The Altenburg-Zeitz railway company was founded in 1870 in the Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg to transport lignite from the Meuselwitz-Rositz mining area. In addition to transporting the lignite, passenger transport and other freight transport also had to be handled. For this reason, locomotives had to be procured that could handle both freight and passenger transport for the small company.

The five locomotives purchased by Borsig for this purpose had 1,525 mm coupling wheels and a leading axle mounted fixed in the frame. Other features included inside valve gear and a rudimentary cab. Between 1880 and 1888, five more tank and tender locomotives were procured. When the Altenburg-Zeitz railway company was nationalized in 1896, all machines were taken over. The numbers 1 to 5 were classified in the Saxon type II and provided with the numbers 745 to 749. The last three units survived until 1922 and were not given new numbers by the Reichsbahn.