SMS Bremen
The new light cruisers oft he
Bremen-class succeeded the
Gazelle-class light cruisers. They originated in the naval law of 1898, which required the building of 30 new light cruisers, the previous
Gazelle-class filling up the first ten slots. Compared to their predecessors they were longer, faster and had heavier armour. The more powerful propulsion systems required a third funnel and, but the armament stayed the same with ten 105mm SKL/40 cannons and 2 underwater torpedo tubes. Most importantly, the
Bremen-class started the tradition of naming light cruisers after cities, a tradition which lasted until the end of WW2.
Bremen was ordered in 1902 and built by AG Weser in Bremen under construction order
L. She was launched on July 9th, 1909 and commissioned on May 19th, 1904. She spent most of her career on posts in the colonies or abroad, her first assignment was the East American Station, replacing SMS
Gazelle. Among its crewmembers was Wilhelm Canaris, who would later become head of the
Abwehr, the German military intelligence.
The numerous visits of American ports included representing Germany among the international fleet delegations, like during the anniversary celebration of Chesapeake Bay on Aril 26th, 1907 together with the armored cruiser
Roon. Another big celebration for the United States were the Hudson-Fulton Celebrations from September 25th to October 9th 1909, celebration the 300th anniversary of the discovery of the Husdon river by Henry Hudson and the 100th anniversary of the first successful application of a paddle steamer by Robert Fulton. Germany was represented by the cruisers
Bremen,
Dresden,
Hertha and
Victoria Louise.
On May 30th, 1912, a German Fleet arrived at Hampton Roads, Virginia, consisting of battlecruiser
Moltke and the light cruisers
Bremen and
Stettin. They were greeted by President Taft onboard USS
Mayflower and toured the East Coast for two weeks before returning home. In December 1912
Bremen was ordered to Liberia to support the gunships
Eber and
Panther after riots had broken out. The cruiser returned to the East American station in January of 1913 and was recalled home in September. However, her successor, light cruiser
Dresden, was not yet ready so while stopping at Madeira,
Bremen had to turn around to deal with riots in Mexico, where she remained until January 21st, 1914. While she was then replaced by
Dresden, her return home was once again delayed because riots broken out in Haiti.
Bremen finally set course for home on February 13th and arrived there on March 18th. The cruiser was decommissioned around a week later for a major overhaul and refit.
The refit included new funnels and a new cruiser bow. The four fore- and aft mounted 105mm cannons were replaced by two 150mm cannons, at the same time, the masts were moved in a similar position to the later
Bremen-class cruisers and teh later
Königsberg-class. Those masts had new enclosed spotting tops and double the number of searchlights: two at the main mast and two side-by-side at the fore mast. A small radio hut was installed between the two aft funnels, machinery and rangefinding equipment were overhauled and modernised.
Bremen rejoined the fleet on May 27th, 1915 as part of the IV. Squadron.
In August 1915,
Bremen participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga for which the Germans had assembled 4 battleships, 3 battlecruisers, 6 cruisers and 56 torpedo boats.. On August 8th,
Bremen saved the crew of
T52 after the ship had hit a mine and on August 17th, the cruiser was part of the main strike force consisting of the battleships
Nassau and
Posen, the cruisers
Graudenz,
Augsburg,
Bremen and
Pillau and 31 torpedo boats. Despite scoring hits against their main opponent, the Russian battleship
Slava, the Germans retreated after the attack of Allied submarines.
On the evening of December 17th, 1915,
Bremen left the harbour of Windau together with torpedoboats
V191 and
V186. At 17:10,
V191 struck a mine and
Bremen moved in to save any survivors. However, during this, the cruiser herself ran into two mines and she sank at 18:04. 250 sailors drowned in the sea while 53 could be rescued by
V186.
