The ship was ordered to serve in Germany's coastal defense system alongside the Sachsen-class ironclads and Wespe-class gunboats.

Brummer's primary armament was a single 21 cm (8.3 in) gun carried in her bow, and she had a top speed of about 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph).

In her first years in service, she served as a flagship for a division of torpedo boats, and she took part in fleet training exercises in that role.

The Wespes had proved to be controversial vessels, owing to their slow speed and tendency to roll badly, which were caused by excessive weight, particularly the very large gun they carried.

[3][4] The ship was armed with a main battery that consisted of a single 21 cm (8.3 in) K L/30 built-up gun in an open barbette mount forward.

After fitting out work was completed later that year, and she was moved to the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Wilhelmshaven to have her armament installed.

They operated along with an armored warship division composed of Bayern, Friedrich Carl, and Hansa, and an unarmored division that comprised three old sail corvettes and the aviso Pfeil for training exercises in the Baltic; this was the first of the so-called "autumn maneuvers" (though they would typically end in late summer or very early autumn).

[8] She was next recommissioned on 2 March 1892 to serve as a tender to the artillery training ship Mars as part of the German navy's gunnery school.

She was also used to train gunners for light automatic weapons, and for that purpose, she had a pair of new quick-firing guns of the 8.8 cm SK L/30 type installed.

Training was carried out in the German Bight and in the western Baltic Sea, and it concluded on 22 December, though Brummer remained in commission through the winter for the first time.

She resumed training duties in mid-February 1901, and at that time she came under the command of KL Heinrich Trendtel, who served as captain until September.

She remained out of service with a reduced crew until 10 January 1905, when she was decommissioned; her role with the gunnery training school had been filled with a modern cruiser.

Brummer was recommissioned for the last time on 14 November 1906 to replace Pfeil as a tender to the main battle fleet, while the latter vessel was in dry dock for periodic maintenance.