The Trabant - A Brief History

The Trabant is an automobile formerly produced by East German auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau in Zwickau, Saxony. It was the most common vehicle in East Germany, and was also exported to countries both inside and outside the communist bloc. The main selling points were that it had room for four adults and luggage, and was fast, compact, light and durable.

Despite its poor performance and smoky two-stroke engine, the car has come to be regarded with affection as a symbol of the more positive sides of East Germany (in former East Germany) and of the fall of communism (in former West Germany, as many East Germans streamed into West Berlin and West Germany in their Trabants after the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989). For advocates of the free market it has become a handy symbol for everything wrong with government planned economies. It was in production without any significant change for nearly 30 years.

The name Trabant means “fellow traveler” (Satellite) in German; the name was inspired by Soviet Sputnik. The cars are often referred to as the Trabbi or Trabi, pronounced with a short a.

Since it could take years for a Trabant to be delivered from the time it was ordered, people who finally got one were very careful with it and usually became skillful in maintaining and repairing it. The lifespan of an average Trabant was 28 years. Used Trabants would often fetch a higher price than new ones, as the former were available immediately, while the latter had the aforementioned waiting period of several years.

There were two principal variants of the Trabant, the Trabant 500, also known as the Trabant P 50, produced 1957-1963; and the Trabant 601 (or Trabant P 60 series), produced from 1963 to 1991. The engine for both the Trabant 500 and 601 was a small two-stroke engine with two cylinders (see above), giving the vehicle modest performance. At the end of production it delivered 19 kW (25 horsepower) from a 600 cc displacement. The car took 21 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) and the top speed was 112 km/h (70 mph). There were two main problems with the engine: the smoky exhaust and the pollution it produced; nine times the amount of hydrocarbons and five times the carbon monoxides of the average European car of 2007. The fuel consumption was a modest 7 liters/100 km (34 mpg (US), 40 mpg (Imperial)).

The Trabant was a steel monocoque design with roof, bootlid, bonnet, fenders and doors in Duroplast, a form of plastic containing resin strengthened by wool or cotton. This helped the GDR to avoid expensive steel imports, but in theory did not provide much crash protection, although in crash tests it has actually proven to be superior to some modern small hatchbacks. The Trabant was the second car to use Duroplast, after the “pre-Trabant” P70 (Zwickau) model (1954-1959) - see below. The duroplast was made of recycled material, cotton waste from Russia and phenol resins from the East German dye industry making the Trabant the first car with a body made of recycled material.

More than three million Trabants were made!

This excerpt is taken from wikipedia where the full page can be read at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant which includes photos and references for further reading. This excerpt here does not seem to cover the Trabant 1.1 model which was made for a short while after the Berlin Wall came down and featured a VW Polo 1.1 enigine instead of the 2-stroke.

Trabant Links

Wartburg Trabant IFA Club UK - the UK based owners club

Trabant Trek - Berlin to Cambodia in three Trabants!

Trabi Safari - the best way to sightsee in Berlin or Dresden

UK Trabant Stories - a great UK Trabant resource

Zwickau Trabant Treffen - annual Zwickau rally and parade

August Horch Museum - great automotive history museum

For more information, please email info@sussextrabant.org.uk