As early as 1956, the development of the V 160 series began at the Krupp locomotive factory in Essen in cooperation with the then Deutsche Bundesbahn.

New high-performance locomotives were urgently needed – on the one hand due to the steadily increasing transport services due to the increasing economy, but also due to the very outdated stock of steam locomotives, some of which still dated back to the time of the Länderbahn. Even then, efforts were made to procure no more new steam locomotives, but modern diesel and electric locomotives, which on the one hand have a higher degree of efficiency, but on the other hand also require a significantly lower infrastructure and lower personnel costs. Good experience had already been gained with the V 200 series, which entered service in 1953 and was incorporated into the development of the V 160.

The diesel locomotives of the V 160 series were intended for passenger and freight train service and were well equipped for this with their 1900 hp and a top speed of 120 km/h. Numerous locomotives of this class were equipped with push-pull control. At that time, many passenger coaches still had steam heating systems and the V 160 had a steam boiler of the type Vapor-Heating OK4616 to supply the heaters of the passenger coaches, but also to preheat or keep the engine system warm. For this purpose, the locomotives carried a supply of 3,000 litres of water.

The first 9 pre-production locomotives V 160 001 to 009 were given the round shape of the stems, which earned them the nickname "Lollo" in allusion to the Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, who was very popular in the 1950s. From the V 160 010 onwards, the locomotives were given the more angular front end, which was initially developed for the V 320, but was also adopted for the V 160 due to simplified and cheaper production.

With the exception of the V 160 006, the pre-series engines were equipped with Maybach MD16V 538TB engines.

Of the Class V 160 (later Class 216), 214 engines were put into service between 1963 and 1968. The further developments with the classes 210, 215, 217, 218 and 219 reached very high numbers, many of which are still reliably in service today. Not only at Deutsche Bahn AG, but also at numerous private railways, these engines can be found, some with various modifications and in a wide variety of colours.

The ten pre-production locomotives were retired between 1978 and 1984. One of them even made it to the TWE afterwards. In the years 1989 and 1993 to 1996, V 160 004 (designated V 216 by the TWE) was often encountered in front of the steel trains running between Hanekenfähr near Lingen and Paderborn in a blue-orange livery. In 1996, it was also sold to Italy and was used there for many years after extensive refurbishment by a private company in Genoa.
Of the ten pre-series machines, 5, i.e. exactly half, have been preserved in Germany and abroad.

V 160 002 (from 1968: 216 002-6) was commissioned on 8.12.1960, retired on 28.9.1978 and finally retired on 18.3.1979 and sold to Italy. Here she worked for a track construction company before she was found in Barcelona, Spain, two years later.

In 2010, the locomotive was brought back to Germany by its current owner Albert Merseburger and refurbished to operational condition and equipped with Pzb 90 and GSM-R. The visual condition is approximately the same as the delivery condition of 1960. The locomotive has found a new home in the Kulturlokschuppen Neumünster.

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