Completed in 1935, her experimental high-pressure steam turbines, which were installed to test them before they were used in destroyers, required significant modifications and the ship finally entered service in 1937.

Gunnery training duties followed from August 1941 until March 1942, when she was reduced to a headquarters ship for the commander of naval forces based in occupied Norway; she served in this capacity for the rest of the war.

[1] The ship's propulsion system consisted of two high-pressure geared turbines manufactured by Blohm & Voss, with steam provided by two Benson water-tube boilers that were ducted into a single raked funnel.

[1][2] The ship was built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg; her keel was laid down in June 1934 under the provisional name "Flottentender 'C'" (fleet tender).

The work was carried out between 3 October 1936 and 13 March 1937, after which the ship conducted a long-range test cruise to Iceland in July, which was completed without problems.

In October, she carried Generalfeldmarschall (General Field Marshal) Werner von Blomberg, the Minister of War on a visit to Norway, cruising as far north as Nordkapp.

[4] Grille next carried the Wehrmacht (Defense Force) delegation to represent Germany for the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in mid-May 1937.

Another naval review was held on 22 August for the launching ceremony for the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, during which Grille hosted Hitler and his entourage, which included Miklós Horthy, the Regent of Hungary, who was visiting Germany at the time.

[3] During the Kiel Week sailing regatta in June 1939, Grille hosted Raeder and several foreign naval officers.

The next day, the German high command cancelled the operation outright and Grille was immediately transferred back to the gunnery school.

During Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which began in June 1941, Grille was again assigned to the minelayer command.

She was decommissioned in March 1942 and on 24 August, was assigned as a stationary headquarters ship for the commander of naval forces in occupied Norway.

[7] According to the naval historians J. J. Colledge and Ben Warlow, Grille returned to northern Germany at some point after the war, and it was there that she was occupied by British forces, in August 1945.

In April 1951, she was sold for scrap to the North American Smelting and Refining Company and was transferred to the Doan Salvage Yard in Bordentown, New Jersey.

The yacht's toilet was one of many relics scattered throughout New Jersey, before it was purchased by British military memorabilia collector, Bruce Crompton.

[13][14] A blood transfusion kit taken from the Grille forms part of the permanent collection of the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds, Britain.

[15] In October 2020 a Maryland auctioneer announced they would offer for sale a large aluminum globe-shaped bar with five barstools from the yacht.