The electrification of several railway lines between France, Luxembourg and Germany in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in an increased need for dual-system locomotives to operate with 15 kV, 162/3 Hz and 25 kV, 50 Hz.Based on experience with the four prototypes (classes 181.0). and 181 .1 ) the German Federal Railway ordered 25 dual-system locomotives which were commissioned as class 181.2 (181 201 to 181 225) from 1974. The first ten engines were delivered in steel blue paint, while the new two-tone paint scheme of the DB in ocean blue and beige was already used in the 181 211-225. Some of the locomotives were baptized. They were given the names "Lorraine" (181 211), "Luxembourg" (181 212), "Saar" (181 213) and "Mosel" (181 214) paying tribute to their service area.The main service area of 3,300 kW electric locomotives was initially cross-border a. traffic on the Frankfurt A.M. - Metz and Strasbourg - Stuttgart routes, where they carried regional, express and freight trains. They could also be seen in IC and CE traffic in Luxembourg, Basel, Leipzig and other German cities. The era of this series at Deutsche Bahn AG only ended in 2018. Meanwhile, however, some locomotives have been put back on the tracks by other railway companies that enrich the variety of vehicles on modern railways.