Sturdee's ships chased down and destroyed four of the five German cruisers; HMS Kent sank Nürnberg, with heavy loss of life.

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.

[3] Nürnberg was ordered under the contract name "Ersatz Blitz" and was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel on 16 January 1906.

At her launching ceremony on 28 August, the mayor of her namesake city, Dr. Georg von Schuh, christened Nürnberg, after which fitting-out work commenced.

By 5 April, she had arrived in Singapore and thereafter entered the station area for the East Asia Squadron; she replaced the older cruiser Arcona in the unit.

She spent May making visits to several ports in the region, and at the end of the month, she joined the armored cruiser Scharnhorst, the squadron flagship, for a cruise to German Samoa.

The three cruisers then sailed south to Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen in German New Guinea to assist the survey ship Planet, which had suffered severe boiler damage.

[6] Nürnberg was in Hong Kong in late December when her crew received word of the Sokehs Rebellion in German Samoa.

The rest of 1912 passed uneventfully, as did much of 1913, apart from a period from July to mid-September where Nürnberg sent a landing party ashore to protect the German consulate in Shanghai.

On 16 October, while Nürnberg was in Yokohama, Japan, she received orders to sail for the western coast of Mexico in response to the Mexican Revolution.

Along with warships from the United States, Japan, and Britain, Nürnberg visited a series of ports in the region to protect German, Austro-Hungarian, and Swiss nationals in the area, but direct intervention ashore proved to be unnecessary.

Nürnberg's boilers were in poor condition, necessitating a stop in San Francisco, United States, for repairs that lasted from 14 to 18 July.

[8] After completing repairs in the United States, Nürnberg was to sail via Hawaii to Apia, where she was to meet Scharnhorst and the armored cruiser Gneisenau, but due to the deteriorating political situation in Europe that resulted from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and led to the July Crisis and ultimately the start of World War I, the German naval command ordered Nürnberg to sail directly to Qingdao.

Her orders were changed again while still en route, and she met the two armored cruisers, by then commanded by Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee, in Ponape.

With the outbreak of war at the end of July, Spee planned a return of his squadron to Germany, sailing through the Pacific, rounding Cape Horn, and then forcing his way north through the Atlantic.

On 11 August, Spee arrived in Pagan; he was joined by several supply ships, as well as Emden and the auxiliary cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich.

On 13 August the captain of the Emden, Commodore Karl von Müller, persuaded Spee to detach his ship for commerce raiding.

[15] In order to keep the German high command informed of his activities, Spee sent Nürnberg on 8 September to Honolulu to send word through neutral countries.

[17] Spee chose the ship because the British were aware she had left Mexican waters, and so her presence in Hawaii would not betray the movements of the entire East Asia Squadron.

[17] On 14 September, Spee decided to use his two armored cruisers to raid the British base at Apia; he sent Nürnberg to escort the squadron's colliers to the rendezvous location.

Since Chile was neutral, only three ships could enter the port at a time; Spee took Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Nürnberg in first visit on the morning of 3 November, leaving Dresden and Leipzig with the colliers at Mas a Fuera.

In Valparaiso, Spee's ships could take on coal while he conferred with the Admiralty Staff in Germany to determine the strength of remaining British forces in the region.

The ships remained in the port for only 24 hours, in accordance with the neutrality restrictions, and arrived at Mas a Fuera on 6 November, where they took on more coal from captured British and French steamers.

On 10 November, Dresden and Leipzig were detached for a stop in Valparaiso, and five days later, Spee took the rest of the squadron south to St. Quentin Bay in the Gulf of Penas.

[26] Once word of the defeat reached London, the Royal Navy set to organizing a force to hunt down and destroy the East Asia Squadron.

To this end, the powerful battlecruisers Invincible and Inflexible were detached from the Grand Fleet and placed under the command of Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee.

Observers aboard Gneisenau spotted smoke rising from Port Stanley, but assumed it was the British burning their coal stocks to prevent the Germans from seizing them.

One shell struck one of Kent's casemate guns and ignited the propellant charges inside, but the magazine was flooded before the fire could destroy the ship.