Trabant - the East German People's Car

Few cars are subjected to the amount negative press as the Trabant, East Germany's infamous people's car. In the Western press stories about the Trabant are invariably negative and popularise all sorts of ridiculous myths and misinformation, often by writers who have never seen, let alone actually driven a real Trabant. Much of the criticism leveled at the car is political in nature with the Trabant forming a topos of Communist inefficiency and incompetence. However, when one separates facts from fiction and assesses the car on its own merits, a quite different picture emerges.

Origins

The division of Germany into Western and Eastern spheres left East Germany with only a smattering of viable auto-works. These included the BMW works at Eisenach, Framo's light truck factory at Hainichen, the Phanomen heavy truck-works at Zittau, and the factories of the Auto-Union conglomerate spread across Chemnitz, Zwickau and Zschopau. All the factories were damaged during the war and what wasn't destroyed by bombs was pillaged by Soviet engineering corps as war reparations. The Soviet's diligently stripped every last piece of industrial equipment from the main factories - even down to the door frames and plumbing - but one or two smaller plants slipped through the net. One factory that escaped the Soviet's attention was the DKW engine reconditioning workshop in Chemnitz. This small factory retained a store of spare engines and parts, and - importantly - possessed the plans and blueprints for the range of DKW cars and motorcycles. Other important survivors were a range of small karosseriewerkes (body shops) in Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden. It wasn't much of a foundation to build upon. In 1946 the East German government nationalised the auto industry under a single governing body named VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb).

The Predecessors
Inevitably the first cars produced out of the old factories were copies of pre-war models. At the 1948 Leipzig Trade Fare, IFA, as East Germany's nationalised DKW factory was now named, released its version of the pre-war DKW F8.

This tough little car, with its wooden bodywork and powered by a 684cc two cylinder two-stroke engine, became the mainstay of the East German auto industry for the next few years. It was sold in sedan, wagon, and cabriolet versions.

Between 1951 and 1957 IFA also manufactured the impressive 'Luxus' F8 for the export market. The Luxus' steel bodywork was hand-built by VEB karosseriewerk in Dresden (formerly the Glaser karosserie). Only 400 were built and all but 70 were exported.

In 1949 IFA released the F9, the realization of DKW's pre-war F9 'hohneklasse.' The car was not an exact replica of the 1939 model as the original engine plans had been lost during the war so a new engine was reverse engineered, but it was very close in styling and performance. The F9 would remain in production from 1950 to 1956, when it was replaced by the Wartburg 311.

The F8 Luxus and F9 were both high quality, modern steel cars and, at approximately 13,500 Marks apiece, were generally out of the price range of the average East German consumer. In fact most were exported to bring in desperately needed foreign currency. The F9 enjoyed strong sales in Scandinavia, France and Belgium, South America and even South Africa. Domestic consumers were forced to make do with the old-fashioned F8, which itself cost an extravagant 8,145 Marks. In 1953 VEB presented the Autowerkes at Zwickau (AWZ) a brief to develop a budget car for the people in the price range of approximately 4,000 Marks. The brief came with the caveat that the car must not consume East Germany's scarce strategic resources, most especially steel. With admirable forethought they added a requirement that the design should be flexible enough to permit future enhancements to the vehicle's power plant and drive train without requiring wholesale changes to the design.

The Zwickau engineers had already been pondering this very question for sometime and presented their solution in October 1954, after less than a year in development. The new car was effectively an updated F8 with completely new, pontoon bodywork made from a synthetic product called Duroplast.

AWZ P70

The prototype AWZ P70 goes on display at the Leipzig auto fair in 1954.

A lot of preposterous claims have been made about the Trabant's Duroplast body being made of cardboard. This is rubbish. Duroplast was a pioneering synthetic product of impressive versatility and durability that had been in use since the 1920s. Phenolic resin, a by-product from the chemical dying industry, when impregnated into a porous substrate material and compressed and heated, created a durable, hard wearing and heat resistant product, much like Bakelite. It had many practical uses, but the idea of using it in cars was developed by DKW engineers in the 1930s as an alternative to plywood paneling.

Duroplast body panels on display at the DKW stand at the Berlin Motor Show in 1936.

