These two cruisers were, once again, only slightly improved versions of their predecessors. Improvements in the boiler room layout made it possible to lose one stack, giving them a different silhouette with only three of them. Their original twelve 10,5cm guns were replaced during the war by seven 15cm guns, making them the only class of modern small cruiser with only one gun on the foredeck. They entered fleet service in 1914 and 1915.