into IV Battle Squadron under the command of VAdm Ehrhard Schmidt. IV Squadron also included her four sister ships and the battleships and . On 26 August, the ships were sent to rescue the stranded light cruiser , which had run aground off the island of Odensholm in the eastern Baltic, but the cruiser was scuttled by her crew before the relief force arrived. Wettin and the rest of the squadron returned to Bornholm that day. Starting on 3 September, IV Squadron, assisted by Blücher, conducted a sweep into the Baltic. The operation lasted until 9 September but failed to bring Russian naval units to battle. Two days later, the ships were transferred to the North Sea. They stayed there only briefly, returning to the Baltic on 20 September. From 22 to 26 September, the squadron took part in a sweep into the eastern Baltic in an unsuccessful attempt to find and destroy Russian warships. From 4 December 1914 to 2 April 1915, the ships of IV Squadron were tasked with coastal defense duties along Germany's North Sea coast, to prevent incursions by the British Royal Navy. Ships of the squadron's VII Division, which included Wettin, , Schwaben, and Mecklenburg, then participated in training exercises in the western Baltic. The German Army requested naval assistance for its campaign against Russia. Prince Heinrich, the commander of all naval forces in the Baltic, made VII Division, IV Scouting Group, and the torpedo boats of the Baltic fleet available for the operation. On 6 May, the VII Division ships were tasked with providing support for the assault on Libau. Wettin and the other ships were stationed off Gotland to intercept any Russian cruisers that might attempt to intervene in the landings, but the Russians took no such action. When cruisers from IV Scouting Group encountered Russian cruisers patrolling off Gotland, ships of VII Division deployed, mounting a third dummy funnel to disguise them as the more powerful . They were joined by the cruiser . The ships advanced as far as the island of Utö on 9 May and Kopparstenarna the following day, but by then the Russian cruisers had withdrawn. Later that day, the British submarines and spotted IV Squadron but were too far away to attack. From 27 May to 4 July, Wettin was back in the North Sea, patrolling the mouths of the Jade, Ems, and Elbe rivers. During this