"Danzig" was present during the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914, but did not directly engage the British ships. She did, however, rescue survivors from the sinking cruiser . "Hamburg" was present for the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in December 1914, where she briefly encountered—but did not engage—British light forces. Only one ship, "München", saw action at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916, where she was hit by five medium-caliber shells and moderately damaged. Three of the ships, "Bremen", "Lübeck", and "Danzig", saw action against Imperial Russian forces in the Baltic Sea during the war, including during the assault on Libau and the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in 1915 and during Operation Albion in 1917. "Bremen" struck Russian mines in December 1915 and sank with the majority of her crew going down with her. "Leipzig", still overseas at the start of the war, saw action at the Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands in late 1914. At the former, she engaged the British cruiser , and at the latter, was sunk by "Glasgow" and .