Emden spent the majority of her career overseas in the East Asia Squadron, based in Qingdao, in the Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory in China.

Most of the survivors were taken prisoner; the landing party, led by Hellmuth von Mücke, commandeered an old schooner and eventually returned to Germany.

The primary alteration for the two Dresden-class cruisers, assigned to the 1906 fiscal year, consisted of an additional boiler for the propulsion system to increase engine power.

[3] The contract for Emden, ordered as ersatz (replacement) SMS Pfeil,[b] was placed on 6 April 1906 at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard) in Danzig.

[8] The new cruiser began sea trials that day but interrupted them from 11 August to 5 September to participate in the annual autumn maneuvers of the main fleet.

[7] On 1 April 1910 Emden was reactivated and assigned to the Ostasiengeschwader (East Asia Squadron), based at Qingdao in Germany's Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory in China.

The repair work was not carried out; the Sokehs Rebellion erupted on Ponape in the Carolines, which required Emden's presence; she departed Qingdao on 28 December, and Nürnberg left Hong Kong to join her.

[13] In November, Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) Maximilian von Spee replaced Gühler as the commander of the East Asia Squadron.

[14] At the end of the year, Emden won the Kaiser's Schießpreis (Shooting Prize) for excellent gunnery in the East Asia Squadron.

[4][15] In mid-June, Emden went on a cruise to the German colonies in the Central Pacific, and was stationed off Nanjing, as fighting between Qing and revolutionary forces raged there.

Spee decided to take the East Asia Squadron to South America, where it could attempt to break through to Germany, harassing British merchant traffic along the way.

Müller suggested that one cruiser be detached for independent operations in the Indian Ocean, since the squadron would be unable to attack British shipping while it was crossing the Pacific.

To maintain secrecy, Emden's crew rigged up a dummy funnel to impersonate a British light cruiser, then steamed up the coast of Sumatra toward the Indian Ocean.

Vice Admiral Martyn Jerram ordered Hampshire, Yarmouth, and the Japanese protected cruiser Chikuma to search for Emden.

The following day, the British again mandated that shipping stop in the Bay of Bengal; during the first month of Emden's raiding career in the Indian Ocean, the value of exports there had fallen by 61.2 percent.

[23] From Madras, Müller had originally intended to rendezvous with his colliers off Simalur Island in Indonesia, but instead decided to make a foray to the western side of Ceylon.

On 25 September, Emden sank the British merchantmen Tywerse and King Lund two days before capturing the collier Buresk, which was carrying a cargo of high-grade coal.

Emden coaled in the Nicobar Islands and departed for Penang on the night of 27 October, with the departure timed to arrive off the harbor at dawn.

She approached the harbor entrance at 03:00 on 28 October, steaming at 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph), with the fourth dummy funnel erected to disguise her identity.

Emden's lookouts quickly spotted a warship in the port with lights on; it turned out to be the Russian protected cruiser Zhemchug,[26] a veteran of the Battle of Tsushima.

On 30 October, Emden stopped the British steamer Newburn and put the French sailors aboard after they signed statements promising not to return to the war.

Since there were no British vessels in the area, Müller sent ashore a landing party led by Kapitänleutnant (First Lieutenant) Hellmuth von Mücke, Emden's executive officer.

Emden picked up wireless messages from the then unidentified vessel approaching, but believed her to be 250 nautical miles (460 km; 290 mi) away, giving them much more time than they actually had.

At 09:00, lookouts aboard Emden spotted smoke on the horizon, and thirty minutes later identified it as a warship approaching at high speed.

[37] Emden's gunners were firing rapidly, with a salvo every ten seconds; Müller hoped to overwhelm Sydney with a barrage of shells before her heavier armament could take effect.

Müller realized that his ship was no longer able to fight, and beached Emden on North Keeling Island to save the lives of his crew.

Her breech blocks and torpedo aiming gear were thrown overboard to render the weapons unusable, and all signal books and secret papers were burned.

[48] Over a raiding career spanning three months and 30,000 nautical miles (56,000 km; 35,000 mi),[49] Emden had destroyed two Entente warships and sank or captured sixteen British steamers and one Russian merchant ship, totaling 70,825 gross register tons (GRT).

[60][61] A number of other artifacts, including a damaged 10.5 cm shell case,[62] an iron rivet from the hull,[63] and uniforms were also recovered and are held in the Australian War Memorial.

[64] In March 1921, the government of Prussia decreed that Prussian former crew members and relatives of those serving aboard the ship during World War I were allowed to add the heritable suffix "-Emden" to their last names as recognition for their service.