The electrification of various railway lines between France, Luxembourg and Germany in the 1960s and 1970s led to an increased need for two-system locomotives for operation at 15 kV, 162/3 Hz and 25 kV, 50 Hz. Based on the experience with the four prototypes (series 1 81.0 and 181.181.0). .1) The German Federal Railway ordered 25 double system locomotives, which were commissioned from 1974 as a series 181.2 (181 201 to 181 225). The first ten engines were delivered in steel blue colour, while the new two-tone paint of the DB in ocean blue and beige was already used in the 181 211-225. Some of the locomotives were baptized. They received the names "Lorraine" (181 211), "Luxembourg" (181 212), "Saar" (181 213) and "Mosel" (181 214) appreciated their area of application. cross-border traffic on the routes Frankfurt a.M. ? Metz and Strasbourg ? Stuttgart, where they carried regional, express and freight trains. They were also seen in IC and EC traffic in Luxembourg, Basel, Leipzig and other German cities. The era of this series at Deutsche Bahn AG ended only in 2018. Meanwhile, however, some locomotives have been put back on the tracks by other railway companies, enriching the variety of vehicles in modern railways.