Cars

Because automotive production was a state monopoly, people had to wait about ten years to buy a new car in East Germany. Buyers were placed on a waiting list. The waiting time depended on the pro-spective buyer’s proximity to Berlin, the capital. The official price was 7,450 East German marks. If a second-hand car was available, buyers often paid more than double this price. Teenagers who turned 16 (although you had to be 18 to drive) put their orders in to get a car, which they hoped to get in their late 20s.The two available brands in the GDR were Trabant (1957 to 1990by East German car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobil-werke Zwickau) and Wartburg (1956 to 1991 by East German car manufacturer VEB Automobilwerk Eisenach). The quality of the cars was questionable.I will never forget those cars with their two-stroke engines and their bodies made of plastic, cotton and wood. The most common colors were green (my brother called it Kiwi), light blue and off-white. In my perception they always came from somewhere unknown, like UFOs (more aptly UDOs / Unknown Driving Objects). They looked, smelled and sounded totally different from our cars. They were driven by “aliens”, with a different appearance to what I was used to. Different hairstyles, different clothes, different accents of German. It was a different world that invaded ours overnight.