For a new, fast freight locomotive, the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG) ordered the class 41 from 1937. The machines of this series impressed with their performance, smooth running and exceptional acceleration capacity.

Our locomotive was put into service in 1939 by the maintenance workshop in Frankfurt-Nied. After the war, it came to the British zone. In 1960 a new, modern boiler was installed and the locomotive was converted from coal to oil firing. In 1977, the locomotive was taken out of service as 041 024-0 and came to the Darmstadt-Kranichstein Museum in the same year.