The Kaiserliche Marine considered sending the two ships to attack convoys in the Atlantic Ocean, but the difficulties associated with refueling at sea convinced the Germans to abandon the plan.

At the start of World War I in August 1914, the German firm AG Vulcan had a set of four steam turbines that had been ordered by the Imperial Russian Navy for the cruiser Svetlana.

Her propulsion system consisted of two sets of 33,000-shaft-horsepower (25,000 kW) steam turbines powered by two coal-fired and four oil-fired Marine-type water-tube boilers, which were ducted into three funnels.

The failure of the operation (coupled with the action of 19 August 1916) convinced the German naval command to abandon its aggressive fleet strategy.

In addition to damaging British shipping, Scheer sought to divert escorts from the Atlantic theater, where his U-boats were concentrated.

Their high speed and large radius of action, coupled with their resemblance to British light cruisers, made them suited to the task.

[14] Half an hour after dawn, Brummer and Bremse attacked the convoy about 70 nautical miles (130 km; 81 mi) east of Lerwick.

The convoy consisted of twelve merchantmen and was escorted by the destroyers HMS Strongbow and Mary Rose and a pair of armed trawlers.

None of the ships were able to send a wireless report, and despite having a squadron of sixteen light cruisers at sea to the south of the convoy, the British did not learn of the attack until 16:00, when it was too late.

[3] In the aftermath of the battle off Lerwick, the Admiralstab considered sending Brummer and Bremse on a commerce raiding mission into the Atlantic.

Nevertheless, the preliminary planning carried out formed the basis for later work that resulted in the deployment of long-range surface raiders during World War II.

[17][18] In November, Brummer joined the light cruiser Stralsund and several torpedo boats for a sweep out to the Dogger Bank, but they encountered no British vessels.

[15][20] Brummer laid a defensive minefield in the German Bight in June 1918 over the course of two separate operations, first alone and the second assisted by the light cruiser Strassburg.

The local soldatenrat (soldier's council) ordered Brummer to return to Kiel, but Gorrissen refused and instead placed his ship out of commission on 7 November.

[10][21] Along with the most modern units of the High Seas Fleet, Brummer and Bremse were included in the ships specified for internment at Scapa Flow by the victorious Allied powers in the terms of the armistice with Germany that ended the fighting.

Reuter believed that the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June 1919, which was the deadline for Germany to have signed the peace treaty.

On the morning of 21 June, the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers, and at 11:20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships.

[6] In 2017, marine archaeologists from the Orkney Research Center for Archaeology conducted extensive surveys of Brummer and nine other wrecks in the area, including six other German and three British warships.