DKW's Duroplast was made from resin impregnated sawdust and wood-fibre and used initially on items such the trunk lids, which being curved could be mass produced in Duroplast cheaper than being hand-formed in wood. Soon DKW begin investigating Duroplast for all body panels and numerous test cars were smashed and rolled to test Duroplast's response to collision damage. Duroplast did not handle load bearing stress particularly well but the tests proved that it was no less safe than DKW's wooden bodywork and in 1937 Duroplast bodied F8's went on the market. Bonnets however continued to be manufactured in steel.

DKW's marketing department employed gimmicky photos like this to demonstrate the effectiveness of Duroplast to a dubious market. AWZ would find itself doing the same.

The first all Duroplast bodied car should have been DKW's new F9. When originally designed in 1935, the F9 was planned as an all steel-bodied competitor to the KDF Volkswagen project, however, steel rationing forced DKW to redesign the car for Duroplast. The war however, intervened before any cars went into production.

After the war VEB was able to source vast supplies of cotton waste from the Soviet Union very cheaply, the Soviets being a leading producer of cotton, to replace DKW's sawdust and wood fibre substrate. In 1953 IFA began manufacturing Duroplast door and bonnet panels for the F8.

The P70's designers had planned the car with a modern steel monocoque chassis, but fastening the Duraplast panels directly onto the steel frame proved more technically challenging than they had expected. VEB however, wanted the car to go into immediate production so in order to fulfill the order AWZ opted to continue with traditional wood framed bodywork. This ultimately limited the car's mass production potential.

Like their DKW predecessors before them, the AWZ team stand behind... err, on top of.... their product.

Underneath the new body however, the P70 was running an F8 chassis with transverse mounted, water-cooled 688cc two-stroke engine. The engine was however moved slightly forward, ahead of the front axle. The gear lever was mounted in the centre of the dash.

With it's new, modern styling the AWZ P70 was a sensation with the public when released in 1955. There were three models - the sedan, kombi van and a very sporty two seater coupe, which primarily targeted the export market. At 9900 Marks, the P70 could scarcely be considered a budget, people's car, but was on par with that other people's car, the Volkswagen, with which it compared favourably. It sold well in both domestic and export markets and some 36,000 were built before production ceased in 1959.

The very elegant P70 coupe. The majority of these sleek little roadsters went to the export market. They are highly desirable today.

The Trabant
The P70 was not a Trabant in the true sense but a compromise that pointed towards the future. As far as VEB was concerned however, the P70 met their design brief and they were not really interested in further development, but the design team at AWZ were not particularly happy with the car and a team under chief-designer Werner Lang continued to work on the design. The resulting AWZ P-50 that was presented in November 1957 was superficially similar to it predecessor, but was in fact a completely different vehicle. It had a modern, steel monocoque frame, upon which were hung the Duroplast body panels. The engine was a 17 horsepower, 499cc two-cylinder two-stoke of a new design manufactured by VEB Barkaswerkes in Chemnitz. To reduce cost and complexity, the transverse mounted engine was air-cooled. A permanent freewheel device was installed to avoid engine damage. Like its predecessors, the gear lever was mounted in the dashboard and the gearbox was unsynchronised. The petrol tank was situated in the engine bay. Styling was contemporary and appealing.

Trabant P50

VEB approved the car and it entered production in late 1958 with the name "Trabant", which was German for satellite in honour of the recent Soviet Sputnik launch. The Trabant compared favourably with other German 'klein-wagens' (small cars), such as the NSU Prinz, Lloyd 500 and Goggomobil TS250, and was streaks ahead of kabinerollers like the BMW Isetta, and Messerschmitt that many people had to make do with. Although small, it could seat four people in reasonable comfort. Its small engine was adequate for its size and was of such simple design that it could be worked on by a home mechanic with standard household tools. Only six bolts held the engine in place and it was light enough to be lifted from the car by hand.

The P50-1 was in production from August 1958 to October 1959, during which time a number of running improvements were made. The engine was uprated to 18 hp and then 20 hp, and new paint and trim options became available, including two and three tone paint schemes. The price for a standard model in East Germany was 8,440 Marks, which equated to an average worker's annual wage - certainly not the budget price VEB had originally envisaged. Tellingly, the Trabant was sold across the border in West Germany for only 3,656 DM, where it competed successfully in the klein-wagons market.

