The citizens of the GDR were not allowed to drive far. The travel restrictions were massive. The borders with Poland and the Czechoslovakia were somewhat more permeable. This is what tourism looked like in the border triangle 50 years ago.
Memories of summer vacations: camping was a popular choice for GDR citizens
“My parents had a Trabant 500 and I can remember that it was always difficult for me to breathe in the back,” says a witness Wolfgang Worf, who traveled regularly from Weimar to Liberec (then Czechoslovakia, ČSSR) in the 1970s and 1980s. At least once a year, but mostly three times. The family later bought the 601 model, which made the long journeys to the neighboring country a little more bearable.
Wolfgang Worf's parents came from the Sudetenland. After the Second World War, around three million Germans were expelled from what was then Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic, including Worf's parents, who later use every opportunity to visit their old homeland and former school friends: “GDR citizens couldn't get that many crowns exchanged, so it was very good if you stayed with acquaintances and friends, like we did back then. In return, you brought them something from home. It was very human and beautiful.”
Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
From “racing cardboard” to vintage cars
Hardly any other car has been mocked so often. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, most East Germans parted with their “racing cardboard” without pain. But the small car still has a loyal fan community, and even more: in the past ten years, even 3,000 revamped Trabis have been newly registered. 30 years after the end of production, they now officially have the status of vintage cars in Germany.
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Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
Necessity is the mother of invention
The Trabis were manufactured in the small Saxon town of Zwickau. The “duroplast bomber” with its unmistakable two-stroke sound was manufactured more than three million times. The famous plastic body was born out of necessity: sheet metal was scarce in the GDR. The first Trabi rolled off the assembly line on November 7, 1957, and the last on April 30, 1991 – in pink, by the way.
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Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
Roaring engine with little horsepower
The small car, also called “racing cardboard” in the GDR because of its lightweight construction, had between 18 and 26 hp and could reach speeds of up to 110 kilometers per hour – even if conversations on board were difficult because of the immense driving noise. Despite the assembly line production at the VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerk, new Trabis were in short supply.
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Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
Only for the patient
“A sky-blue Trabant rolled through the country,” Sonja Schmidt sang in a 1971 hit. However, until a GDR citizen without contacts and privileges could call the car his own, a lot of patience was required. On average, the waiting time for the satellite was twelve years, sometimes significantly longer in individual cases.
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Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
Prototypes without a future
The engineers in Zwickau would have liked to have further developed the Trabant. Prototypes with a contemporary look were created, but the SED leadership decided that they were never allowed to be built.
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Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
“On the Reeperbahn at night at half past twelve…”
Immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, Trabis were suddenly driving in large numbers on West German roads. One goal: “The most sinful mile in the world”. East Germans rolled down the Reeperbahn in their Trabis in Hamburg's entertainment district of St. Pauli – there were no striptease bars, sex cinemas or amusement arcades in the East.
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Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
German-German symbol< /h2>
The Trabi also stood for East German stuffiness, which many East Germans wanted to get rid of as quickly as possible after reunification. At the same time, the car is also a symbol of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the beautiful moments of reunification. “Trabitrommeln”, the pounding on the duroplast roof, was a loving welcoming ceremony among West Germans when the first GDR cars drove across the open borders.
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Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
Time travel
Meanwhile, the small car is primarily a collector's item. Numerous fan clubs and associations take care of the cultural assets and meet regularly. Berlin tourists can also rent the small car near the former border crossing “Checkpoint Charlie” – and feel for a moment like a GDR citizen after the fall of the Wall.
- < img src="https://static.dw.com/image/39301092_303.jpg" /> Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
Double Decker
Admittedly, you won't fit a lot of luggage in the small Trabi. Nevertheless, it has been serving well as a holiday companion for six decades. At the international Trabant driver meeting in Zwickau in 2017, Trabi fans showed how this is possible.
Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
Nest warmth
Scrapping a Trabi, would be too bad. This one even levitates above the ground. In Neuruppin it was converted into a nesting place for storks and is probably the best-known and most photogenic nest in Brandenburg.
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Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
Advertising icon
Other Trabis now serve as advertising signs. On the island of Usedom, this shows visitors the way to the two-wheeler museum in Dargen, which also houses cars from the past 50 years.
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Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
Hollywood star
The Trabi not only has German fans. US actor Tom Hanks fulfilled a dream in 2014 with the purchase of a sky-blue Trabant “P 601 de luxe”. But he is not to be seen on Hollywood streets. Hanks gave the Trabant to the Los Angeles Automobile Museum.
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Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
A trip around the world
The Czech adventurer Dan Priban is also a Trabi fan – and has already crossed the Andes, Africa and Australia with his Trabis. In GDR times, the Trabi often did not get any further than Lake Balaton.
