At the beginning of the 1950s, the Reichsbahn developed two tank locomotives with a 2-8-4T wheel arrangement to replace a large number of old models, most of which dated back to the Länderbahn era. One of them was the class 65¹⁰, which with an axle load of 17.5 tonnes was suitable for main lines and well-developed secondary lines. The numbering from 1000 upwards indicates that this was a new locomotive and also made it easier to distinguish it from the Bundesbahn class 65 with the same wheel arrangement. At the same time, the class 83¹⁰ was created, which had an axle load of only 15 tonnes and was therefore slower and less powerful.

Following the trend of the time, the frame and boiler of the new locomotive were welded. A mixing preheater was also installed above the smoke box, which heated and softened the boiler feed water. In this way, water savings of more than 10 percent could be achieved. The advantage of the selected axle arrangement with a rear bogie was that the water tank could be designed very generously for a tank locomotive. There was space for 9 tonnes of coal and 16 cubic meters of water. As with all new Reichsbahn builds, the design was optimized for operation with the inferior lignite, with the dimensioning of the grate area playing a particularly important role. The 65 1004 was the only tank locomotive to be converted to pulverized coal firing, but this was reversed in 1962.

The Reichsbahn procured a total of 88 units, the first two of which were manufactured by LEW Hennigsdorf and the rest by Lokomotivbau Karl Marx Babelsberg. Seven more were produced for the chemical combine Leuna. An important area of application for the locomotives of the Reichsbahn were double-decker trains. Since there were also push-pull trains among them, nine engines were equipped with push-pull train controls. After class V 180 diesel locomotives had taken over these tasks, class 65¹⁰ locomotives almost exclusively pulled freight trains. They were decommissioned by 1977 and today there are still three units that were subsequently used as heating locomotives and therefore survived.