Number V 100 007 was built by MaK as the seventh trial engine and tested in Sweden; it was sold in 1959 to the Deutsche Bundesbahn.

As well as MaK, the firms of Deutz, Maschinenfabrik Esslingen, Henschel, Jung, Krauss-Maffei and Krupp were involved in building the locomotives.

Ten locomotives from the last batch of 150 engines were additionally equipped with stronger brakes and modified drives and were employed on ramps.

The last Class 212 was withdrawn from normal service in 2004, some have been preserved or found use with private firms.

Due to the many tunnels on the new railway line from Würzburg to Hanover, special rescue vehicles were needed.

The Bundesbahn developed the Tunnel Emergency Train (Tunnelhilfszug or TuHi) as an external rescue system.

Loco 1 has a video and infra-red camera, two large and two small headlights and yellow flashing lights.

On 29 May 1991 the Federal President, Richard von Weizsäcker, gave the starting signal at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe to announce that the new Hannover–Würzburg and Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed railways were now fully in service.

The former locomotive 2's from Würzburg and Fulda were fitted with the missing infra-red cameras in 1991 at AW Kassel.

After the serious train accident on 15 November 1992 at Northeim, when no TuHi was used, a new concept for rescue operations was introduced.

The first five TuHi locos still had the classic ocean blue and beige livery, the later eight engines were painted orient red.

To achieve greater recognisability against the emergency wagon, the locos were painted in luminous red.

With the withdrawal of the last Class 212 locomotives used by Railion on 13 December 2004 the employment of the V100 by the DB was largely over.

There the engines were systematically rebuilt and sold to interested parties, such as private railways, in Germany and abroad.

[note 1] In November 2006 Alstom and the Gmeinder Lokomotivfabrik Mosbach developed a modernisation concept for the locomotives of the former DB Class V 100.

The prototype 214 110 was presented at the "Transport & Logistik München" in June 2007, numbered as 212 197 with the Nordbayerischen Eisenbahn (NBE).

The classification was confirmed by the railway federal office in 20.05.2008, at the same time the Class 214 was specified in the EBA locomotive register.

Eleven locomotives were delivered by August 2008 to, amongst others, DB Schenker, the Nordbayerische Eisenbahn, Locon and BBL Logistik.

The OnRail DH 1004 were rebuilt from V 100s in the late 1990s and early 2000s by Vossloh retaining the frame, bogies and transmission but with the engine and bodywork replaced.