The new ship was laid down in 1914 at the AG Weser shipyard, launched in December 1915, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in August 1916.

The ship carried Rear Admiral Hugo Meurer to Scapa Flow to negotiate the plan for interning the High Seas Fleet.

The new ships were broadly similar to the earlier cruisers, with only minor alterations in the arrangement of some components, including the forward broadside guns, which were raised a level to reduce their tendency to be washed out in heavy seas.

[2] Königsberg was ordered under the contract name "Ersatz Gazelle" and was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen on 22 August 1914, less than a month after the outbreak of World War I.

The Admiralstab (the Navy High Command) planned an operation to seize the Baltic island of Ösel, and specifically the Russian gun batteries on the Sworbe Peninsula.

Generalleutnant (Lieutenant General) Ludwig von Estorff, the commander of the 42nd Division, came aboard the ship during the cruise from Kiel.

The invasion fleet stopped in Libau on 25 September to make final preparations, and on 11 October the Germans began the voyage to the Gulf.

[7] Königsberg steamed in Tagga Bay, where Estorff coordinated the operations of the German infantry, who quickly subdued Russian opposition.

[9] On the 19th, Königsberg, her sister ship Nürnberg, and the cruiser Danzig were sent to intercept two Russian torpedo boats reported to be in the area.

[11] On 28 October, Königsberg returned to Libau and proceeded back to the North Sea to resume her guard duties there with the rest of II Scouting Group.

Once Kaiserin and Kaiser arrived on the scene, Reuter launched a counterattack, during which Repulse scored a hit on Königsberg with a 38 cm (15 in) shell at 10:58.

Further German reinforcements arrived, including the battlecruisers Hindenburg and Moltke at 13:30 and the dreadnoughts Friedrich der Grosse and König Albert at 13:50.

[13][14][15] With these forces assembled, the IV Battle Squadron commander aboard Friedrich der Grosse, VAdm Wilhelm Souchon, conducted a sweep for any remaining British vessels but could find none.

The commander of Kaiserin, Kurt Graßhoff, was later criticized for failing to intervene quickly enough, leading to the development of new guidelines for placing battleships closer to minesweeper groups in the future.

[15] Reuter came back aboard his flagship and Königsberg resumed patrol duties in the German Bight on 17 December.

While steaming off the Utsira Lighthouse in southern Norway, Moltke had a serious accident with her machinery, which led Scheer to break off the operation and return to port.

[15][16] From 10 to 13 May, Königsberg and the rest of II Scouting Group escorted the minelayer Senta while the latter vessel laid a defensive minefield to block British submarines form operating in the German Bight.

Königsberg, Cöln, Dresden, and Pillau were to attack merchant shipping in the Thames estuary while Karlsruhe, Nürnberg, and Graudenz were to bombard targets in Flanders, to draw out the British Grand Fleet.

On 9 November, reports of British activity in the German Bight prompted Königsberg and several destroyers to make a sweep.

[25] Following the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow in June 1919, the Allied powers issued a demand on 1 November for the surrender of five cruisers, including Königsberg, to replace vessels that had been sunk.

[26] Königsberg was stricken from the naval register on 31 May 1920 and on 14 July, she left Germany in company with the cruisers Pillau, Stralsund, and Strassburg and four torpedo-boats.

After entering service in November 1921, Metz was assigned to the Atlantic Light Division, but she served here only briefly before being transferred to the French Mediterranean Fleet in early 1922.

On 7 September 1925, she and the battleship Paris and another ex-German cruiser, Strasbourg, supported a landing of French troops in North Africa.