Service History
After her commissioning, Freya served with the German fleet. On 1 September 1902, Freya joined the Cruiser Division of the I Squadron of the German home fleet. The Division consisted of the armored cruiser Prinz Heinrich, the flagship, Victoria Louise, and the light cruisers Hela, Amazone, and Niobe. The Division participated in the summer fleet maneuvers of August–September 1902. In 1905, Freya went into drydock at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven for modernization. During the refit she was re-boilered; she had been built originally with three stacks, and during the modernization they were trunked into two funnels. The refit was finished in 1907, after which Freya was used as a training ship for naval cadets.
In 1907, Günther Lütjens served aboard the ship as a cadet; Lütjens went on to command the task force composed of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen in World War II. In August 1908, Freya represented Germany at celebrations in Halifax, Canada, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Canadian Parliament. While entering the port at around midnight on 9 August, she inadvertently rammed a schooner in heavy fog. Nine sailors were killed in the accident.
Freya had a short career during World War I. At the outbreak of hostilities, she was briefly mobilized into the 5th Scouting Group, which was tasked with training cadets in the Baltic Sea. By the end of 1914, however, the ships were again removed from service. She was then put into service as a coastal defense ship. After 1915, she was withdrawn from front-line duty again and returned to service as a training ship based in Flensburg. She served in this capacity through to the end of the war. In 1915, Bernhard Rogge, who would go on to command the raider Atlantis during World War II, served aboard the ship as a cadet. The old aviso Grille became Freya's tender starting in July 1915. She was stricken on 25 January 1920 and used briefly as a barracks ship for police in Hamburg. She was ultimately broken up for scrap in Harburg in 1921.
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