The first electric locomotive that the GDR developed after the Second World War was a four-axle universal locomotive with a top speed of 120 km/h. For cost reasons, a quill drive was dispensed with and nose-suspended motors were installed. From the E 11, the E 42 was developed with a top speed of only 100 km/h. The production of the E 11 lasted until 1977 and after the reunification there was still a large part of the locomotives in service. DB AG retired the last of the locomotives now running as class 109 in 1998, some of them came to private operators.

The E 42 was developed on the basis of the E 11, which had a lower top speed of 100 km/h and a higher tractive effort. It was intended for traffic with freight trains and slow passenger trains and was built in significantly larger numbers than its prototype. Just as the last E 11 were built directly as class 211, the last E 42 were built as class 242. Right at the beginning of the 1990s, 18 units came to Switzerland, where they were used by several operators in front of freight trains. Some of the locomotives equipped there with multiple controls later came back to Germany and are still used there today to pull freight trains weighing up to 2,700 tons.

The E 251, from 1970 class 251 or class 171 at Deutsche Bahn, was an electric locomotive that was specially developed for the Rübelandbahn in Saxony-Anhalt. Although the route had already been rebuilt in the 1930s, the slopes of the Harz Mountains still required gradients of up to six percent. Finally, in the 1960s, due to the increasingly heavy lime and ore trains, it was decided that the line should be electrified. In contrast to the remaining routes in Germany, this was done in the system with 25.000 Volts and 50 Hz, which led to the development of the E 251.

Based on the DR electric locomotives E 11 and E 42, this resulted in a more powerful, six-axle design whose systems were designed for the special power system. Since the route did not allow high speeds, the speed was reduced to 80 km/h. This further increased the tractive power and now also made a cheaper drive with nose-suspended motors possible. In addition, the tighter curves on the Rübelandbahn were taken into account with a special design of the chassis. Now it was possible to pull freight trains of 600 tonnes up the steep inclines, each with a train engine and a pusher engine. The total of 15 locomotives that were built proved themselves on this route and still pulled both freight and passenger trains in the days of the Deutsche Bahn. However, the latter fell away in 2000 due to new regulations on automatic door controls, until the class finally had to hand over its service in front of freight trains to modern multi-system locomotives in 2004.

For the lines in the former GDR, which were upgraded to 160 km/h from 1991, the Reichsbahn and Bundesbahn jointly procured new passenger locomotives from LEW Hennigsdorf, which soon belonged to AEG again. Since the class 243 was designed for 160 km/h, the new locomotive could be derived from this with not much effort. It was initially used mostly in InterRegio service and in 1994 it was redesignated as class 112. The 112⁰ without LZB all came to DB Regio in 2000, as the 112¹ with LZB were all handed over from DB Fernverkehr to DB Regio in 2004.

For cross-border traffic between Dresden and Děčín, Škoda in Czechoslovakia and LEW Hennigsdorf in the GDR jointly developed a multi-system locomotive. It was based on the Czechoslovakian ES499.1, was designed to operate under 15.000 V AC and 3.000 V DC and was built by Škoda. In the 1990s they were also run from Berlin to Poland. Although the ČD had converted some locomotives to 160 km/h, they were later only used for freight traffic. There they were later replaced by more modern multi-system locomotives such as the class 189 or the Vectron.

When the GDR decided to further electrify its network in the late 1970s, a modern electric locomotive was needed to pull passenger and freight trains. The locomotives of the class E 11 in use in front of express trains and the E 42 in use in front of freight trains were also to be replaced. The six-axle class 250 freight locomotive was used as the technical basis, from which a four-axle mixed-traffic locomotive was developed.

The 212 001 was presented as a prototype in 1982, which was designed for a top speed of 160 km/h. Its traction motors were an evolution of, and still interchangeable with, the 250's motors. Since the speed of 160 km/h could not be used in the GDR network, the locomotive was converted to 120 km/h and the tractive effort increased. According to the scheme, the class number changed to 243.

In the area of control technology, new ground was broken that was previously unknown in the GDR. The transformer was steplessly controlled via a thyristor and the driver operated it via complex electronics. Only the desired speed and maximum tractive effort had to be preselected and the electronics automatically switched to the necessary power taps or actuated the dynamic brake. Special circuits allow for example the taps to run down automatically after the set speed has been reached once for use in local transport.

