The train was named after the German author and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who lived in Frankfurt.

It originally was scheduled to operate westbound in the morning and eastbound in the late afternoon and evening.

[1] On 31 May 1975, it was discontinued, replaced by an unnamed two-class express train running on a similar schedule over the same route.

[5] During the same period, from 1975, the Paris–Frankfurt express/Schnellzug running on approximately the former Goethe schedule had continued to operate, without name, and was reclassified as an InterCity (IC 156/157) in June 1984.

EC 56/57)[7] and from 1997 to 1999 it was extended to Prague It was replaced in June 2007 by an ICE3 service, unnamed and initially requiring a change of train in Saarbrücken.