During the Russian campaign in WWII the German army had great difficulty supplying the eastern front with sufficient equipment. The "Reichsbahn" (German Railway Company) had lots of goods locomotives, but these were not standardized. This gave many problems servicing the locos, as most parts were not interchangeable, slowing down repairs. Moreover, the steam locos were not suited to the Russian winter frost, with temperatures dropping to as low as 50 degrees below zero, completely shutting down steam operation. Albert Speer, minister of armements and war production, therefore ordered a new locomotive type to be mass produced. It should be an austerity loco, which was fast to built, easy to maintain and would be equipped with frost protection. Almost all German locomotive producers, as well as some in Austria and France, took part in the production. The loco was based on the class 50, but with many simplifications. Almost 7.000 were produced in a few years, the last ones being assembled after the war, using left over parts that were still in stock. The class 52 came too late, however, when the first ones appeared Germany was already on the retreat and only few locos arrived at the front. After the war a lot of them spread through Eastern Europe, ending up in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Chechoslovakia, Austria and Turkey. In Western Germany most of them were already scrapped in the '50's, in the GDR (German Democratic Republic) , however, they were indispensable. To improve their performance 200 of them were reconstructed, received new welded boilers and were numbered class 52-8. These reliable locos were very succesful, running until the end of steam in the GDR. Many have survived, being used on museum lines. Some are on static display or have found their way into museums. The original 52's that were not reconstructed lasted until the early 80's.