The P50-2 was introduced in 1960 with further improvements in basic fittings. A synchro gearbox was introduced and a three-door kombi van was also added to the range. Sales in the West received a boost when the Trabant won its class in the Austrian Semperit Rally. However, by 1962 western exports began to decline as better quality small cars, such as the Austin Mini, began to enter the market. Because Sachsenring concentrated on the export market, East German consumers were poorly served, having to put up with lengthy waits to receive even the most basic models. Some 131,000 P50s of all types were built.

Trabant P60

In October 1962 the new P60 or Trabant 600 was introduced. In styling and appearance it looked identical to its predecessor, but featured an engine bored out to 594cc and delivering 25hp. A fully synchronised gearbox was also introduced as standard and the gear shifter was now on the steering column. It was at this point that VEB's farsighted original specification about engine interchangeability paid its first dividend as P50 owners swapped out their old engines and gearboxes for the newer versions. It is now very rare to find P50s with their original engines. In later years it wasn't unknown for Trabant owners to carry a spare engine or two in their boot in case of emergencies. 

With a domestic price of around 7,500 Marks, the P60 was still a relatively expensive vehicle for the average East German. Nevertheless, export demand to Eastern Bloc countries was high and 108,000 P60s were built before the model was replaced in 1965.

Trabant 601

The P60's successor was the Trabant 601, the archetypical Trabant. The 601 had a slightly more powerful 28hp engine, improvements to its suspension, and was restyled away from its curvy, 50s styled predecessor, with squarer features, a larger boot, wider body, and a distinctive false radiator grill. Two tone and chrome trim were dropped in favour of bold, block colours of blue, green, brown and white. The price tag for the standard model was 8,000 Marks.

This model would remain in production, virtually unchanged until 1990, much to the disgust of the designers at Sachsenring. They had seen the 601 simply as a stop gap model while they worked up the designs of the next generation of modern, steel bodied vehicles. Sachsenring even worked with Felix Wankel on a rotary-engined small car that would have been an interesting counterpoint to NSU's radical rotary engined Ro80. But year on year VEB management steadfastly refused to grant funding for the many new prototypes and improved variants the designers presented. There were two reasons behind this. Firstly, the collapse of East Germany's export markets in the west and the loss of hard currency earnings was slowly but surely strangling the East German economy. With less capital to throw around, VEB invested its development budget where it saw the biggest return, such as in heavy truck sales to Asia and the Middle East. Secondly, demand for the Trabant never waned, especially in the eastern markets, and as long as the car was selling, the administrators at VEB saw no need to change it. The Trabant's success led to complacency and stagnation.

These problems weren't immediately apparent in 1965. In fact the new Trabant was in such high demand that Sachsenring could not keep up with production. In part, this was due to the limitations of the Duraplast manufacturing process. Each Duroplast panel took 20 minutes for pressing, curing and drying which set a fixed limit on the number of panels that could be produced per day. Instead of purchasing more machine presses, VEB chose to distribute parts manufacture across more factories, which only made production more complicated and inefficient. Long waiting times for vehicles were experienced, mainly by East German customers as Sachsenring diverted most production for export. Hungary was Sachsenring's biggest market and Hungarian customers could buy a Trabant without any waiting period. Bulgarian customers might have to wait a year, but the wait for East German customers stretched out beyond 2 years. By 1990 the waiting list could be as long as 14 years.



As much as the Sachsenring designers complained about the lack of development, small changes and improvements continued to be made. The Deluxe model was released in 1966 with a return to two tone paint schemes, chrome trim and improved fittings. There was also a camping version with a sunroof. By 1968 half a million Trabants had rolled off the production line.

In 1973 the millionth Trabant left the factory to much fanfare. Although sales were still strong, Sachsenring knew they needed to vamp up the old car. Another round of new models were presented to VEB, which were again turned down and customers were forced to make do with minor improvements, such as 12 volt electrics, automatic transmission and better brakes and suspension.

By the mid-1980s no amount of improvements could disguise the fact that the Trabant was very tired. Even sales to Communist Bloc countries was beginning to wane in favour of Czechoslovakian Skodas or Polish built Fiats. Conditions at Sachsenring had also declined; the equipment was antiquated, the staff were demoralised and disorganised, and the cars that ran off the production line were of increasingly poor quality. Customers receiving brand new Trabants were often horrified to discover that bolts were not tightened, panels were loose, and electrical fittings were not connected. It was little use complaining as no one at the company was interested. In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down and the convoy of smoking, spluttering Trabants heading west became an iconic - and fatal - image for the car. It's days were numbered.

