After entering service in 1890, "Kaiser Franz Joseph I" served with the fleet in home waters, including the voyage to northern Europe with "Tiger" in 1890, while "Kaiserin Elisabeth" made a circumnavigation of the globe in 1892–1893 with Archduke Franz Ferdinand aboard. Both ships visited Germany for the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in 1895. "Kaiser Franz Joseph I" went to East Asia in 1897 before returning to take part in the international squadron off Crete and "Kaiserin Elisabeth" was sent to China to help suppress the Boxer Rebellion in 1899. After the rebellion, Austria-Hungary received a concession in Tianjin, which prompted the Navy to keep one of the two members of the class on station through the 1910s. "Kaiserin Elisabeth" was there at the start of World War I and she moved to join German forces in Tsingtao; during the ensuing siege, she was disarmed to strengthen the land defenses of the port and her crew went ashore to fight as infantry. The ship was ultimately scuttled to avoid capture by the Allied forces. "Kaiser Franz Joseph I", meanwhile, was used as a guard ship in Cattaro Bay for the duration of the war. After the Cattaro Mutiny in early 1918, the vessel was reduced to a barracks ship. She sank in Cattaro Bay in 1919 before she had been allocated to the Allies, and was eventually scrapped in 1967.