Following the signing of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in June 1935, Germany was permitted to build, among other things, heavy cruisers up to a total displacement of 50,000 tons. The previously developed Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser design was chosen for construction, with five ships being initially planned to be built.

The five ordered ships of the Admiral Hipper-class were laid down between July 1935 - August 1937. However, only the first three were actually fully constructed and commissioned into service between 1939 - 1940. The fourth ship - Seydlitz - was scuttled in 1945 still being incomplete (as a conversion into an aircraft carrier), while the fifth ship - Lützow - was also sold incomplete to the USSR in February 1940.

Admiral Hipper, named after an imperial German admiral, was the first ship of the class to see completion, being commissioned into service in April 1939. After passing sea trials, Admiral Hipper was assigned to her first combat mission - Operation Weserübung - the invasion of Denmark and Norway, where it took part in a battle with the British destroyer Glowworm and also participated in the sinking of the trawler Juniper (930 tons) and the military transport Orama (19,000 registered tons). Subsequently, Admiral Hipper steamed out into the Atlantic to intercept allied shipping in December 1940, but without significant success. The first campaign wasn’t particularly successful, but during the second campaign in January and February of 1941, the Admiral Hipper attacked SLS-64, an unprotected convoy - this attack on ship count alone, was the most effective from both world wars.

Admiral Hipper was then transferred to Norway, where it took part in raids against the arctic convoys headed for the Soviet Union. As part of an operational group, it took part in Operation Rösselsprung (Knight's move) which, although not a success, resulted in the almost total destruction of the allied PQ-17 convoy by German submarines and aircraft. In December of 1942, during Operation Regenbogen (Rainbow) a battle took place in the Barents Sea which was unofficially labelled as “New Year’s Battle” or “New Year’s Shame” the ship was damaged and sent back to Germany for repair. The failure of the operation led to a historical decision by Hitler to order the scrapping of all large warships. Admiral Hipper was transferred to the reserves and at the beginning of 1945, arrived in Kiel where it was damaged during allied air strikes in May of the same year. The defenders on the partially disarmed ship showed no enthusiasm for its survival and as a result, the ship burned out and sank to the dock seabed. After the war, the ship was once again raised and taken apart for scrap up to 1952.