SMS Geier was an unprotected cruiser of the Kaiserliche Marine launched on 18 October 1894 and commissioned on 24 October 1895.

SMS Geier began her career assigned to the Caribbean and then the west coast of America.  In 1900, she was sent to Ostafrikanische Station during the Boxer Rebellion, and remained there until returning to Germany for repairs in 1905.

Following those repairs, she saw service in East Africa and the Mediterranean.  In 1914, she was ordered back to China, but World War I broke out while she was en route.  She crossed the central Pacific in an attempt to link up with the East Asia Squadron, but ran into mechanical problems and a shortage of coal, so she put into Honolulu, Hawaii, where she was interned.  In April 1917, with the US entry into WWI, she was seized by the US and renamed USS Schurz.  As Schurz, she sank following a collision with a freighter off the coast of North Carolina on 21 June 1918.