This class of German torpedo boats was the largest class of ships of this type build by the German Hochseeflotte. Being the workhorse of the torpedo boat flotillas, they saw intensive action in the North and Baltic sea.

Compared to their predecessors, the  Großes Torpedoboot (Design 1911) on which the general design of these boats was based, the Grosses Torpedoboot 1913 was slightly enlarged, their main improvement was the addition of a  third 8,8 cm (later 10,5 cm) gun and the doubled number of torpedo tubes. Some boats were modified during the war to transport 1-2 float planes.

Because of their intensive use, many of the boats got lost during the war, either through enemy gunfire or mine hits. The surviving boats were interned at Scapa Flow and scuttled with the other ships of the Hochseeflotte. Most of them were raised and scrapped in the 1920s.