Trabant Car | Trabant Auto
The Trabant is an automobile (car) that was produced in former East Germany.
Producer of this very popular Eastern European car was auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau in Zwickau, Sachsen. It was the most common vehicle in East Germany. Trabant was also exported to countries both inside and outside the communist bloc.
The main selling point was that it had room for four adults and luggage in a compact, light and durable shell. Despite its mediocre performance and smoky two-stroke engine, the car is regarded with derisive affection as a symbol of the failed 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 capitalism it is often cited as an example of the disadvantages of centralized planning as even refueling the car required lifting the hood, filling the tank with gasoline, then adding two-stroke oil and shaking it back and forth to mix. Gasoline tank was only 24 liters big.
Trabant was in production without any significant changes for nearly 30 years with more then 3 millions Trabants produced in total.