SMS Hamburg
Named after the famous harbour city, the second ship of the class was built at AG Vulcan in Stettin under contract name ‘
K’. She was laid down in 1902, launched on July 25th, 1903, commissioned on March 8th 1904 and then assigned to the I. Cruiser Subdivision of the I. Squadron of High Seas Fleet. There
Hamburg served together with
Friedrich Carl,
Arcona and
Frauenlob. Her duty also included several tours as escort for the Imperial Yacht
Hohenzollern, comparison trials with her sister
Lübeck, the first turbine cruiser of the German Navy and supressing riots in Korfu, together with French and British ships in 1909.
Hamburg was withdrawn from active service and put into reserve on September 15th, 1909 and returned to active duty a few years later on July 2nd 1912 as a command ship for the U-Boat flotillas.
With the outbreak of the War,
Hamburg rejoined the active fleet, but retained her role as U-Boat Flotilla flagship. On August 6th, 1914, she and
Stettin escorted U-Boats out into the North Sea to lure out the British Fleet and have them ambushed by said U-Boats. The mission ended without any encounter of British Ships. As part of the IV. Scouting Group,
Hamburg participated in the bombardment of British harbours, once again to lure out parts of the British Fleet and destroy them piece by piece. During one of such encounters,
Hamburg and several other destroyers and cruisers encountered and damaged several British destroyers.
On May 21st, 1915 while travelling on the Weser,
Hamburg rammed torpedo boat S21 and cut it in half.
In 1916
Hambug participated in the Battle of Jutland. As part of the Scouting Forces, she and
V73 escorted the II. Battle Squadron. She did not participate in the early phases of the Battle, but came under fire in the night of May31st, 1916 by British light cruisers. The encounter happened at long range and in poor visibility and
Hamburg fired only one salve, but sustained two hits, killing 14 and wounding 25 more. The cruiser underwent repairs until July 26th, 1916.
By 1917,
Hamburg was no longer fit for frontline service and was used as a barracks ship for the leader of the U-Boats in Wilhelmshaven. She was not handed over to the allies after the end of the war and was decommissioned in 1919.
After the war and the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was allowed to keep eight older light cruisers, including
Hamburg and her sister
Berlin. She rejoined the fleet in 1920 as flagship of the North Sea Security forces and receiving some modifications. The armament remained the same, but the old 105mm L/40 cannons were replaced by the L/45 model. The most visible was walkway installed between the bridge and the forward searchlight platform; three rangefinders were added, one on each bridge wing and one on a platform behind the new aft superstructure.
In 1921
Hamburg escorted a mine sweeping fleet to the White Sea to clear mines laid there by the German auxiliary cruiser
Meteor. In 1922 she became part of the North Sea Squadron together with the battleship
Braunschweig and light cruiser
Arcona. In 1923, her active fleet career ended and the cruiser was assigned to the training forces, where she began her duty in 1924. Over the following years, the front double-searchlight platform was replaced by a single, higher-mounted one and a more concealing spotting top on the mast was added. On February 14th, 1926,
Hamburg’s last big journey began: On a world-spanning training tour, the old cruiser visited the West Indies, Central America, went through Panama up to the North American West Coast, then to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and then through Suez and the Mediterranean back home, arriving on March 20th, 1927. Roughly a month later, on June 30th, she was removed from active duty and placed into reserve. On February 24th, 1931, she was stricken from the naval register.
With the rise of the Nazi Regime, the expansion of the German Armed forces began, which included U-boats. In 1935, the Weddigen Flotilla (later re-designated the 1st U-boat flotilla) was formed and stationed in Kiel. Aside from the six Type IIB U-boats, the flotilla included the tender
Saar and an old WW1 torpedo boat. In 1936,
Hamburg returned to her former duties as U-boat support ship, this time, however, as barracks ship, assigned to the Weddigen Flotilla. The old cruiser had been stripped down to the basic hull, some gaps filled up with additional panelling.
Hamburg continued her service in this form for the years to come, even when the war began. It was not until mid-1944 that she was finally stricken from the naval register. She was towed to her namesake town Hamburg on July 7th to be scrapped, however a British bombing raid hit the old hulk and sunk her on July 27th. The wreck remained there until 1949 when
Hamburg was raised and ultimately scrapped in 1956, completing a career of almost fifty years.
