The four ships saw extensive service during World War I. Königsberg conducted commerce warfare in the Indian Ocean before being trapped in the Rufiji River and sunk by British warships.

Nürnberg was part of the East Asia Squadron, and participated in the Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands.

The 1898 Naval Law authorized the construction of thirty new light cruisers by 1904;[1] the Gazelle and Bremen classes filled the requirements for the first seventeen vessels.

The Königsberg design followed the same general parameters as the two earlier classes, but with significant improvements in terms of size and speed.

Like the Bremens, one member of the Königsberg class, Stettin, was fitted with steam turbines to evaluate their performance compared to traditional triple-expansion engines.

[2][3] The first vessel, Königsberg, was authorized in 1904 and the remaining members of the class, Nürnberg, Stettin, and Stuttgart, were allocated to the 1905 fiscal year.

[4] In December 1904, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the state secretary of the Reichsmarineamt (RMA—Imperial Navy Office) issued a report to Kaiser Wilhelm II advising him that before work began on the 1905 cruisers, the early battles of the Russo-Japanese War would be evaluated for lessons that could be incorporated into the new vessels.

This change necessitated a rearranging of the coal storage bunkers, so the three 1905 cruisers had to be lengthened by 2 m (6 ft 7 in) compared to the lead ship.

[6] The first three Königsberg-class ships' propulsion system consisted of two 3-cylinder triple expansion engines rated at 13,200 indicated horsepower (9,800 kW) for a top speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph).

Stettin was instead equipped with a pair of Parsons steam turbines, rated at 13,500 shaft horsepower (10,100 kW) and a top speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph).

Königsberg could steam for 5,750 nautical miles (10,650 km; 6,620 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), while the other three ships' ranges were considerably shorter.

Königsberg was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel in 1905, launched on 12 December 1905, and commissioned into the German Navy on 6 April 1907.

Stettin was the only ship of the class built by a private shipbuilding firm, by AG Vulcan in her namesake city.

At the outbreak of war, Königsberg was stationed in German East Africa; she was ordered to begin raiding British commerce in the region.

[17] Nürnberg was still assigned to the East Asia Squadron under Admiral Maximilian von Spee when war broke out.

Initially based in Qingdao, China, the squadron crossed the Pacific in an attempt to raid British commerce off South America.

[18] The ship saw action at the Battle of Coronel in November 1914 where a British squadron attempted to intercept the German flotilla.