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Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
Restart hoped for: Trabi 2.0
In 2009, a new edition of the Trabant was presented at the International Motor Show – the following year the designers even received an award. The “Trabi nT” has an electric motor and can zoom across the streets at a top speed of 130 kilometers per hour. “nT” stands for “new Trabi”. But an investor for series production has not yet been found.
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Trabi cult: Why the GDR car is immortal
Increase in value
The extinction of the former GDR Volkswagen was repeatedly predicted. But the little car cannot be killed. On the contrary: 30 years after the last Trabi rolled off the assembly line, both the number of registrations and the value are increasing. A Trabi in top condition can cost around 10,000 euros these days.
Holidays allowed, but not everywhere
Formally, the right to vacation was enshrined in the constitution of the GDR. In 1961, for example, every working person was entitled to a basic holiday of twelve days. In the years that followed, this privilege was gradually increased. But spontaneously traveling to any place in the world was not possible for GDR citizens. Destinations were limited. The editions enormous.
In addition to other documents, a trip to Hungary, Romania or Bulgaria required an exit permit. As a rule, people traveled to the Soviet Union as part of a tour group, less often as a private individual. For exotic destinations like Cuba, the approval of the responsible party secretary, the union official and the employer was even necessary. Such a trip was only approved with a clean slate. You had to be a GDR citizen par excellence. In short: such goals were unattainable for mere mortals. An excursion to a country that did not belong to the circle of so-called brother countries was completely out of the question, especially after the Wall was built.
Why the border with Poland and the CSSR was relaxed
In 1972, the Berlin Wall had been standing for eleven years, along with the barriers along the divided Germany – dense, brutal, inhuman. Families have been separated, haven't seen each other for a decade, imprisoned in and by their own state. Resentment spread, timid demands for freedom of travel were asserted, which would later break the GDR completely.
The SED leadership sensed this and tried to appease. At the beginning of 1972, agreements came into force that eased the travel restrictions between the GDR, Poland and the CSSR, at least formally: “You still stood at the border for a long time, regardless of whether it was before or after 1972. It didn't really matter that much,” he recalls Wolfgang Worf. According to an SED protocol from 1977, GDR citizens traveled almost 50 million times to both neighboring countries in the first five years.
Popular destinations in Czechoslovakia were Prague and Karlovy Vary. The aim was not only to get to know culture and landscape: “We also met relatives from the West here. It was always very nice,” says Wolfgang Worf. By West he means the Federal Republic of Germany, the GDR Citizens were only allowed to enter in extremely exceptional cases, such as the funerals of direct relatives, and after a thorough examination. Poland was of course better suited there, for example for weekend trips – many GDR citizens found life in the neighboring country to be more informal, overnight stays in student dormitories were possible without a registration procedure , Magazines like “Der Spiegel” could be bought without any problems, Hollywood films were shown in the cinemas. Conversely, Polish citizens came to the GDR less for holidays or to relax, but in the hope of getting scarce goods that were not available at home, or only at significantly higher prices.
“The following joke goes with this: Two dogs meet at the border and one asks: Why are you going to the GDR? Then one says: To really eat my fill. And asks the other: Why are you going to Poland? To bark louder?” says Axel Drieschner, curator of the exhibition “Boundaries of Friendship: Tourism between GDR, CSSR and Poland” in the Museum of Utopia and Everyday Life. “In Poland you could also vent your displeasure and speak louder, so to speak, about certain problems that you didn't want to address publicly in your own country,” says Drieschner.
These and other memorabilia are on display in the Museum of Utopia and Everyday Life
The Museum of Utopia and Everyday Life has collected numerous memories of trips to Poland and Czechoslovakia, several hundred exhibits are stored in the rooms – from postcards to travel catalogs to objects and souvenirs. They tell the holiday stories of those GDR citizens who visited the neighboring countries of Poland and Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of them are loans that ended up in the museum through a public appeal: “We ran into open doors with it. A whole range of people contacted us, we received e-mails with little anecdotes and stories, we also have souvenirs with small texts, some of which can be seen in the exhibition,” explains Axel Drieschner. The exhibition will be prepared and scientifically accompanied by Mark Keck-Szajbel from the European University Viadrina and his students.
Critical, unwanted, expatriated: Artists in the GDR
Protest, imprisonment and deportation to West Berlin
< p>The songwriters Christian Kunert, Gerulf Pannach and Wolf Biermann with the writer Jürgen Fuchs in August 1977 in West Berlin. Wolf Biermann has been in the West since November 1976. After a concert in Cologne, the GDR leadership expatriated him. The other three men, among others, also protest against this. They are arrested, deprived of their citizenship and deported to West Berlin.
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Critical, undesirable, expatriated: artists in the GDR
Trial and dismissal without notice: Eva-Maria Hagen
The actress Eva-Maria Hagen, also known as the “Brigitte Bardot of the East”, was Wolf Biermann's partner from 1965 to 1972. Even after the separation, she supports him and protests against his expatriation. She was dismissed from her engagement without notice and also expatriated in 1977. She moves to West Germany with her daughter Nina.