The driver's cabs were also equipped with particularly high standards of comfort and ergonomics and were air-conditioned. The locomotive body was very angular and stood out due to the longitudinal beads in the side walls. In contrast to the class 250, all machinery was ventilated via narrow grilles on the slopes along the ceiling. Starting with running number 299, the locomotives had slightly more streamlined fronts.

In addition to the prototype, a total of 646 production locomotives were built between 1984 and 1990. In the sub-class 243⁸, multiple controls were installed for heavy freight trains. After the traffic in the new federal states had dropped sharply after reunification, many locomotives ended up on the siding. Since the Bundesbahn also had a need for more locomotives, 150 units were rented and used as the class 143 on the Black Forest and Höllentalbahn, on the Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn and in front of freight trains.

DB AG 143 263 with a double-deck push-pull train in Cologne in October 2015

Rolf Heinrich, Köln / CC SA 3.0

After the unification of the two German railways, the locomotives could be used more freely and ended up in large parts of Germany. They mainly replaced older West German post-war locomotives from the fifties and sixties that had reached the end of their service life. Since the rail reform, all of them have been with DB Regio and are therefore used in regional transport and on S-Bahn trains.

From 2006, one example was converted to 160 km/h and listed as class 114¹. Another one received a cheaper adjustment to 140 km/h and became the class 114³. Initially, further locomotives were converted to the 114³, but these are still operated at a maximum of 120 km/h due to the lack of approval from the Federal Railway Authority.

The four variants still in use today differ in that two are each equipped for the S-Bahn and regional traffic and the other two each have push-pull train control for Bundesbahn and Reichsbahn cars. In the meantime, many locomotives have been sold to private companies, which use them mainly in front of freight trains. By April 2016, over 300 had already been scrapped. Due to the lightweight construction, it had been shown that many locomotives could not be repaired even after less serious accidents. The few examples still used by the DB today are almost exclusively used in S-Bahn operations.

The Reichsbahn had the class 250 manufactured for universal use in front of heavy passenger and freight trains. It was designed with a LEW conical spring drive for a speed of 160 km/h, but was only approved for 125 km/h due to the infrastructure in the GDR. The locomotives, which were also otherwise developed according to then modern points of view, were taken over by the DB AG in 1994 as the class 155 and initially continued to be used to pull heavy passenger trains, too. They came to DB Cargo during the railway reform and were only used there in front of freight trains until the last locomotives were phased out in 2019.

The class 252 or later DB class 156 refers to a series of four heavy electric locomotives that the Reichsbahn developed as the last new model. They came about because, in view of the oil crisis of the 1980s, it was decided that many main lines should be further electrified on a large scale and a heavy six-axle model was needed to supplement the newly developed class 243. In addition, a top speed of 160 km/h was initially planned, since important routes were to be upgraded for this speed.

Many parts from the 243 were used to reduce maintenance costs, but the six instead of four traction motors were slightly more powerful. The driver's cab was largely adopted because it corresponded to modern standards at the time and made it easier to exchange personnel between the two types. The shape of the locomotive body was tested in the wind tunnel and shows similarities to the Bundesbahn's class 120, which had been developed a few years earlier. In the end, the speed was only set at 125 km/h, since many lines were not yet designed for higher speeds and this resulted in higher tractive effort. This allowed trains of 3,000 tonnes to be towed at 100 km/h, and it was also possible to tow 1,800 tonnes at 120 km/h without a power reserve.

Although the four prototypes proved themselves, series production did not materialize as a result of the merger with the Bundesbahn. Although they wanted to continue producing an electric locomotive for the Reichsbahn to secure jobs, the decision was made in favor of the faster class 112, which was based on the 243 or new 143. Other disadvantages for the 252 and 156 were that they only wanted to buy three-phase locomotives for heavy duty and generally wanted to do without six-axle locomotives.

However, the four units continued to be used and some were even used to pull heavy express trains. In 1998 they were assigned to DB Cargo and only used in front of freight trains until they were parked in 2002 and were to be sold. A year later, the Mitteldeutsche Eisenbahn GmbH (MEG) was found to be a customer, whose fleet consists mostly of vehicles from the former GDR. It uses the locomotives with the numbers 801 to 804 primarily in central Germany and in the direction of the Rostock port in front of heavy freight trains with heating oil or cement. They also regularly reach the Ruhr area.