SMS Berlin
The cruiser
Berlin was ordered in 1902 as
Ersatz Zieten, replacing the old Aviso of 1876. She was built at the Imperial Dockyard (Kaiserliche Werft) in Danzig and launched on September 22nd, 1903 and commissioned on April 4th, 1905. She (and her sister
München) had a stubbier bow and a single-mast compass podest.
Berlin served initially as an escort ship for the Kaiser's yacht
Hohenzollern. During those months she participated in a visit to Russia, where Tsar Nicholas II. himself visited the cruiser. The meeting of the Kaiser and the Tsar would ultimately result in the Treaty of Björkö.
In August,
Berlin was assigned to the regular fleet's scouting forces, replacing the older cruiser
Amazone and taking over most of her crew in the process.
Berlin continued her service in the fleet's scouting forces for the following years, participating in manoeuvres in the Baltic, North Sea, Skagerrak and the Atlantic. Her appearance had changed slightly, with a raised forward searchlight platform and rebuilt masts.
The year 1911 was the year of the Second Morocco Crisis. France occupied several points in the country and fought local uprisings that threatened the reigning Sultan. Shortly afterwards, the famous German gunboat
Panther arrived in Agadir on July 1st, 1911. She had been on her way home from Cameroon to Germany and was scheduled to coal in Morocco. Agadir was chosen as port, far south from Casablanca and Mogador and the French troops.
Three days after the arrival of
Panther, the German cruiser
Berlin in Agadir. On the 19th, the German gunboat
Eber joined them and
Panther continued on her way to Germany on the 20th, where she would receive a major overhaul. French troops came dangerously close to the German ships when they occupied the fort overlooking the harbour at the end of July. For many young officers onboard
Berlin this was open provocation, but the captain refrained from any hostile actions. The international crisis and near-confrontation between the European superpowers was eventually resolved between the diplomats in Paris and Berlin, resulting in the Treaty of Fez on November 4th, 1911.
Berlin and
Eber remained in Agadir until November 28th. On her way home to Germany,
Berlin hit a storm in Bay of Biscay and did not arrive until December 14th.
After returning to the Recon Forces, the cruiser was retired the following year with most of her crew moving to the new cruiser SMS
Straßburg.
With the outbreak of the war,
Berlin was reactivated and put into the IV. Recon Group. In this position, she mostly performed guard and picket duties in the North Sea, before being transferred to the Baltic in late 1915. After a short stint there, replacing her sister
Bremen, she returned to the Recon Forces and the North Sea in January of 1916.
Berlin did not participate in the Battle of Jutland because at the time she was in drydock for over two months. In October of 1916 she came under attack from the British submarine
E38, which missed with her torpedoes, but damaged her sister
München instead. The cruiser survived but had to be tugged back by
Berlin. In 1917
Berlin was transferred to Danzig where she was decommissioned, disarmed and used as a tender for the remainder of the war.
Berlin was one of the six remaining active cruisers of the new Weimar Republic after the war and was reactived in 1919 as s training ship for stokers. In 1921-1922 the cruiser was rebuilt, even more so than her sister
Hamburg:
The old ramming bow was replaced with a cruiser bow, which included the removal of the forward casemates. The bridge wings were extended and rangefinders installed, the bridge itself was connected with the mast with a bridge. The mast itself received an enclosed spotting platform and the number of forward searchlights was reduced to one. The compass platform was removed and the aft superstructure extended with another rangefinder platform. All the 105mm SK L/40 were replaced with the L/45 model, although she now only had eight of them. The underwater torpedo tubes were removed and instead two deck-mounted tubes behind the middle guns were added. Interestingly, the small aft casemates were kept, although they had been removed on her sister
Hamburg.
Returning to the fleet as a training cruiser,
Berlin made several training tours to foreign lands, including Spain, Portugal, East Asia and South America.
