[a] Named after Königsberg,[b] the capital of East Prussia, she was laid down in January 1905, launched in December of that year and completed by June 1906.

In April 1914, the ship was sent on what was to have been a two-year deployment to German East Africa, but this was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I in August of that year.

Königsberg initially attempted to raid British and French commercial traffic in the region, but only destroyed one merchant ship in the course of her career.

After several attempts to sink the ship during the Battle of Rufiji Delta, the British sent two monitors, Mersey and Severn, to destroy the German cruiser.

The surviving crew salvaged all ten of her main guns and joined Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck's guerrilla campaign in East Africa.

This was a result of budgetary constraints that prevented the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) from building more specialized cruisers suitable for both roles.

All four members of the class were intended to be identical, but after the initial vessel was begun, the design staff incorporated lessons from the Russo-Japanese War.

The ship's propulsion system was rated to produce 13,200 metric horsepower (9,700 kW) for a top speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph), though she exceeded these figures in service.

Her trials were interrupted at the beginning of June when she was tasked with escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II's yacht Hohenzollern during three sailing regattas including Kiel Week.

She visited her namesake city from 21 to 23 September and was later assigned to the fleet scouting forces to replace the cruiser Medusa on 5 November.

[6] On 17 December, Königsberg was tasked with another goodwill visit, this time escorting the Kaiser's brother, Prince Heinrich, and a delegation of naval officers to Malmö, Sweden to meet King Oscar II.

A typical training routine followed for the next two years, interrupted only by a collision with the new cruiser Dresden on 16 February 1910 in the Kiel Bay, and two trips escorting the Kaiser in 1910; the first to Helgoland on 9–13 March and the second to Britain from 8 to 27 May.

In early 1914, the high command decided to send Königsberg to German East Africa, where she would replace the current station ship, the old unprotected cruiser Geier.

[7][9] After passing through the canal, she stopped briefly in Aden before arriving in Dar es Salaam, the capital of German East Africa, on 5 June.

[11] As tensions in Europe rose in the aftermath of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Looff decided to abandon the normal peacetime training schedule and returned to Dar es Salaam on 24 July to replenish his coal and other stores.

[12] Concurrently, the cruisers of the British Cape Squadron, HMS Astraea, Hyacinth, and Pegasus, arrived with the intention of bottling up Königsberg at the colony's capital Dar es Salaam.

Königsberg steamed off Aden until 5 August, when word of the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and Germany belatedly reached the ship.

Königsberg chased after the German freighter Goldenfels, whose officers mistook the ship for a British cruiser and refused to stop.

Coast watchers were stationed at the mouth of the river and telegraph lines were run to ensure the Germans would not be surprised by British ships searching for them.

After sinking Pegasus, Königsberg bombarded the wireless station and dumped barrels filled with sand into the harbor entrance to simulate mines.

[20] The cruiser then returned to the Rufiji River so work could begin on overhauling her engines; the parts would need to be transported overland to the shipyard in Dar es Salaam where they could be rebuilt.

These included positioning soldiers and field guns to defend the approaches to the cruiser and establishing a network of coast watchers and telegraph lines to watch for hostile ships.

[21] Concerned with the threat Königsberg posed to troop transports from India, the British reinforced the flotilla tasked with tracking down the elusive German raider, and placed the ships under the command of Captain Sidney R. Drury-Lowe.

A boarding party searched the ship and discovered documents indicating she had supplied Königsberg with coal in the Rufiji the previous month.

[19][21] In the course of the campaign, the British reinforced the squadron blockading the Rufiji with additional cruisers, including Pyramus and the Australian HMAS Pioneer.

[24] A civilian pilot, Dennis Cutler of Durban, South Africa, was commissioned into the Royal Marines and persuaded to make his private Curtiss seaplane available for the British Empire.

As the freighter approached East Africa, Königsberg prepared to sortie to meet the ship and attempt to break out and return to Germany.

The trapped ship was forced aground and set on fire, but the Germans salvaged much of her cargo and put it to use later in the East Africa Campaign.

[30] Finally, in April 1915, the British Admiralty agreed to a plan submitted by Drury-Lowe the previous November, which envisioned attacking the German cruiser with shallow-draft monitors, capable of navigating the Rufiji River.

[36] All ten guns were repaired in Dar es Salaam over the next two months; one was mounted on the converted ferry Götzen of the inland Lake Tanganyika fleet.