München served with the fleet for the majority of her career, and saw extensive service during World War I, including at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916.

The first tranche of vessels to fulfill this requirement, the Gazelle class, were designed to serve both as fleet scouts and as station ships in Germany's colonial empire.

München carried up to 860 t (850 long tons) of coal, which gave her a range of 4,690 nautical miles (8,690 km; 5,400 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).

She was launched on 30 April 1904, during which Wilhelm Georg von Borscht, the mayor of Munich, christened the ship in the presence of Prince Ludwig III of Bavaria.

Despite the preferences of the fleet command, she was then employed as a torpedo test ship, replacing the cruiser Nymphe in that role, and to conduct experiments with wireless telegraphy.

[6][7] The ship carried out individual training exercises in April and May as the crew familiarized themselves with the vessel; in May, she came under the command of Korvettenkapitän (KK—Corvette Captain) Friedrich Schultz.

Kaiser Wilhelm II visited the ship in June to observe the U-boat, U-1's simulated attack against München, the first time a German submarine had been used in training.

The cruiser participated in the annual fleet maneuvers held in August and September, during which she served as a flotilla leader for several torpedo boats.

During the 1908 training year, München made a visit to Trondheim, Bergen, and Stavanger, Norway, from 25 May to 4 June to make another series of wireless experiments.

She left Kiel, Germany, on 24 October to make longer-ranged tests from Vigo and Málaga, Spain, and Funchal on the island of Madeira in the Atlantic.

München's bow struck the torpedo boat's engine room, causing significant damage and killing two men.

The ship participated in torpedo training in Norwegian waters in July 1911, and she was present for a naval review held for Wilhelm II on 5 September.

As München returned to Kiel from a training cruise on the night of 26 October, her crew lowered a boat with fourteen men in it to moor the cruiser to a buoy.

She was assigned to III Scouting Group for the annual fleet maneuvers in September, and from 21 October to 3 November, she went on a cruise to Vigo for another series of wireless tests.

During further exercises in the Great Belt on 19 December, München lightly collided with the torpedo boat V159, causing only minor damage to each vessel.

The first half of 1914 proceeded as in years past, München occupying her time with torpedo training and maneuvers with other elements of the fleet.

That morning, she and Danzig lay moored at Brunsbüttel at the western end of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, when the British Harwich Force attacked the German patrol line in the Helgoland Bight.

She was also present as part of the screen of the High Seas Fleet during the operation on 15–16 December to cover the battlecruisers' raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, by which time she had become the flagship of the II.

She saw no combat during the action; after reports that other cruisers in the fleet screen had encountered British warships on the morning of 16 December, Ingenohl broke off and withdrew to port.

[10][13] On 7 May 1915, IV Scouting Group, which by then consisted of München, Danzig, Stettin, and Stuttgart, and twenty-one torpedo boats was sent into the Baltic to support a major operation against Russian positions at Libau.

IV Scouting Group was tasked with screening to the north to prevent any Russian naval forces from moving out of the Gulf of Finland undetected, while several armored cruisers and other warships bombarded the port.

Shortly after the bombardment, Libau was captured by the advancing German army, and München and the rest of IV Scouting Group were recalled to the High Seas Fleet.

[10][14] After returning to the North Sea, the ships of IV Scouting Group took part in a series of fleet advances, all of which failed to locate British vessels.

München's port side was badly damaged in the accident, and had to be dry-docked at the Kaiserliche Werft in Danzig for repairs that lasted until 6 March.

Another major operation against the British coast began on 24 April; the main fleet again covered I Scouting Group raided Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

IV Scouting Group, by then under the command of Kommodore (Commodore) Ludwig von Reuter, departed Wilhelmshaven at 03:30 on 31 May, along with the rest of the fleet.

[10][15] Later in the battle, shortly after 21:00, München and the rest of IV Scouting Group encountered the British 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron (3rd LCS).

[16] During the ferocious night fighting that occurred as the High Seas Fleet forced its way through the British rear, IV Scouting Group encountered the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron at close range in the darkness.

The two ships were badly damaged and set on fire and forced to retreat, while the Germans also fell back in an attempt to bring the British closer to the battlecruisers Moltke and Seydlitz.

[20] In the course of the battle, München was hit by a total of five medium-caliber shells, which, according to the historian V. E. Tarrant, killed eight men and wounded another twenty.