Leipzig was the lead ship of her class of light cruisers built by the German navy. She had one sister ship, Nürnberg. Leipzig was laid down in April 1928, was launched in October 1929, and was commissioned into the Reichsmarine in October 1931. Armed with a main battery of nine 15 cm (5.9 in) guns in three triple turrets, Leipzig had a top speed of 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph).

Leipzig participated in non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War. In the first year of World War II, she performed escort duties for warships in the Baltic and North seas. While on one of these operations in December 1939, the ship was torpedoed by a British submarine and badly damaged. Repairs were completed by late 1940, when she returned to service as a training ship. She provided gunfire support to the advancing Wehrmacht troops as they invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.

In October 1944, Leipzig was accidentally rammed by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen; the damage was so severe that the navy decided complete repairs were unfeasible. The ship was patched up to keep her afloat, and she helped to defend Gotenhafen from the advancing Red Army in March 1945. She then carried a group of fleeing German civilians, reaching Denmark by late April. After the end of the war, Leipzig was used as a barracks ship for minesweeping forces and was scuttled in July 1946.

Leipzig was 177 meters (581 ft) long overall and had a beam of 16.3 m (53 ft) and a maximum draft of 5.69 m (18.7 ft) forward. She displaced 8,100 metric tons (8,000 long tons; 8,900 short tons) at full load. Leipzig had a crew of 26 officers and 508 enlisted men.

Her propulsion system consisted of two steam turbines and four 7-cylinder MAN two-stroke double-acting diesel engines, which were the basis for the unsuccessful US Navy Hooven-Owens-Rentschler design. Steam for the turbines was provided by six Marine-type, double-ended, oil-fired water-tube boilers. The ship's propulsion system provided a top speed of 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) and a range of approximately 3,900 nautical miles (7,200 km; 4,500 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) using only the diesel engines.

The ship was armed with a main battery of nine 15 cm (5.9 in) SK C/25 guns mounted in three triple gun turrets. One was located forward, and two were placed in a superfiring pair aft, all on the centerline. They were supplied with between 1,080 and 1,500 rounds of ammunition, for between 120 and 166 shells per gun. It had originally been intended to equip the cruiser with an anti-aircraft battery of two twin 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK C/25 guns. But as this gun proved to be unsatisfactory during tests and its replacement the 8.8 cm SK C/31 gun was not yet ready, the ship was equipped with two obsolete 8.8 cm SK L/45 anti-aircraft guns in single mounts; they had 400 rounds of ammunition each. Leipzig also carried four triple 50 cm (20 in) torpedo tube mounts located amidships; they were supplied with twenty-four torpedoes. She was also capable of carrying 120 naval mines. The ship was protected by an armored deck that was 30 mm (1.2 in) thick amidships and an armor belt that was 50 mm (2 in) thick. The conning tower had 100 mm (3.9 in) thick sides.

Leipzig was laid down at the Reichsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven on 28 April 1928 and launched on 18 October 1929. She was commissioned into the Reichsmarine on 8 October 1931. The ship trained extensively in the Baltic Sea throughout 1932 and 1933, and also made several goodwill cruises overseas. In 1934, she and the cruiser Königsberg made the first goodwill visit to the United Kingdom since the end of World War I. In late 1934, Leipzig went into drydock for modifications. An aircraft catapult was installed on the aft superstructure and a crane for handling float planes replaced one of her boat derricks. The 50 cm torpedo tubes were replaced with 53.3 cm (21.0 in) ones. On the aft superstructure a SL-1 stabilized director post for the anti-aircraft guns was installed, and two more single-mount 8.8 cm anti-aircraft guns were added. Leipzig was the first ship of the Kriegsmarine to receive anti-aircraft fire control. These modifications were made in Kiel. In early 1935, Leipzig joined the old pre-dreadnought battleship Schlesien, the new heavy cruiser Deutschland, and the light cruiser Köln for major fleet exercises.

Later in 1935, Adolf Hitler visited the ship during training maneuvers with the rest of the fleet. The ship joined her sister Nürnberg and Köln for exercises in the Atlantic Ocean in early 1936. In February 1936 the obsolete single mount anti-aircraft guns were finally replaced by three twin 8.8 cm SK C/32 naval guns. In August, Leipzig took part in the non-intervention patrols off Spain during the Spanish Civil War. She conducted several patrols between August 1936 and June 1937, and in late June, she was allegedly attacked with torpedoes; this prompted Germany and Italy to withdraw from the non-intervention patrols. She thereafter returned to Germany and went into the Baltic Sea for training, which lasted through 1938. In March 1939, she participated in the annexation of Memel which Germany had demanded from Lithuania. The following month, she joined the battleship Gneisenau, the cruiser Deutschland, and several destroyers and U-boats for major exercises in the Atlantic. Additional maneuvers were conducted through the middle of 1939.