East Germans heading west. Part of the negative image of Trabants as stinking and smokey comes from the bad advice provided to Trabant owners by the state-owned Minol oil company. Although the Trabant could run on 1/33 petroil ratio, Minol recommended owners over-oil the mixture to as high as 1/25 to better preserve their engines. This was untrue and actually made the engine run less efficiently. Nevertheless, despite all the fatalist jokes about East Germans and the Trabant, the shortage of cars in East Germany meant Trabant owners took extremely good care of their car. For this reason Trabants still hold a  record for longevity - an average of 28 years of active road use.

In 1989 the West German people's car manufacturer, Volkswagen, cast acquisitive eyes on Sachsenring as a means to break into the Communist Bloc market. To help prop up the moribund East German economy they moved manufacture of VW Polo components east where wages were cheaper, but quality control was also poorer. VW and Sachsenring established a joint venture for a Volkswagen engined replacement to the Trabant. Sachsenring's engineers presented a brand new design for an all steel mid-sized, contemporary styled car, but unfortunately Sachsenring was virtually bankrupt and could not afford the tooling and panel presses required, so the VW engine was installed in a modernised Trabant. Named the Trabant 1.1, the car was more modern than its predecessors, with a new dashboard and controls, including for the first time a petrol gauge! To accommodate the new engine the petrol tank was moved to the rear.

But it was all in vain. The Trabant 1.1 wasn't necessarily a bad car - quality control was much better than on late model 601s - but it was simply out of touch with the market. East German consumers were now looking for modernity and variety and the Trabant 1.1 just looked too much like.... well, a Trabant. In 1991 Volkswagen, who had taken a controlling share in Sachsenring, shut down the Zwickau factory and ended the Trabant's 33 year odyssey. All up some 3.4 millions Trabants had rolled off the production line - a remarkable achievement by anyone's standard.

Trabant 1.1's fill the stockyard looking for a home.

Legacy

In the years after German unification the Trabant was a disparaged reminder of the failed East German socialist system. Trabants became literally worthless overnight and hundreds of thousands were simply abandoned and left to rot, which proved a problem in itself as Duroplast was non-biodegradable. One of the Trabants major selling points - that its Duroplast panels did not rust or rot - was now a major environmental problem and another symbol of the failed socialist system.

By the turn of the millennium however, a certain nostalgia for the smokey old East German car began to appear, especially amongst the new generation of Ostlanders disappointed with the failed promises of German unification. The Trabant became a symbol of the Ostalgia movement.

Another factor in the Trabant's rehabilitation was its incredible robustness. Many an old Trabant was wheeled out of its shed after a decade or two's slumber and with little more than a new battery and fresh petroil, spluttered back into life. For students across Europe an old Trabant banger could be purchased for as little as 100 euro to do the job. Youth culture and the tuning movement then took a hand and the staid old Trabant was souped, chopped and slammed and suddenly became tre-cool. All across East Germany and the former Communist Bloc countries there are Trabi-treffens and clubs with tens of thousands of Trabants and related oldtimers attending.

In fact, when all the politics and hyperbole is put aside and the car is judged according to its merits, it really wasn't a bad car.  It was old even when it was new, but then it never aspired to greatness, or aimed at taking the world by storm, but it did the job it was designed to do, which was to provide cheap, reliable transport with a minimum of fuss and maintenance. And hundreds of thousands of them to continue to do this job today. The Trabant is not dead, not by a long shot!


A case of parallel development. Both the Volkswagen and the Trabant were built as budget vehicles with an expected short term lifespan, but both continued in production basically in their original form for decades. Both cars stir deep passions of affection or revulsion in people and both have fiercely loyal fan bases that have kept these old cars on the road and relevant.

Some Videos

VEB Sachsenring - East Germany's People's Cars

The Allies had no grand plan to permanently divide Germany after the Second World War, but as relations between the Allies degenerated through 1946-47, the de-facto occupation zones began to take on the shape of separate regimes. By the fortune of war Auto-Union found itself in the Soviet occupation zone. Having been given over to war production, some of their factories had been severely damaged during the war. Those that weren't destroyed were stripped by the Soviets for war reparations. What was left to Auto-Union after the war wasn't much to speak of and it certainly didn't bode well for the future.

