 The Königsberg class of light cruisers was a group of four ships commissioned into Germany 's Imperial Navy shortly before the end of World War I. The class comprised Königsberg , Karlsruhe , Emden , and Nürnberg , all of which were named after light cruisers lost earlier in the war . The ships were an incremental improvement over the preceding Wiesbaden @-@ class, which in turn was a development of the earlier König class. They were relatively small and fast, with a main armament of four 20 cm (7.9 in) guns, and were well-suited to commerce raiding and other lightly-armed roles.
The ships of the König