In 1951, the Waggonfabrik Wismar had built the modern VT 92 diesel railcar, which had space above one of the two bogies for a modern, high-speed diesel engine with 800 or 1,000 hp and a top speed of 120 km/h. The new, rounded head shape earned it the nickname “egghead” and characterized the diesel railcars of the Bundesbahn in the 1950s. While the single-car VT 92 still had a driver's cab at both ends and the rounded head shape, multi-car multiple units of the class VT 085 with a similar design were soon being built.
The VT 085 normally consisted of a power car, a trailer and a driving trailer. The technical data below refer to this composition. Four-car units were made up of one power car at each end and two trailers. A total of 20 power cars, 22 trailers and 13 driving trailers were built, which were used in varying combinations. Since the 140 km/h fast trains were intended for use in high-value long-distance traffic, the power cars included a dining room and a luggage and mail compartment. The last six power cars were primarily procured to form four-car trains and were designed as normal passenger cars on the inside.
On June 2, 1957, the Bundesbahn started TEE operations with the VT 085. In the same year, the class VT 115 multiple units began test operations, which soon replaced the VT 085 from this role. In general, the electrification of the main lines progressed so quickly that soon fewer and fewer fast diesel railcars were needed. So soon only VT 125 were built for regular intercity traffic and all cars of VT 085 were rebuilt from 1962 for use in VT 125 sets after some driving trailers that were no longer needed had already been rebuilt in 1957. For example, the dining rooms were removed from the first 14 power cars and the floor heights were adjusted to the other vehicles. The converted vehicles were classified as VT 126 and again from 1968 under the class number 613. The last trains that were rebuilt up to 1971 were given the class number 608.
The VT 088 was derived directly from the VT 085 for use by the US Army in Germany. The two-car vehicles each consisted of a power car and a driving trailer. Two units were procured as parlor trains and four as hospital trains. Since they were not used with other vehicles, they had conventional screw couplings and sleeve buffers instead of the automatic Scharfenberg couplings. Five units were retired by 1974 and the remaining parlor train was used by the respective US ambassador until 1991. It was given a beige-red TEE livery in 1973 and underwent a conversion in the 1980s, during which it received full-width windscreens similar to the class 103.