The Soviets had initially shown little interest in the general welfare of the German people, but once it became clear that the division of Germany was going to become permanent, the Soviets were forced to revise their attitude. To avoid capitalist subversion they needed to address the East Germans' political and economic needs, so in 1948 the Soviets handed over control of all commandeered industrial facilities over to the East German government.

By order to the Soviet Occupying authority, Auto-Union was formally de-registered in October 1945 after its assets had been stripped. A successor company was then founded in its place, which in February 1948 petitioned the East German government for recovery of its seized property. In July the East German confirmed the legality of the seizure and deregistration, and moved to formalize nationalization of the remnants of the company. The old Auto-Union was no more.

The East Germans faced the same challenges as their West German counterparts - the need to people to work and rebuild the shattered nation. The difference was that the recovery would be centrally directed. Apart from the Auto-Union group, East Germany was not blessed with a large auto industry. An overarching authority for the motor industry was established called VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb), under which all the companies would operate. Auto-Union became VEB-IFA. While Auto-Union in the west had to start largely from scratch, IFA was at least able recover many plans, tooling and parts from Auto-Union's archives and stocks of spare parts.

The restoration of cash-flow was the new company's immediate and understandable priority. In cash strapped GDR, it may seem unlikely that Auto-Union's luxury car brand, Horch, would have any place, but strangely that would not be the case.

VEB Horch

A Horch KFZ15. Horch built several truck models for the Wehrmacht.

Before the war Horch had specialized in luxuriously appointed limousines. They were the favorite car of Nazi Reichmarshal, Herman Goering, who delighted in their ostentatious extravagance. During the war, Horch was given over to manufacturing heavy duty military trucks. After the war the Soviets seized the designs and stripped the machinery from the factory and set up production in the USSR.

The Horch plant was left with little to work with apart from some 910 and 930 limousine chassis, engines and fittings. After clearing the damaged factory, the workers began building Horch limousine's to order. Between 1950 and 1953 approximately six spectacular Horch 930S' were built for Communist Party officials. This led on to a contract to build a luxury sedan for official use. The resulting Horch P240 was a long way from Horch's luxury car heritage, but was quite an extravagant vehicle for these straitened times. The car was powered by a 2.4 litre Horch six cylinder engine of pre-war provenance. The car was in production for a short time from 1956 and 1959.

A Soviet general approaches his Horch limousine. VEB Horch produced these cars specifically for Communist party officials, but they were a far cry from the pre-war Horch products. The Horch was eventually retired in favour of the Czech Tarta 603 and the Russian Zil.

VEB IFA
The DKW brand was renamed IFA (Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau, or the Industrial Association for Vehicle Construction) in 1949. Like their western counterpart in Ingolstadt, IFA had a stock of prewar F8 chassis, engines to call upon, so their first car, the IFA F8, was identical to its prewar predecessor. The first cars even had a green and white IFA badge based on the old DKW badge. It would be redesigned after complaints from the West German Auto-Union in 1950.

A luxury export model was also produced with bodywork based on the Baur bodied DKW F10.

The F8 was only a stop gap however and in 1950 IFA unveiled the new F9. The IFA F9 was the realization of DKW's pre-war F9, powered by the 3=6 900cc two stroke. It would be 1953 before DKW in the west finally got the 3=6 into their version. The F9 was every bit the success in the east as it was in the west. It was produced in two door and four door versions, hard and soft top.

Contemporary advertising for the F9. Life in the GDR is often portrayed as a life without choices but that isn't entirely the case. In the 1950s GDR consumers had almost as many choices of vehicle as their cousins in the west and they were just as expensive and unaffordable for the majority.

The new car was still described as the IFA-DKW. Legal problems with Auto-Union DKW led the company to drop the DKW reference.

The IFA F9 was a virtual replica of DKW's 1939 F9 prototype, but some changes were required. Although superficially similar in appearance, the IFA 3=6 engine was in fact a new design reverse engineered from a single example recovered in Leipzig. IFA abandoned the rear-mounted fuel tank in favour of an under bonnet tank as in the F8. This meant that the car did not need a fuel pump and simplified construction somewhat. Production was very slow and only 1880 cars were built between 1950 and 1953.


