Availability of cars in the GDR

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The availability of cars in the GDR was organized differently due to the political framework and the limited import opportunities for new vehicles and was not as good as it was in West Germany at the time . Above all, the range of vehicle models to choose from was significantly smaller in the GDR. Automobile production in the GDR increased continuously and the number of cars per inhabitant rose steadily, but there were sometimes extreme waiting times for new cars of more than 10 years. A steadily increasing purchasing power was in an increasingly disproportionate proportion to the inadequately growing range of goods, which was particularly noticeable in the car sector and was particularly noticeable. Due to the high consumption rate of national income , but also because of the subordinate priority of automobile production in terms of investment funds in contrast to the FRG , the problem could not be solved by increasing production. Since official price stability was a political priority in the GDR, it was also not possible to balance supply and demand via the price mechanism . Since the instead existing system of waiting lists in combination with the democratic deficit of the GDR was very susceptible to privileging certain people and groups ( corruption ), criticism of this injustice, which contradicts the propagated socialist principles, grew ever stronger.

After the Politburo of the SED decided on November 6, 1979, with the exception of further developments on the Trabant, all research and development work in the field of car construction in the GDR was to be discontinued, the GDR car models in the 1980s were even compared to the cars of other socialist states like the ČSSR , the USSR and VR Poland out of date.

backgrounds

When the GDR was founded in 1949, there were only two established car production sites that could be produced. These were the former BMW plants in Thuringia Eisenach and in Saxony Zwickau -based company Auto Union . This was already divided into several state- owned companies (VEB) in 1948 and the two car manufacturers were merged again in 1958 in the VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau . The former car manufacturer Brennabor in Brandenburg an der Havel had not produced any cars since 1932, but was not available due to its complete dismantling after the war. In addition, there were almost no production sites for vendor parts in the GDR. With the complete dismantling of the Central German engine works at Taucha in 1947, this possible supplier also failed. With the Framo company alone , there was still a smaller former vehicle manufacturer available, which could also be used to supply the required engines. The only vehicle body supplier that could be considered was the company Gläser-Karosseriebau in Dresden , which was nationalized after 1945 and integrated into the IFA group. In the beginning, however, his capacities were only sufficient for a limited utilization of both manufacturing companies.

The attempt to compensate for the shortfall through imports was also dependent on one's own economic strength, since imports from western countries were out of the question until the 1960s and the countries of the Comecon only offered vehicles in exchange for corresponding, likewise inadequate, other economic goods delivered. In this context, the commitments on reparations of the GDR to the Soviet Union to take into account, as well as the integration of the GDR in the are RGW -space, which provided the most uniform possible growth of the entire economic area, even the poor regions such as the southern Soviet republics. As a highly developed industrial location, the GDR was included as a donation link within the transfer benefit system.

Other challenges that did not exist in the former Federal Republic were the unfavorable raw material situation in the GDR (hardly any iron ore or hard coal deposits), the lack of economic aid such as the Marshall Plan , and the central administration, which was often overwhelmed by the centralized control of economic processes. Qualified specialists and skilled designers migrated to the West in many cases up to 1961 due to more favorable professional prospects, partly due to a past burdened by National Socialism .

Last but not least, it should be noted that car production - unlike in West Germany - was not viewed as a priority in the GDR and was rather fleeced than promoted. The fact that mass motorization was halfway swift at all has to do with the death of Stalin , the associated abandonment of the one-sided focus on heavy industry , and the June uprising in 1953 . Concerning further unrest, it was decided to give greater consideration to the consumption needs of the own population. This was reflected, among other things, in a Council of Ministers resolution of January 1954, in which the way to mass motorization in the GDR was politically cleared.

