The for loop is the most unintuitive variant of the possible looping constructs. The others (while do/do while/endless loop) are much more straightforward. We could easily have ended up with another version.
I always read it as inspired by "for values of" which at least in German is a common phrase heard in mathematical courses.
I don't think it's much more intuitive in German than in English, probably goes back to the "for each" quantor.