Berlin was also the first ship to visit Australia since the end of the war in 1928. On March 27th, 1929, after returning from her last world tour, she was deactivated once again and put into reserve, her crew moving over to the new cruiser
Karlsruhe.
From 1936 onwards and during World War 2, the cruiser was used as a depot ship in Kiel. She survived the war and was handed over to the British, who loaded the ship with gas ammunition and sunk it in the Skagerrak.
SMS Lübeck
Lübeck was named after the city of Lübeck in northern Germany and was the fourth ship of the
Bremen-class. Ordered as Ersatz
Mercur (a replacement for an old sail-powered corvette of 1852), she was laid down in 1903 at the AG Vulcan Stettin, launched on March 26th, 1904 and commissioned on April 26th, 1905. She was the first ship in the German Navy to have steam turbines instead of steam piston engines. Instead oft wo drive shafts like her sisters, she had four drive shafts and no less than eight screws. The new engines were of course problematic, which caused her commissioning to be delayed due to extensive trial runs (for example,
Berlin only had around six months between launch and comissioning, while
Lübeck had thirteen).
After comissioning she underwent trials to compare the new and old engines and unfortunately
Lübeck could not achieve the higher top speed that was hoped for. The turbines were also less efficient, so she also had a shorter range (3,800nm/12kn compared to the usual 4,300sm/12kn of her sisters). The number of screws was reduced as well, replacing the eight small screws with four slightly larger ones.
The trials lasted until October 30th, 1905, when the cruiser together with seven torpedo boats was ordered to St. Petersburg in the eastern Baltic Sea. Together with social unrest, the railway workers had gone on strike and disrupted the mail transport, so the torpedo boats took over.
Lübeck remained on station, ready to evacuate the Tsar and his family should the situation become dire. After two weeks, however, the crisis had calmed down and the German ships returned home. The cruiser continued trials and training until August 22nd, 1906 and was then assigned to the scouting fleets.
Another military operation happened for the cruiser in 1909, when she and her sister
Hamburg were sent to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to protect the Christian minorities in the Osman Empire.
After ending up in the reserve fleet in 1911, SMS
Lübeck was reactivated with the outbreak of World War I.
Lübeck was assigned to coastal protection in the Baltic, where she participated in the defence of Memel, with her sailor fighting on land. In 1915, with the Golice-Tarnow-Offensive,
Lübeck, together with
Thetis first bombarded Libau in a diversionary attack and a few days later supported the German Army when they took the city for good. For the attack on May 7th, the Imperial Navy had assembled the armored cruisers
Prinz Heinrich,
Roon,
Prinz Adalbert, the battleship
Beowulf, the light cruisers
Lübeck,
Augsburg,
Thetis, several destroyers and torpedo boats as well as the entire IV. Scouting Group for cover.
During the Gotland Raid,
Lübeck,
Augsburg,
Roon and seven destroyers had escorted the minelayer
Albatross on a minelaying operation. On the way back, the German flotilla had split up and
Albatross,
Augburg and three destroyers were caught by a superior Russian squadron consisting of the cruisers
Admiral Makarov,
Bayan,
Oleg and
Bogatyr. Upon contact,
Roon and
Lübeck came for help, while
Augsburg and
Albatross ran for neutral Swedish waters. The ligt cruisers escaped, but the minelayer ran aground.
Roon and
Lübeck briefly engaged the Russian armored cruiser
Rurik, which had come to reinforce, and
Lübeck managed to score eight hits while taking none. Meanwhile, the German reinforcements consisting of
Prinz Adalbert and
Prinz Heinrich were intercepted by the British submarine HMS
E9, which managed to hit, but not sink,
Prinz Adalbert.
