SMS Greif was a German cargo steamship that was converted into a merchant raider for the Imperial German Navy. Built as Guben, she was a 4,962 GRT steel-hulled ship owned by the German-Australian Line (DADG), Hamburg. She was converted for naval service at Kaiserliche Werft Kiel in 1915 and commissioned as Greif on 23 January 1916. She sailed from the Elbe port of Cuxhaven on 27 February 1916 under the command of Fregattenkapitän Rudolf Tietze (born 13 September 1874). The Royal Navy had learned of Greif's sailing and was waiting in the North Sea.