IFA moves on

By the the 1950s it was apparent to the East German government that a comprehensive industrial re-organisation was required. This wasn't simply an exercise in socialist political re-engineering; the random smattering of industries the East Germans inherited just wasn't equipped to meet the country's needs and production needed to be closely managed in order to marshal the countries meagre resources. All the auto companies were organized into a new conglomerate called VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb = National Corporation) and give a specific market and resource allocation. IFA was ordered to cease manufacturing cars and began manufacturing heavy trucks based on Horch designs. IFA's sturdy trucks went on to be became a major export earner for East Germany.

Introducing the Wartburg

IFA's move into truck manufacturing did not spell the end of the F9. Production of the F9 was transferred to the former BMW works in Eisenach. This factory, in the shadow of the medieval Wartburg castle, had begun building Austin 7s under the Dixi brand name in the 1920s. BMW took over the plant in the 1930s, developing a pleasant line of sporty roadsters. After the war, the plant recommenced manufacturing BMW roadsters and a large 6 cylinder four-stroke tourer called the BMW 340. All the cars built up to this point were designated BMW, but with the nationalization of the factory in 1952 BMW was forced to relocate its operations to Munich. BMW sued VEB over use of the BMW name and logo which resulted in the Eisenach company changing its name to VEB EMW (Eisenach Motorwerkes).

This Swedish advert names the car an EMW while still noting it as a BMW. EMW's products were too expensive for the domestic market and were primarily shipped for exported. Sweden and Finland received large shipments of IFA vehicles.
http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/wartburg-in-eisenach-75-year-anniversary.html

EMW's large and expensive vehicles found no market in East Germany so the factory was under utilized, nevertheless, when the employees discovered they were going to be building the budget F9, they were less than impressed. As far as they were concerned, the F9 was a low quality, budget machine that was well beneath them. VEB however, wasn't concerned with their opinion  and the F9 began to roll off Eisenach's production line from late 1952. The EMW team quickly revised and updated the car, with a wrap around windscreen and large rear window, steering column gear shift, and better quality fittings. The fuel tank was returned to the boot and a petrol pump was installed.

In 1956 the Eisenach plant stopped production of the F9 models in favour of a completely redesigned car, the Wartburg 311. Underneath the car's completely redesigned and modernised body was the F9s slightly modernised 3=6 two-stroke engine and chassis. The new car came in sedan, cabriolet, wagon, campervan and roadster models.

Contemporary advertising for the Wartburg 311, the most popular Wartburg model. http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/1959-wartburg-prospect.html

The Wartburg was a well appointed and good performing car and between 1956 and 1966 almost 300,000 cars ran off the production line. Many were exported both east and west. In 1966 the Wartburg was modernised and the engine upgraded to 992cc. The new model, the 353's square and boxy contemporary styling left a lot to be desired in the appearance stakes but it was a success domestically and abroad, selling over 1.4 million cars.


The Trabant - the Peoples Car

The Wartburg was a luxury vehicle and largely out of the price range of most East Germans. For the majority of people they had to make do with MZ motorcycles, IWL scooters or Simson mopeds to get around. VEB Sachsenring were tasked to build a cheap, people's car that did not consume too much of East Germany's scarce strategic raw materials. Sachsenring drew on its DKW patrimony to create a new, modernised budget vehicle, the AWZ P-70.

AWZ P-70 Kombi.

The P-70 looked like a new car but underneath was an F8 chassis with its two-cylinder 700cc engine. The body however was entirely new and modern, built out of a new synthetic product called Duroplast (see below), which was mounted to a wooden frame. The car came in a variety of styles; two door sedan, three door/hatch estate wagon and a neat little sports model. The P-70 was only in production for three years (1955-59) during which time approximately 36,000 of all models were made.

DKW had experimented with synthetic materials in their cars in the 1930s. One of those products was a resin impregnated wood pulp called Duroplast. The great advantage of Duroplast was that it involved no strategic materials, was cheap to make, and once set was extremely robust. It would never rust and could easily be patched if damaged. Unlike fibreglass, which was just coming into use vehicles in the west, Duroplast was easy to manufacture and and could be pressed into shape in a similar way to steel panels.

Duroplast in its various states. On the right hand side are the raw cotton fibres, these were loosely woven into a sheet and then compressed into a pattern and impregnated with resin. The resin itself was a recycled byproduct of the chemical dye industry. Once pressed and cured, Duroplast was extremely strong and long lasting. Far from being the 'primitive' product it is often claimed to be, it actually pointed the way towards the lightweight carbon fibre paneling used on our modern cars and aircraft.