During the rest of 1915,
Lübeck was attacked twice by submarines, once by the Russian
Gepard and once by the British
E8, but managed to evade the torpedo spread each time. Transferring from Libau to Kiel in January of 1916,
Lübeck hit a mine at the height of Cape Rixhöft (Cape Rozewie) on January 13th, damaging rudder and screws and causing the foremast to crash on the bridge. Two men were killed and five others, including the Captain, were injured. The torepdo boat
V189 and afterwards the tug
Weichsel tugged the cruiser to Danzig, where she was decommissioned on January 28th. After reviewing the damage, it was decided to reactivate the cruiser and refit her.
After being tugged to Stettin for said refit, which was probably the most extensive of all of the
Bremen-class cruisers: Four 105mm cannons fore and aft were replaced with two 150mm cannons, the casemates were removed, all remaining guns were now on platforms (and the new L/45 model). Torpedo tubes were moved on deckBow, funnels, mast and superstructure were replaced by modern designs, making her appearance very similar to the new
Brummer-class minelaying cruisers, a result that was intentional.
Lübeck now even had the capacity to carry 50 mines.
First trials were conducted on December 15th/16th 1916, but due to the lack of personnel, she remained in reserve. In March 1917,
Lübeck returned to active duty as U-boat training- and target-ship only to be retired a year later on March 8th, 1918. Her crew was required to man the new cruiser-carrier, the recently rebuild
Stuttgart.
After the war the cruiser was handed over to the British as a war prize. She was stricken on November 5th, 1919, ceded to the British as ship “
P” on September 3rd, 1920 but scrapped in Germany in 1922/1923.
SMS München
Named after the well-known and famous capital city of Bavaria, she was laid down as cruiser “M” at AG Weser in 1903. The launch was on April 30th, 1904 at the presence of both Prinz Ludwig of Bavaria and Hofrat Freiherr von Borscht, first mayor of Munich. After fitting out,
München was commissioned on January 10th, 1905.
She was assigned to the Torpedo Insepction served as a torpedo target ship and testbed for wireless telegraphy, replacing the old cruiser SMS
Nymphe. After an overhaul in the first half of 1907,
München was host to the Kaiser himself while he observed the presentation of the new submarine
U1. After a short stint the III. Scouting Squadron in 1908, the rest of the peace years were uneventful for
München, except in 1910, when she collided with torpedo boat
S122. By that year, her appearance had changed slightly, with modified masts and searchlight platforms.
With the outbreak of the war, the cruiser was assigned to the IV. Scouting Group. While transferring to Kiel on August 28th, 1914, she and her sister
Danzig became late participants in the First Battle of Heligoland Bight, but did not see any direct action.
During the Battle of Jutland
München was first tasked with escorting the III. Battle Squadron together with
S54. Later, she and
Stettin encountered the British 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron.
München fired 63 shots, which all missed, but she was hit twice in return, one shell hitting her third funnel and damaging her boilers.
When the battle intensified during the night, the cruisers of the IV. Scouting Group encountered HMS
Southampton and HMS
Dublin. The result were two badly damaged British cruisers, while in turn the German cruiser
Frauenlob was hit and sunk by a torpedo.
München barely evaded the sinking wreck, and hat also received a hit to her second funnel as well as numerous splinter damage and a (temporary) ruined steering.
What followed were two friendly fire incidents, first she and
Stettin opened fire on torpedo boats
G11,
V1 and
V11, mistaking them for the enemy and the second time a few hours later, when the battleships of the II. Squadron opened fire on British submarines. The massive barrages threatened the nearby friendly cruisers until a cease-fire order was given. The last battle action for
München was firing on imaginary submarines in the morning of May 1st, 1916. During the battle the cruiser had fired 161 shots and had been hit five times in return. Eight of her crew had lost their lives and another twenty had been wounded. Repairs would last until June 30th.
In October, the German fleet tried once again to lure out the British fleet with a bombardment of Sunderland. While en route,
München was hit by a torpedo fired from the British submarine
E38, which caused the entire operation to be aborted.
