Graudenz saw extensive service during World War I, including serving as part of the reconnaissance screen for the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group during the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in December 1914.

These included removing a pair of boilers (but retaining the same top speed), taller masts (to allow the ships to serve as flotilla leaders), and the introduction of a superfiring arrangement of the aft guns.

[6] Graudenz was ordered in April 1912 under the contract name "Ersatz Prinzess Wilhelm" and was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft shipyard in Kiel on 23 October 1912.

The navy planned to commission the ship in the fall of 1914, but the outbreak of World War I at the end of July 1914 led to a rushed completion.

[7] Completion of the trials were delayed by faulty engine components that had to be replaced, and the heavy workload of the shipyard, owing to the start of the war.

According to the historians Dodson and Nottelmann, due to these conditions, the results of the trials, during which the ship reached a top speed of 27.3 knots (50.6 km/h; 31.4 mph), "cannot be regarded as of any great significance".

She formed part of the reconnaissance screen for the battlecruisers of Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Franz von Hipper's I Scouting Group, along with the cruisers Kolberg and Strassburg.

[11] Graudenz and three of the cruisers—Kolberg was under repair at the time—sortied on 3 January 1915 for a sweep to the west of Amrun Bank that failed to locate any British forces by the time they returned to port the following day.

The ship moved to the Baltic again for a short operation from 17 to 28 March, during which she bombarded Russian positions at Polangen, north of Memel in East Prussia.

After returning to the North Sea, Graudenz participated in the first major fleet operation under its new commander, Admiral Hugo von Pohl, on 29 March.

In June, II Scouting Group moved to the Baltic for training, and at the end of the month, they carried out a patrol to inspect fishing boats off Terschelling.

Shortly after arriving in Kiel on 28 August, Graudenz took KAdm Friedrich Boedicker aboard; he replaced Hebbinghaus as the group commander.

She went to sea again for a fleet operation that lasted from 5 to 7 March; by this time, Pohl had been replaced by Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) Reinhard Scheer.

On 25 March, British seaplane tenders launched an air raid on the zeppelin base at Tondern, and Graudenz led a sortie by II Scouting Group to try to catch the carriers before they withdrew.

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

During this period, from 18 October until 3 November, Michelsen was briefly send to Flanders, and FK Madlung, Graudenz's captain, temporarily filled his role as I Commander of Torpedo-boats.

The rest of 1917 was spent carrying out local defensive patrols in the German Bight, interrupted only by training periods in the Baltic from 21 to 31 March and 28 July to 9 August.

KzS Hans Eberius, the II Commander of Torpedo-boats, came aboard Graudenz as his new flagship; she held this position until the end of the war.

Graudenz covered another such raid on 13 April, which was carried out by the vessels of II Torpedo-boat Flotilla, and advanced as far north as Hanstholm, Denmark.

[20] German attacks on shipping between Britain and Norway, which had begun in late 1917, prompted the Grand Fleet to begin escorting convoys with a detached battle squadron.

This decision presented the Germans with opportunity for which they had been waiting the entire war: a portion of the numerically stronger Grand Fleet was separated and could be isolated and destroyed.

Hipper, aboard the battleship Baden, ordered wireless transmissions be kept to a minimum, to prevent radio intercepts by British intelligence.

[21][22] On 31 July, Graudenz joined a major fleet operation to clear British minefields blocking German access to the sea.

Even as the German revolution spread from the initial mutiny in Wilhelmshaven, Graudenz's crew remained loyal to the naval command structure.

Graudenz was assigned to the BSN, which was based aboard the old pre-dreadnought battleship Kaiser Wilhelm II, which was used as a stationary headquarters ship.

And according to a letter written by VAdm Adolf von Trotha, the Chief of the Vorläufige Reichsmarine (Provisional Reich Navy), he took a trip aboard the ship that year.

After the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow also in June, the Allies demanded that Graudenz and other ships still in Germany be handed over as replacements.

The French initially wanted to agree to the trade, but it was ultimately prohibited by another term of the Versailles Treaty, which required the demolition of all vessels building in Germany.

[6] She was overhauled starting in 1921 through 1924, during which she was partially re-boilered with six oil-fired models, and the remaining six boilers were modified to allow coal or oil burning.

The Italians had trouble maintaining the ex-German ships, however, and Ancona was not in particularly good condition, so she was laid up in Taranto after her last cruise in August 1932.