[8][9][10] By the Second World War, her torpedo tubes had been removed, while two 20 mm anti-aircraft guns had been added.

[12][13] On 28 August 1914, the British Harwich Force, supported by light cruisers and battlecruisers of the Grand Fleet, carried out a raid towards Heligoland with the intention of destroying patrolling German torpedo boats.

[16] The Torpedo boat V187, leader of the 1st Flotilla, trying to return to Heligoland on hearing gunfire, ran into the midst of the Harwich force and was sunk.

The intervention of the supporting British forces resulted in the sinking of the German cruisers Mainz, Cöln and Ariadne.

The British light cruiser Arethusa and destroyers Laurel, Laertes and Liberty were badly damaged but safely returned to base.

On the return trip, at 01:50 hr on 12 September, the High Seas Fleet ran into a newly laid British minefield.

[23][d] After the end of the First World War, the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919 and the Treaty of Versailles left Germany with a small navy of obsolete warships.

[27] T196 was modernised in 1923, but was still obsolete and in the 1930s was transferred to subsidiary roles, being used for training and as a Fleet Tender,[9][11][22] and from 1938 as a minesweeper command ship.

[28] On the outbreak of the Second World War on 1 September 1939, T196 was the flagship of the Officer Commanding Minesweepers and was deployed in support on the German Invasion of Poland.

[29] On 4 September T196, along with the pre-dreadnought battleship Schleswig-Holstein and the old minesweeper Von der Groeben (formerly M107), bombarded Westerplatte.

[30] In late January 1945, the Germans began a mass evacuation of soldiers and civilians from East Prussia and Danzig, which were threatened by the advance of Soviet forces.