Armed with a main battery of nine 15 cm (5.9 in) guns in three triple turrets, Leipzig had a top speed of 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph).

In the first year of World War II, she performed escort duties for warships in the Baltic and North seas.

In October 1944, Leipzig was accidentally rammed by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen; the damage was so severe that the navy decided complete repairs were unfeasible.

[1][2] Her propulsion system consisted of two steam turbines and four 7-cylinder MAN two-stroke double-acting diesel engines,[1] which were the basis for the unsuccessful US Navy Hooven-Owens-Rentschler design.

[4] It had originally been intended to equip the cruiser with an anti-aircraft battery of two twin 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK C/25 guns.

[1] The ship trained extensively in the Baltic Sea throughout 1932 and 1933, and also made several goodwill cruises overseas.

In 1934, she and the cruiser Königsberg made the first goodwill visit to the United Kingdom since the end of World War I.

An aircraft catapult was installed on the aft superstructure and a crane for handling float planes replaced one of her boat derricks.

The following month, she joined the battleship Gneisenau, the cruiser Deutschland, and several destroyers and U-boats for major exercises in the Atlantic.

[11] At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Leipzig was assigned to the blocking force that was intended to prevent the escape of the Polish Navy from the Baltic; they were unsuccessful.

She joined Deutschland, Köln, and three torpedo boats for a sweep in the Skagerrak for Allied shipping on 21–22 November.

[12] On 13 December, Leipzig was tasked with escorting a flotilla of destroyers and other small vessels as they proceeded through the Skagerrak to lay a minefield.

While en route, the British submarine HMS Salmon attacked the German warships, and at 11:25, hit Leipzig with a torpedo.

[13] While en route back to Germany on 14 December, Nürnberg and Leipzig came under attack from the British Royal Air Force (RAF).

Gruppe (2nd group) of Jagdgeschwader 77 (JG 77—77th Fighter Wing) under the leadership of Oberstleutnant Carl-Alfred Schumacher in the vicinity of Spiekeroog and Wangerooge.

After she returned to the Baltic, she and the cruiser Emden provided artillery support to advancing German ground forces during Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.

[20] Leipzig returned to Kiel in October, and conducted maneuvers with the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer.

At the time of collision, Leipzig was switching from her diesel cruise engines to her steam turbine main engines, a process of first uncoupling the diesels from the shafts and then coupling turbines to the shafts, which left the ship temporarily without propulsion, drifting out of her fairway into the path of Prinz Eugen which was moving the opposite direction.

The damage was so severe that repairs were deemed impractical, especially considering Germany's pressing military situation by late 1944.

On 24 March, Leipzig was moved to Hela, laden with refugees; she was capable of steaming at only 6 knots (11 km/h; 6.9 mph).