan and Qinhuangdao, since they had rail connections to Taku and Beijing. Bendemann issued an ultimatum to surrender to the Chinese defenders of the cities, both of which accepted, allowing the Alliance to take both cities without a fight. On 5 October, Fürst Bismarck steamed to Taku, where she joined Hertha and Hela and the battleships Brandenburg and Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm. Beginning in late October, the naval forces of the Eight Nation Alliance concentrated on the mouth of the Yangtze. Britain and Germany both suspected the other of attempting to secure a permanent occupation of the area, though both suspicions proved to be false. In November, Fürst Bismarck went to Nagasaki, Japan for engine maintenance, temporarily transferring Bendemann to Kaiserin Augusta while she was away for repairs.^[14]

By February 1901, the fighting had decreased to the point that the ships of the East Asia Squadron could resume the normal routine of individual and squadron training exercises. In May, Seeadler was detached to Yap in the Caroline Islands, and in June, Hansa carried Konteradmiral (KAdm—Rear Admiral) Hermann Kirchhoff to Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. Also in June, the Detached Division, Irene, and Gefion returned to Germany. The following month, the East Asia Squadron returned to its normal peacetime footing. Fürst Bismarck visited Japanese ports with Geier, S91, and S92 in mid-1901, and in September, she and S91 visited Port Arthur in Russian Manchuria before returning to Japanese waters in October. Another shipyard period in Nagasaki followed, which included repairs to her frequently-leaky stern. By this time, the Chinese government had signed the Boxer Protocol on 7 September, formally ending the conflict. The experience of projecting significant military power over such a great distance proved to be invaluable to the German army and navy and it made particularly clear the importance of logistics. Accordingly, a maritime transport department was created in the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office) in 1902 under Carl Derzewski.^[15]

1902–1905

Fürst Bismarck in port at some point during her career

Fürst Bismarck completed repairs in Nagasaki on 15 January 1902 and in early February she rendezvoused with Hertha and Bussard in Singapore. There, Bendemann returned to the ship, though days later on 15 February, he turned command of the squadron over to VAdm Richard Geissler. Later that month, the light cruiser Thetis joined the squadron; further changes to the composition of the squadron followed shortly thereafter, with Kaiserin Augusta, S91, and S92 returning to Germany in February and March. In April, Schwalbe, Geier, and Luchs went to Ningbo to protect Europeans from unrest in the city while Fürst Bismarck and the rest of the squadron toured East Asian ports, ranging from Japan to the Dutch East Indies. During this period, they also conducted various training exercises and alternated visits to Qingdao and Japan for periodic maintenance. Schwalbe returned to Germany in September, though her place was taken by Geier. On 25 December, Kaiser Wilhelm II awarded the Schießpreis (Shooting Prize) for excellent gunnery in the East Asia Squadron to Fürst Bismarck.^[16]

In early 1903, Fürst Bismarck anchored off the mouth of the Yangtze with Hansa and Thetis, remaining there until mid-March before proceeding to Qingdao. She remained there until late April, when the squadron conducted training exercises through May, during which Fürst Bismarck again won the Schießpreis. The ship visited Japan in company with Bussard, where Geissler and his staff were received by Emperor Meiji. The two ships then made a visit to the Russian Pacific Fleet, based in Vladivostok, in early August. On 15 November, KAdm Curt von Prittwitz und Gaffron replaced Geissler as the squadron commander, after which Fürst Bismarck returned to Nagasaki for another overhaul in December.^[17]

The year 1904 began with exercises and visits to ports in the region. By this time, tensions between Russia and Japan over their competing interests in Korea had risen considerably, so on 7 January the Admiralstab (Admiralty Staff) instructed Prittwitz und Gaffron to order his ships to observe the strictest neutrality toward both countries. Over the course of 20–23 January, Hansa evacuated German and Austro-Hungarian citizens from Port Arthur and Dalny. Japan severed diplomatic relations with Russia on 5 February and attacked the Russian fleet in Port Arthur in a surprise nighttime attack on 8/9 February without having declared war. On 12 February, Hansa returned to Port Arthur to remove the last of the civilians from the city, and Thetis was sent to Chemulpo to do the same on 21–22 February. After the Battle of the Yellow Sea on 10 August, several damaged Russian ships sought refuge in Qingdao, including the battleship Tsesarevich and the cruiser Novik, where they were interned for the remainder of the Russo-Japanese War. For the rest of the war, Fürst Bismarck and the East Asia Squadron were primarily occupied with enforcing the internment of the ship and destroying Russian naval mines that threatened German shipping.^[18]

During the war, the squadron continued its normal training routine, and Fürst Bismarck won the Schießpreis again that year. She, Hertha, and Seeadler were present in Shanghai for the opening of a German club in the city. In early 1905, riots in China forced most of the squadron to remain in Chinese ports until March. Prittwitz und Gaffron recalled his ships to Qingdao when the Russian Second Pacific Squadron approached the area; following the Battle of Tsushima, where the Russian squadron was annihilated, the German vessels resumed training activities. Later in the year, both Seeadler and Thetis were sent to German East Africa to suppress a rebellion against German rule. By August, a floating dry dock had been completed in Qingdao, allowing the East Asia Squadron to repair its ships itself; Fürst Bismarck underwent repairs there in October. On 11 November, KAdm Alfred Breusing relieved Prittwitz und Gaffron as commander of the squadron, and in December embarked on a tour of the southern portion of the East Asia Station, though the cruise had to be cut short due to unrest in Shanghai that necessitated Fürst Bismarck's presence there. The ship sent a landing party ashore, along with men from the gunboats Jaguar, Tiger, and Vaterland. The men patrolled the city center and protected the German consulate, but did not take any active role in the unrest.^[19]

1906–1908

In January 1906, Fürst Bismarck began a tour of Indonesia,^[20] after which she went to Hong Kong via North Borneo in late February.^[21] She remained there for almost a month, departing on 23 March to meet the rest of the squadron, which by then could be withdrawn from Shanghai. Fürst Bismarck and Hansa, the only major warships assigned to the squadron by that time, visited Japanese ports in May. On 28 May, Fürst Bismarck went to Taku, where Breusing and his staff traveled overland to Beijing, the first German naval officers to visit the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi after the Boxer Rebellion. Hansa began the voyage back to Germany on 4 July, and on 9 August, the light cruiser Niobe arrived to join the squadron. On 19 November, the light cruiser Leipzig arrived to further strengthen the squadron. Fürst Bismarck and Tiger went on another tour of Indonesia and Japan in early 1907. On 13 May, KAdm Carl von Coerper arrived to replace Breusing; he began his tenure as squadron commander by boarding Tiger for a cruise into the Yangtze to familiarize himself with German economic interests in the area. After returning to Fürst Bismarck, he visited Japan in company with Niobe. During the squadron maneuvers that year, Fürst Bismarck won the Schießpreis for a fourth time.^[20]

The light cruiser Arcona joined the squadron on 23 October, finally bringing the strength of the unit back to its prescribed four cruisers. In January 1908, Fürst Bismarck steamed to Siam, where she was visited by the King of Siam. The rest of the year passed uneventfully for Fürst Bismarck, and in early 1909 she received orders to return to Germany for repairs. The scale of work necessary for the ship, which had been abroad for nine years, was greater than could be done in the floating dock in Qingdao and it would have been too expensive to do elsewhere in Asia. On 8 April, she began the voyage home and she rendezvoused with the new flagship of the East Asia Squadron, the armored cruiser Scharnhorst, in Colombo on 29 April. Fürst Bismarck arrived in Kiel on 13 June, where she was decommissioned on 26 June.^[22]