Nürnberg was the longest-serving major warship of the Kriegsmarine, and the only one to see active service after the end of World War II, though not in a German navy.

In late 1942, a pair of Army-variant 2 cm Flakvierling quadruple mounts were installed, one on the navigating bridge and the other on top of the aft superfiring turret.

Two Navy-pattern Flakvierlings were added; one replaced the Army model atop the aft superfiring turret, and the other was placed in front of the anti-aircraft fire director.

[2] The ship thereafter worked up in the Baltic Sea until April 1936, when she joined Köln and Leipzig for a training cruise into the Atlantic.

[9] Over the course of the conflict, Nürnberg conducted four patrols off Spain, but did not encounter any belligerent forces,[8] with the exception of a claimed attack by an unidentified submarine south of the Balearic Islands on 16 July 1937.

[8] In August, she was present at the fleet review held in Kiel for Adolf Hitler and the visiting regent of Hungary, Miklós Horthy.

After completing the occupation, Nürnberg joined Admiral Graf Spee, Leipzig, and Köln for a training cruise to the Mediterranean Sea, which included several stops in Spanish ports.

[9] At the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, Nürnberg was assigned to the blockade force that was intended to prevent the Polish Navy from escaping from the Baltic.

[8] On 3 September, Nürnberg and the rest of the cruisers were withdrawn to the North Sea to lay a series of defensive minefields to protect the German coastline.

The following month, she was transferred back to the North Sea, where she was tasked with escorting destroyers laying minefields off the British coast.

[10] On 13 December, while escorting a group of destroyers returning from a mine-laying operation off the British coast, the Royal Navy submarine HMS Salmon launched a spread of torpedoes at the German flotilla.

[11] Two torpedo tracks were spotted heading toward Nürnberg, and the ship turned hard to port in an attempt to evade them.

Nürnberg reduced speed to 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) to allow her crew to inspect the damage, when three more torpedo tracks were spotted to port.

The ship immediately accelerated to full speed and turned to starboard; the torpedoes exploded in the cruiser's wake.

The Germans spotted Salmon and briefly engaged her with Nürnberg's rearmost main battery turret, but to no effect.

[12][13] While en route back to Germany on 14 December, Nürnberg and Leipzig, which had also been torpedoed by Salmon, came under further British attacks.

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.

[15][16] The submarine HMS Ursula also unsuccessfully attacked the damaged cruiser that day,[11] just before she entered the Kiel Canal at Brunsbüttel.

[17] In early June 1940, Nürnberg's commander, Kapitän zur See (KzS) Otto Klüber, was informed that the ship would not participate in Operation Juno, a sortie by the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst.

On 12 June, the torpedo boats were sent to Stavanger for fuel, and in the meantime, Nürnberg steamed a zig-zag course at 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) to evade any submarines that might be in the area.

After the outbreak of war with the Soviet Union in June 1941, Nürnberg was reassigned to the Baltic Fleet, which was centered on the new battleship Tirpitz.

She was not assigned to the shore bombardment units that supported the retreating German Army on the Eastern Front, unlike most of the other ships of the Training Squadron.

The forces assigned to the operation included two destroyers, two torpedo boats, and a mine-layer; Nürnberg herself carried 130 mines.

On 24 January, she steamed to Copenhagen, where she remained until the end of the war, as she had only 270 long tons (270 t) of synthetic fuel oil aboard.

[22] On 24 May, Nürnberg and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen sailed from Copenhagen under escort by Devonshire, Dido, and several other warships.

To prevent the Germans from scuttling their ships as they had done in 1919, the Allies formally seized the vessels on 19 December, while Nürnberg was in drydock.

In the early 1950s, three new Chapayev-class cruisers entered service, which prompted the Soviet Navy to withdraw Admiral Makarov from front line duties.