The Class 65.10 was developed after the Second World War as a powerful tank locomotive that would replace engines of classes 74, 75, 78, 86, 93 and 94.
Numbers 1001 and 1002 were built at VEB Lokomotivbau Elektrotechnische Werke (LEW), formerly Borsig Lokomotiv Werke (AEG), Hennigsdorf, and the production models at VEB Lokomotivbau Karl Marx, (LKM, formerly Orenstein & Koppel) Babelsberg.