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Sachsenring Trabant - The little one from "over there"

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Created on January 1, 1981

Text:

Jürgen Wolter

Photos:

Archiv

36

Archiv

36

Trabant 601 Universal (1982) - Station wagon in yellow

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Trabant P 70 (1961) - the company in Zwickau also relies on plastic, here called Duroplast

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Trabant P60 (1960) - a steel frame planked with "Duroplast" turned the small car into a plastic limousine

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AWZ P 70 Zwickau (1956) - predecessor of the Trabant

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Trabant 601 (1976)

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Trabant 601 (1967) - the compact four-seater from the GDR

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Trabant (1964) - the instrument of popular motorization in the GDR, with new two-cylinder two-stroke engine and air cooling, front-wheel drive - Geneva Motor Show 1964

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Trabant 601 (1967) - photogenically positioned

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Trabant 601 (1971) - 4 seats, 600 cm3, 26 DIN hp, 100 km/h

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Trabant 601 (1971) - multi-purpose car with four seats, 600 cm3, 26 DIN hp and a top speed of 100 km/h

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Trabant P 601 (1967) - with two-stroke engine and air cooling - Geneva Motor Show 1967

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Trabant 601 (1971) - Construction

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Trabant 601 (1971) - Interior demonstration in the sales brochure

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Trabant 601 (1971) - Production

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Trabant 601 (1974) - Transparency drawing

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Trabant 601 (1974) - for the whole family

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Trabant 601 (1974) - on the road in Berlin

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Trabant 601 (1975) - at the Belgrade Motor Show

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Trabant 601 (1975) - at the Belgrade Motor Show

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Trabant 601 (1976) - almost unchanged for years

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Trabant 601 (1978) - at full speed

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Trabant 601 Universal (1974) - the station wagon for short and long journeys

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Trabant 601 (1981) - beautiful beach scene

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Trabant 601 Universal (1974) - lifestyle station wagon?

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Trabant 601 Universal (1967) - as a station wagon

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Trabant 601 Universal (1967) - as a station wagon

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Trabant 601 Universal (1971) - Brochure illustrations

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Trabant 601 Universal (1976) - Combi version

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Trabant 601 Universal (1976) - on the road in the West

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Trabant 601 Universal (1978) - Station wagon version

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Trabant 601 Universal (1978) - estate and saloon combined

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Trabant 601 Universal (1981) - the practical station wagon

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Trabant 601 Universal (1981) - in the snow

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Trabant 601 Universal (1982) - mirrored station wagon in yellow

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Trabant 601 (1974) - as a Universal estate and as a saloon

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Trabant 601 (1981) - two-door sedan in the snow

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Summary

They were rarely seen in West Germany in the 1980s, the Trabants from the GDR. A few found their way across the border and they were not welcome everywhere, as this 40-year-old report explains, which is supplemented with many historical pictures and wonderfully nostalgic sales brochures.

This article contains the following chapters

(N)ostalgia
Passenger cars are not the number 1
P.50 from 1958
Ever more powerful
Not immune to rust
Simple and yet complicated

Estimated reading time: 8min

Preview (beginning of the article)

The old man struck the hood angrily with his walking stick. "Do you have to bring these cars here too? I'm glad to be out of there, and now you're driving around here in cars like that too!" The thorn in his side was my Trabant, in which I was waiting at a traffic light. I had bought the small GDR car from a Hungarian who had left on a trip abroad. Since the import of GDR cars was stopped 13 years ago (editor's note: around 1970), such let's-go-Westers have been pretty much the only source of Trabant and Wartburg cars in the Federal Republic. The Federal Motor Transport Authority counted 133 registered Trabants and 167 Wartburgs on July 1, 1981. And it listed the peak years for these models: in 1965, 2602 Wartburgs from Eisenach and 821 Trabants from Zwickau were on the roads of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1968.

Welcome to Zwischengas!

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