50 years on and Germany's cult Trabant car is still going strong

By Heiko Haupt Jun 13, 2007, 12:38 GMT

Zwickau, Germany ­ As a symbol of a bygone political era, the cheap and cheerful Trabant car means different things to different Germans, depending on whether they hail from the west or former communist East Germany.

West Germans tend to think at once of the countless jokes made about the lacklustre little runabout with its fume-belching, two- stroke engine. Those from the east however, may recall a carefree childhood trip to a Baltic beach long before the heavily-fortified border between the two countries was torn down in 1989.

The Trabant has meanwhile become a genuine collectors' car with a devoted following. There are still more than 50,000 of them chugging around Germany, marking out the Trabant as a stubborn survivor of a defunct regime. This year the Trabi, as the little car is lovingly known, celebrates its 50th anniversary.

The story of the Trabant goes back to the 1950s when the erstwhile GDR (German Democratic Republic) was determined to show the West that its economic system could keep pace.

The rise of the west German car industry like a phoenix from the ashes of World War II did not go down well with communist leaders and they felt compelled to compete. The decision to build a genuine 'people's car' was therefore taken in 1954 at the highest level, the aim being to offer a robust and affordable means of transport for the workers.

Faced with paying large amounts of hard currency to obtain enough steel needed for the project, the East Germans opted to make the car from a material called Duraplast. This was plasticised cotton waste treated with resin and heat-pressed into form. The bodywork was mounted on a metal frame.

The makers also chose a two-cylinder engine of the kind usually reserved for motorbikes. The unit ran on a mixture of oil and petrol, hence the Trabant's signature 'ping, ping, ping' engine sound and the plumes of acrid blue smoke from its exhaust.

A forerunner of the production model was first completed at the Zwickau factory in 1957. Fifty of this P50 version were built, but it quickly became apparent that a proper name was needed for such a prestigious product of socialist engineering.

As it happened, the GDR's big brother, the Soviet Union had put a Sputnik satellite into space. The name Sputnik means 'satellite' or 'travelling companion' in Russian and it seemed to fit the bill exactly.

With its puny engine and spartan fittings the Trabant was not treated seriously by contemporary motoring pundits although some of the cars being turned out on the western side of the border were equally oddball. Examples of these were three-wheelers such as the Isetta 'bubble car' and the cockpit-like Messerschmitt. Even the Trabant's 18 horsepower engine was only slightly less powerful than the motor fitted to the Volkswagen Beetle of the day.

The first Trabant facelift came in 1964 when the bodywork was modified to give the car a less chubby appearance. The rear treatment even included vestigial versions of the fins so beloved of the cars in that 'enemy' capitalist stronghold, the United States of America,

For nearly 35 years the Trabant remained outwardly more or less the same, with only detail specification changes. The designers had ambitious plans for a successor but a chronic shortage of funds put paid to the project.

As the end of the GDR drew near, a new variant was unveiled: A licensing agreement with Volkswagen enabled the Trabant factory to offer the car with a 1.1-litre, four-stroke engine used in the Polo. A modified front grille was the only clue to the uprated power unit under the bonnet.

By the time the revamped car was ready for customers the communist nation which spawned the Trabant was on its last legs. The assembly lines in Zwickau fell silent after some 3.7 million Trabis had been made.