The class 56^2-8 was a conversion of the Prussian G 8¹, which had received a bissel axle in front of the coupled axles. On the one hand, this measure served to increase the permitted speed and also reduced the axle load to just over 16 tons. Although the G 8¹ was powerful, it could not achieve smooth running due to the missing carrying axle and the large overhangs. At the same time as the bissel axle was added, the boiler was moved slightly forward for better weight distribution and was also placed higher. In addition, ballast weights were attached to obtain additional traction due to the now very low axle load of the first two coupled axles. 

A total of 691 engines were rebuilt in this form. They could now run 70 km/h and were even used in the following decades to pull passenger trains in local traffic. Of the engines that were still in existence after the Second World War, smaller numbers were in Poland, Austria and the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, where they were also used everywhere. The Reichsbahn in the GDR was the last to use them until 1970.

However, most of the locomotives were in the three western zones after the war. A total of 410 engines were counted in varying conditions, of which the newly founded Federal Railways took over 368 pieces. They were phased out by 1968, with a new number being only provided for the last survivor, but no longer applied.