Between 1935 and 1937, the Reichsbahn had three different electric railcars manufactured in order to evaluate the optimum propulsion technology for future high-speed railcar service. Thus, the electrical equipment of each vehicle came from a different manufacturer and the mechanical part came from a total of two manufacturers. What the trains had in common was that they consisted of two self-supporting car bodies with a total length of around 43.5 meters. These not only had rounded front sides to reduce air resistance, the paneling was also partially pulled over the bogies and unevenness in the edging of windows, doors and signs was avoided. As with the express diesel railcars, the planned top speed was 160 km/h.

The three sets were initially given the numbers elT 1900 to elT 1902, but were eventually renamed ET 11 with the running numbers 01 to 03. While the car body of the 01 came from Maschinenfabrik Esslingen, the car bodies of the other two examples were built by MAN. BBC supplied a Buchli drive for the 01, SSW nose-suspended motors for the 02 and AEG a helical-spring drive for the 03.

The vehicles were used on long-distance routes in southern Germany, especially on the Munich-Stuttgart route. For later production models, the not yet electrified connection from Munich to Berlin was also planned. Except for a few improvements to the bogies and the ventilation, they were considered a successful design, but the outbreak of war meant that no series production took place. All three survived the war unscathed and then joined the Bundesbahn. In the network, which was not yet or no longer fully electrified, it was difficult to cover long distances with these vehicles. Eventually, connections between Munich and Salzburg and later between Munich and Frankfurt were established, but these were discontinued in 1961. Only the ET 11 01 was used as a service vehicle until 1971 and was then preserved to this day, the numbers 02 and 03 were scrapped.