München took heavy damage from the torpedo, taking 500t of water and losing her steam water. First being towed by torpedo boat
V73 and later by her sister
Berlin, she was back operation on the next day. However, after reaching home, it was decided that her battle damage had been too great: The cruiser was retired from active duty and used as a barracks ship for patrol ship crew.
After the war,
München was stricken in November of 1919 from the list of warships handed over to the British as war prize “Q” in 1920 and subsequently scrapped.
SMS Leipzig
The cruiser was ordered under the contract name “
N” and laid down at the AG Weser in 1904. She was launched on March 21st, 1905 and commissioned on on April 20th, 1906. Her first captain was then-Fregattenkapitän Franz Hipper. After a few months in German waters,
Leipzig was outfitted for colonial duties in August 1906, to replace the ageing cruiser
Hansa.. The new cruiser left in September and arrived on November 19th to join the German East-Asia Squadron. At that point the Squadron now consisted of the cruisers
Fürst Bismarck,
Leipzig and
Niobe, the gunboats
Iltis,
Jaguar,
Tiger and
Luchs, the torpedo boats
Taku and
S90 and the river gunboats
Tsingtau,
Vorwärts and
Vaterland.
In June 1907, under Squadron commander Admiral von Coerper
Leipzig, together with
Tiger and
S90 travelled up the Jangtse to inspect German economic interests. Similar travels came in 1908 when Leipzig travelled to ports in the Yellow Sea, Shnaghai and once again up the Jangtse. In November the cruiser also represented Germany at the Japanese Fleet Parade at Kobe.
In February of 1909 unrest broke out in the German colonies of Samoa.
Leipzig was one of the ships sent in response, as were
Arcona,
Jaguar and
Titania. The conflict was resolved relatively quickly by Governor Solf, but
Leipzig remained in the area until June.
Further travels followed: In late 1909 Leipzig and the new flagship
Scharnhorst travelled the Yellow Sea and then spent Christmas together in Hongkong. In early 1910 the two ship and gunboat
Jaguar travelled through South-East Asia, visiting Borneo, Manila, Bangkok and Sumatra, followed by a tour of Japan. In July the cruiser was moved to Hankau to deal with local unrest.
In 1911 the Chinese Civil War broke out and
Leipzig once again was sent to Hankau to support the gunboats
Vaterland and
Tiger. International troops evacuated foreign civilians and the German troops were commanded by Kapitänleutnant Rebensburg, first officer of
Leipzig. Squadron commander von Krosigk joined the Operation on
Iltis together with
S90, but the overall command fell to a Japanese Admiral. During the Civil War until August of 1912
Leipzig travelled between the points of unrest among the Jangtse, Tsingtau and also evacuated German women and children to Shanghai. During one of those visits to Shanghai in 1912
Leipzig could be seen in full parade flags, flying the American Stars and Stripes, presumably for a celebration of an American Holiday.
After resuming regular visiting tours,
Leipzig underwent a massive overhaul and repair job in Tsingtau, after having spent six years on uninterrupted colonial duty. Unlike other ships of her class,
Leipzig always retained her original two-searchlight outfit and never replaced her ornate bow crest like other German ships. The traditional white-and-gold paintjob, however was replaced with standard grey.
In 1914 Leipzig was assigned to the coast of Mexico to replace the light cruiser
Nürnberg and protect German citizens. With the outbreak of the war, Leipzig followed her orders to join up with the rest of the East Asia Squadron. The German refugees on board were handed over to the American cruiser USS
California. Traveling from California back to Mexico and the Galapagos Isles, the cruiser unsuccessfully hunted for British ships, but joined up with the German freighters
Amasis and
Abessinia. The remaining capital ships of the Squadron,
Scharnhorst,
Gneisenau,
Dresden and
Nürnberg as well as the freighters
Anubis and
Karnak joined up with
Leipzig at the Easter Isles on October 17th.
On November 1st came the Battle of Coronel, where
Leipzig engaged the British cruiser HMS
Glasgow.
