The Royal Saxon State Railway designated four-coupled tank locomotives for passenger train service as class IV T (four-T), and the Deutsche Reichsbahn subsequently grouped these locomotives into DRG Class 71.3 in 1925.

In terms of design, the locomotives were based on the class T 5.1 of the Prussian State Railways.

Despite the defects that emerged, such as the uneven running at high speed, which led to derailments, 91 copies of this locomotive were procured from 1897 to 1909 in several lots.

On Saxon routes it is not so much a high top speed that matters, but rather good acceleration due to the relatively short distance between the stops.

The first delivery series had a driver's cab with a large door cutout; from 1902, the locomotives were instead equipped with sliding windows on the side.