The design of the EP 213 to 219 passenger locomotives goes back to three single powered bogies built by BMAG and Maffei-Schwartzkopff-Werke in 1913. They were to be used on the Berlin Stadtbahn (city line) that was to be electrified with 15,000 Volts AC and were designated EB 1 to 3. These had two axles and one traction motor that transmitted its power via a crank axle and coupling rods. Power was to provided via a passenger car with pantograph that was coupled to the bogie. After trials carried out on the Dessau-Bitterfeld line and on the Wrocław division, it was decided to electrify the Berlin Stadtbahn with 750 Volts DC.

At this time, the Prussian State Railway had already ordered four more bogies from BMAG and MSW and eleven more from AEG. Now these were used to construct four-axle passenger locomotives, which were completed in 1924. These were of the crocodile design, what means that the two motor bogies carried a central section that housed the cabs, the transformer and had two pantographs on the roof. The two locomotives with BMAG/MSW bogies became EP 213 and 214, while the five with the AEG bogies became EP 215 to 219.

In 1926, the Reichsbahn designated these E 41¹ and E 41². Although they were already outdated by this time, they were reliable and delivered good services, even on the Silesian mountain lines. On inclines of 0.5 percent, they could haul 401 tonnes with 63 km/h. On two percent, 273 tonnes could be hauled with 50 km/h. After World War II, four surviving locomotives had to be handed over to the Soviet Union. They came back to the GDR in 1953, but had to be scrapped.