The new cruiser was laid down in 1915 at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, launched in April 1916, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in February 1917.

In the scuttling of the German fleet in June 1919, British ships managed to beach Nürnberg and she was later refloated and sunk as a gunnery target in 1922.

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.

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.

[6] On 18 September, the order was issued for a joint operation with the army to capture Ösel and Moon Islands; the primary naval component was to comprise the flagship, Moltke, along with III and IV Battle Squadrons of the High Seas Fleet.

[7] Nürnberg and the rest of II Scouting Group, commanded by Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, provided the cruiser screen for the task force.

[8] II Scouting Group left Kiel on 23 September and arrived in Libau two days later, where final preparations for the attack took place.

[9] On 11 October, Nürnberg took on a contingent of soldiers and got underway as part of the escort for several transport ships, carrying most of the landing force, and a collier and several tugboats.

After arriving in the North Sea, Nürnberg and the rest of II Scouting Group resumed coastal defense duties.

[10] On 17 November, Nürnberg, Königsberg, Frankfurt, and Pillau were assigned to cover a minesweeping operation in the Helgoland Bight, still under the command of Reuter.

[17] At around 10:00, Nürnberg came under heavy fire from the British cruisers, as well as the powerful battlecruisers Courageous and Glorious, armed with 15-inch (380 mm) guns.

She was also among the vessels that sortied in an attempt to catch the British aircraft carrier HMS Furious after the Tondern raid on 19 July.

[9] In October, Admirals Reinhard Scheer and Franz von Hipper planned a final, climactic attack on the British by the High Seas Fleet.

[21] Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, most of the High Seas Fleet's ships, under the command of Reuter, were interned in the British naval base in Scapa Flow.

Reuter believed that the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June 1919, which was the deadline for Germany to have signed the peace treaty.

On the morning of 21 June, the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers, and at 11:20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships.

Coal was shifted to one side to make Nürnberg take on a list of 10 degrees to simulate the angle a shell would hit the cruiser at long range.

Terror made hits on specific parts of the ship, including the conning tower, the belt armor, the upper deck, and the unarmored superstructure.

[28] Another round of tests with Terror was held on 8 November, and this time Nürnberg's coal bunkers were flooded to bring her list to 20 degrees.

On 7 July 1922, the battlecruiser Repulse sank Nürnberg off the Isle of Wight at a depth of 62 m (203 ft), about halfway between Poole, Great Britain, and Cherbourg, France.