SMS Kaiser Wilhelm II was the second ship of the Kaiser Friedrich III class of pre-dreadnought battleships. She was built at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven and launched on 14 September 1897. The ship was commissioned into the fleet as its flagship on 13 February 1900. Kaiser Wilhelm II was armed with a main battery of four 24-centimeter (9.45 in) guns in two twin turrets. She was powered by triple expansion engines that delivered a top speed of 17.5 knots.

The Kaiser Friedrich III class consisted of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Imperial German Navy; all ships of the class were named for German emperors. The ships were Kaiser Friedrich III, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, Kaiser Barbarossa, and Kaiser Karl der Grosse, all built between 1895 and 1901. The class saw the introduction of the traditional armament layout for German battleships prior to the advent of the dreadnought type of battleship in the early 1900s: four large-caliber guns, but of comparatively smaller size compared to their contemporaries, in two gun turrets. The German adoption of smaller guns was a result of a preference for higher volumes of fire over weight of shell. The Kaiser Friedrich III class also standardized the use of three screws for battleships and introduced water-tube boilers and Krupp cemented armor.