Leipzig's 105mm cannons, however, could only inflict minor to no damage. Although an overwhelming German victory, the German ships had also lost more than half of their ammunition in the process. The ships tried to resupply in Chile as best as they could before travelling into the Atlantic. Admiral Graf Spee then made the decision to attack Port Stanley on the Falkland Isles, a decision Captain Haun of
Leipzig objected, he preferred to be released for independent cruiser warfare. Nonetheless, the German fleet moved in and was encountered at December 8th, 1914 by a vastly superior British fleet. Leipzig was engaged by cruisers
Cornwall and
Glasgow, a survivor of Coronel. By 7pm Leipzig had shot all of her ammunition and had suffered heavy damage from her opponents. The crew came together to sing the national anthem, but many simply abandoned ship. By 9pm
Leipzig had sunk, only 18 men survived, 315 lost their life. The sinking of
Leipzig was later captured in a rather heroic form by the famous painting “Der letzte Mann” (“The last Man”) by Hans Bohrdt.
SMS Danzig
The last ship of the
Bremen-class was named after the city located in West Prussia on the Baltic coast, today located in Poland and called Gdansk. She was ordered as
Ersatz Alexandrine, a replacement for an old corvette of 1895. In an interesting coincidence, SMS
Alexandrine was later scrapped
in Danzig after being stricken. SMS
Danzig was laid down in 1904 and was launched on September 23rd, 1905. She was christened by the current mayor of Danzig, Dr Ehlers. She joined the German Navy on December 1st, 1907 with most of her crew coming from the old cruiser SMS
Arcona.
In appearance she and her predecessor
Leipzig were much closer to the succeeding
Königsberg-class: The mast was already integrated into the bridge, the funnels much straighter and the ramming bow less prominent. In terms of weapons, nothing had changed.
After commissioning,
Danzig served in the High Seas Fleet's Scouting forces.
In 1910 was transferred from the Scouting Forces to the Inspection of Ship Artillery, where she served as a training ship. During her years as training ships there were several collisions with other ships, for example the torpedo boat
S76 in October of 1910. In July of 1914
Danzig was assigned as a guard ship for the harbour of Kiel.
With the outbreak of the War,
Danzig was assigned to the II. Scouting Group and returned to the North Sea, but shortly afterwards she was moved to the IV. Scouting Group and would return to the Baltic. While awaiting transfer through the Kiel Channel together with her sister
München, the First Battle of the Heligoland Bight happened. The two cruisers were called in as possible reinforcements, but
Danzig did not participate in any combat actions, because she was busy rescuing survivors from the light cruiser
Ariadne.
In May of 1915, the IV. Scouting Group, consisting of
Danzig,
München,
Stettin,
Stuttgart and 21 torpedo boats, participated in the Battle of Libau, where they bombarded Russian land forces.
München briefly encountered Russian ships, but both sides did not press for an encounter, unsure of each other's strength.
Danzig returned to the North Sea fleet.
After hitting a mine on May 15th, the cruiser spent several months in dry dock for repairs, with most of her crew manning the cruiser
Frauenlob.
Danzig returned to service on November 13th, once again in the Baltic Sea, but on November 25th, she again hit a mine, receiving heavy damage to shafts and rudder. In both cases she was towed back by her sister
Berlin. During the repairs, which lasted for six months, the crew was once again transferred to
Frauenlob.
In 1916
Danzig was overhauled, served again in the II. Scouting Group and as guard ship. In 1917, back in the Baltic, she first served as target ship, but in autumn, she participated in the Battle of Moon Sound and the occupation of the Oesel Island. During the battle, once again part of the II Scouting group, she was commanded by Prinz Adalbert, son of the Kaiser. Tasked with screening the main battle fleet,
Danzig's only contribution to the battle was an interception order against Russian destroyers, together with cruisers
Königsberg and
Nürnberg.
After that, she was transferred to the reserve and used as target ship.
Danzig survived the war and was stricken on November 9th, 1919 and given to Great Britain as prize “R” on September 15th, 1920 and scrapped over the following years.