In 1956, the GDR travel agency introduced a night train on the connection between Dresden and Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. On the initiative of the FDJ, the "Touristenexpress" (abbreviated "TOUREX") night train was created in 1961, which was used as a special train for travel agencies from the summer of 1963.

The "TOUREX" consisted of sleeping and dining carriages, plus a few special cars, which initially came in a blue color scheme with the cursive "Tourist Express" lettering. Later, however, more and more red-painted Mitropa cars were used.

From the seventies, the "TOUREX" also began to transport DDm car transport wagons. The train departed from Dresden-Neustadt and carried via Bad Schandau, Decin, Olomouc (or Brno), Sturovo, Szob, Budapest, Szolnok, Biharkeresztes, Episkopia Bihor, Cluj, Brasov, Bucharest, Giurgiu Nord and Ruse (or Negru Voda and Kardam) to Varna. Most of the time it was driven with no scheduled stops. For city trips, however, there were also daytime stops in Budapest or other places along the way.