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Critical, unwanted, expatriated: Artists in the GDR < h2>Punk rock in the west instead of drama in the east: Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen actually wanted to be an actress in the GDR, but her application for admission to drama school was rejected without any justification. The GDR rulers regard her as politically unreliable. In 1978, one year after moving to the West, the LP “Nina Hagen Band” was released – a feminist classic of German punk rock.
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Critical, undesirable, expatriated: Artists in the GDR
Successful in the West with “Liebling Kreuzberg”: Jurek Becker
Jurek Becker, writer and screenwriter, also protests against Biermann's expatriation. The author of the novel “Jakob the Liar” was expelled from the SED and moved to West Germany in 1977. In the West, he became well known nationwide with his screenplays for the successful TV series “Liebling Kreuzberg”. Main actor in the series: Manfred Krug, also from the GDR.
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Critical, unwanted, expatriated: Artists in the GDR < h2>Departure due to professional ban: Manfred Krug
Manfred Krug moved to the GDR with his father from Duisburg in 1949 when he was 12 years old. First he learned to be a steel smelter, then an actor. In the film “Stone Trail” he plays a rebellious brigade leader – the film is promptly pulled from the cinemas. In 1976, after protesting against Biermann's expatriation, Krug was partially banned from working. He applies for an exit visa, which is approved in 1977.
Critical, unwanted, expatriated: artists in the GDR
Protest against Russian tanks in Prague: Bettina Wegner
< p>The Berlin singer-songwriter Bettina Wegner had already come into conflict with the state power before she protested Biermann's expatriation: she was in custody for “anti-state agitation” after protesting against the invasion of Russian tanks in Prague in 1968. Because of her support for Biermann, she was banned from working in the GDR and moved to the West in 1983.
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Critical, unwanted, expatriated: artists in the GDR
No “wonderful years” in the GDR: Reiner Kunze
In 1976 Reiner Kunze's prose volume “The Wonderful Years” was published in the Federal Republic. In it, the GDR writer and translator sharply criticizes the SED state. Kunze is expelled from the GDR writers' association and faces imprisonment. His application to leave the country is granted and he moves to Germany with his family in 1977.
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Critical, undesirable, expatriated: artists in the GDR
Leaving the country after being expelled from the party and association: Sarah Kirsch
The writer and poet Sarah Kirsch was one of the first to sign the appeal against Wolf Biermann's expatriation. She is also expelled from the SED, the “Socialist Unity Party” and the Writers' Association. Because that practically meant a ban on working, she also left the GDR with her son in 1977.
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Critical, unwanted, expatriated: Artists in the GDR
Star in East and West: Armin Müller-Stahl
Armin Müller-Stahl plays a GDR James Bond in the TV series “The Invisible Visor”. But after his protest against Biermann's expatriation, there were hardly any role offers. In 1980 his application to leave the country was approved and he moved to West Berlin. And becomes one of the few stars to be successful in East and West Germany and even in Hollywood.
The GDR leadership quickly regretted it< /h2>
It didn't take long for the SED party to regret the easing at the border crossings, because there was one thing they hadn't calculated – the shopping tourism and the consequences for the planned economy. “Years beforehand, it was calculated how many, let's say, razor blades or pins will be needed in the next few years. And now suddenly there was an unpredictable moment. People came from other countries who had very specific needs, who weren't taken into account and messed up all these nice calculations, which, as we know, have seldom reflected reality anyway,” says Axel Drieschner. “There was also another aspect that could cause chaos: the fear of the resentment of the population. They just didn't want to stir up unrest among the population, which could definitely happen when you consider that, for example, citizens from Poland drove to Görlitz and went to the department stores to buy certain things that had perhaps only been on the shelves for a few days. And it was precisely these larger cities near the border that were very badly affected by shopping tourism and new resentments about the respective other nationalities who bought the consumer goods they might need there.”
A photo album with memories of vacation in Czechoslovakia – exhibit in the Museum Utopia and Everyday
Wolfgang Worf also remembers special products that he brought back from the Czechoslovakia: “We brought loads of dumpling flour home with us. That didn't exist in the GDR at the time and my favorite food has always been roast sirloin with dumplings. I also like to eat in the stationery shop – the Czechs had certain pens that were rarely available in the GDR.”
The GDR leadership was not only dissatisfied with the shopping tourism, but also with the political upheavals in the 1980s: the emergence of the Solidarność movement and the declaration of martial law in Poland again led to stricter controls at the borders. Travel wasn't that easy to organize again.
But that was a few decades ago, today the borders are open, at least in most of Europe. The doors of the Museum of Utopia and Everyday Life are also open. The exhibition “Boundaries of Friendship: Tourism between the GDR, Czechoslovakia and Poland” can be visited until April 30th, 2023.