Das Trabbie!

The classic P-50. The 50 designation refer to the engine ccs.

In 1959 the AWZ P-70 was replaced by the P-50; the first 'true' Trabant. The P-50 saw cost saving and austerity take precedence over 'performance.' The 700cc water cooled F8 engine was replaced by a smaller 488cc air-cooled two-stroke engine that had been developed for a prewar Framo light truck. Air cooling make the engine simpler and was something of a step backwards. Performance was ultimately reduced, but this was felt to be a fair exchange for a budget car and helped reduce both weight and cost. Styling was reminiscent of the P-70 but the Duraplast bodywork was now mounted on a steel monocoque frame.

The distinctive front of the Trabant 601.The petrol tank was in the engine bay like on pre-war DKWs.

In 1962 the P-50 received an upgraded 600cc engine and became known as the Trabant 600. The Trabant 601 was released in 1964 and would remain in production without major changes until 1991. The Trabants' long production life meant that spare parts were always available to the home mechanic. Improved engines and synchromesh gearboxes from later models could be purchased and retrofitted into even the earliest P-70s. For all of their complaints and jokes about the Trabbi, East German owners tended to take extremely good care of their cars.


A contemporary advertisement for the Wartburg 1000 and then a film of Trabants being manufactured.

Unfortunately for the staff at Sachsenring-AWZ, their numerous proposals for improvements to the Trabant came to nothing. From the central government's perspective, the brief had been delivered. The Trabant was a success and almost four million of the cars were manufactured by the time production shut down. It is true that production was extremely slow and East German customers had to wait up to 15 years to get their hands on one, but this wasn't just due to shortages of resources and poor production processes. The Trabant was popular all across the Communist east and the cash strapped East German government prioritised foreign export over domestic distribution.

By the 1980s however, the pollution generated by the Trabant's two-stroke engine was beginning to impact on its export prospects. This was slightly unfair as the problem wasn't so much the two-stroke engine as with the poor quality of the 78 octane petrol and oil being used in the east. VEB also recommended owners over-oil their engines under the false reasoning that more oil would reduce engine-wear. In fact it only caused more pollution and reduced engine performance. Nevertheless, over time the Trabant failed to find a market in the west, while the four-stroke engined products of the Czech Skoda company did. Having shut down all four stroke engine development in the 1950s, VEB were finally forced to source engines from Volkswagen, but it did not greatly help its export sales. After the fall of Communism, Volkswagen stopped production.

The history of the Trabant - https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/trabant-east-german-peoples-car.html

Framo-Barkas

Another sidebar to the convoluted DKW-IFA-VEB story is the Framo company. Framo was established by DKW founder, Jorgen Rasmussen to manufacture motorcycle fittings for DKW, however, in the 1920s they began building a small three wheeled commercial vehicle powered by a DKW engine. The Framo-laster (German for lorry) was a very basic affair with an exposed engine driving a single front wheel. When Auto Union was founded, Jorgen Rasmussen retained ownership of the Framo company and although his relationship with Auto Union would sour, Framo continued manufacturing fittings for DKW motorcycles and building its own light commericals powered by DKW industrial engines. During the Second World War Framo built four wheeled trucks powered by two-stroke engines. After the war the Soviets dismantled the factory and shipped it to Russia, but in 1951 the company was resurrected under VEB auspices. The new Framo V901 was a very conventional lorry powered by the now ubiquitous 3=6 engine.

http://www.f-r-a-m-o.de/

History of Framo - http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/framo.html

The Framo 901 remained in production until 1960 when it was replaced by the Barkas B1000. The B1000 was powered by the new 'big' 996cc 3=6. The Barkas was an extremely versatile vehicle, coming in all manner of body styles and configurations. It was pretty much the only light commercial van in the DDR and over 175,000 were built. They still enjoy a good reputation today.

The GDR's version of the Volkswagen Transporter - the Barkas B1000. This one is parked outside the DDR Motorrad Museum in Berlin. The museum has a great collection of Simson, IWL, EMW, MZ and IFA motorcycles and scooters as well as a display of Trabants. http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/10/east-german-motorcycle-museum.html and http://www.heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/barkas-prospect.html

For the story of DKW in the west https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/dkw-germanys-post-war-wonder-car.html