Cars of the GDR

The Trabant became one of the symbols of the GDR. A small car with two doors and a plastic body. The first Trabant was released in 1957, the year space exploration began. Trabant means "satellite" in German. It was produced at the IFA plant, which also produced famous trucks. It was intended to be a mass people's car and was a response to the West German Beetle. The birthplace of the Trabant is Zwickau, where Audi and Horch cars were also produced before the war. A special material, “duroplast,” was chosen for the body because rolled steel sheet was in short supply. In this case, the material was stamped. The car was light, so it was very small at 17 hp. The two-stroke engine provided the car with good dynamics. The motor was so simple that maintaining, repairing and replacing it was absolutely no problem. At the same time, other solutions: front-wheel drive, independent suspension, rack-and-pinion steering were very progressive for that time.

Wartburg was the second brand of passenger car produced in the GDR. It was produced at the plant in Eisenach, where BMW was produced before the war. After the war, already part of the GDR, BMW cars continued to be produced at this plant. Due to the threat of sanctions for using the trademark, it was replaced with the EMW (Eisenach Motoren Werke) logo. The medieval Wartburg Castle is also located here; Martin Luther, the initiator of the Church Reformation, spent his childhood in this city. The Wartburg-353 car was produced for 26 years, until 1991, when, at the insistence of the authorities of united Germany, the plant ceased to exist. The body had a frame structure, all body parts were bolted on, which simplified repairs. The car had front-wheel drive, which was rare in the 60s.