As a result, buying a car in the GDR was very different from that in West Germany . Overall, the supply situation was not as good, and it was also organized differently, although the organization did not work as it was intended. The distribution of new cars was more of a distribution than a sale. It was associated with sometimes enormous waiting times and poor service. The used car trade was only allowed non-commercially. In addition, there were long waiting times for driving tests, workshop appointments and spare parts. Overall, money (in Ostmark ) played a lesser role than in West Germany; reaching goals was often associated with waiting lists, good contacts, political privileges or foreign exchange .

history

In the GDR, too, the desire for individual motorization grew and, as in the Federal Republic, was based on memories of the pre-war period. For the time being, however, the motorcycle alone offered an inexpensive way to get started with private motorization. As in the Federal Republic of Germany, however, by the end of the 1960s at the latest, it was no longer considered a “car replacement”, as family cars were also required in the GDR.

Due to numerous initial difficulties with which the East German automotive industry had to struggle after the end of the Second World War, the GDR car industry only achieved a production output at the Zwickau and Eisenach locations in the mid-1960s that exceeded those of 1938 at these locations. This was largely due to the fact that the production facilities that remained intact after the Second World War were dismantled by the occupying forces to a far greater extent than in the Federal Republic. Immediately after the occupation of Central Germany by the Red Army , numerous industrial plants were dismantled and brought to the Soviet Union as reparations . Of course, this also applied to the traditional plants in Zwickau and Eisenach. In the end, only a trick prevented complete disassembly. The commander-in-chief of the Soviet occupation forces, Marshal Zhukov , was handed a remaining BMW 321 vehicle in Berlin-Karlshorst in 1945 , which he liked so much that he immediately ordered five more. The ordered vehicles were then assembled from the parts still remaining in Eisenach. As a result, further dismantling was stopped by the occupying forces and the Eisenach vehicle factory was converted into a Soviet joint stock company Awtowelo and production resumed on behalf of the Soviet Union. Thus it was only possible to continue vehicle production in the Soviet-occupied part of Germany after the war.

For historical reasons, however, many traditional suppliers to the East German automobile plants were located in the Trizone area and, after the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany and an economic embargo at that time (see COCOM high-tech embargo), were no longer allowed to deliver. This meant that the most important production components were missing for production, especially in Eisenach. In some cases this could be compensated unconventionally by smuggling across the border, which was still open at the time, but was by no means sufficient for a production volume adapted to requirements.

In order to guarantee production independently of the West German suppliers, and also due to a lost legal dispute in 1951 in connection with the use of the BMW logo and the transfer of the EMW works to the GDR in 1952, the production of pre-war models was converted to in-house developments. In Eisenach, the Wartburg 311 was constructed to replace the previously produced IFA F9 , which was ultimately a further development of the DKW F8 , which finally went into series production in 1956.

At the same time, the AWZ P70 was developed at the Zwickau automobile plant and started in series production in 1955. It was a further development of the IFA F8 and 36,151 units were produced by 1959. The two-stroke engine was introduced as the motorization for both vehicles , as this required less manufacturing effort. The Trabant P 50 was also produced in Zwickau as early as 1958 . Due to the existing economic sanctions, which also included the delivery of steel, Duroplast was used for the paneling of the vehicle , as this could be manufactured in the GDR itself. In order to increase the production capacities in Zwickau, which were previously inadequate, the "Audi" Zwickau automobile plant and the VEB Horch motor vehicle and engine works in Zwickau, formed from the former Auto Union plant, were merged and continued as VEB Sachsenring motor vehicle and motor works in Zwickau .

The supply situation also became problematic in that the growing demand was primarily geared towards expanding and maintaining existing buildings, not replacing them. Used vehicles were not disposed of and recycled, but sold on and only vehicles that were ready for scrap were used as spare parts donors. Calculations in this regard show that almost every car has been used to expand the stock since the mid-1960s. Since more than a third of the total production in the GDR vehicle construction was geared towards the production of spare parts, these capacities were lost in the long term and nevertheless could not even come close to meeting this high demand, given the average age of 12 years vehicles in the GDR. ->

statistics

The number of registered motor vehicles in the GDR was 7.5 million in autumn 1988, of which 3.7 million were cars . About 95 percent of these vehicles were privately owned. The population of the GDR was around 16.6 million in 1989. Despite the shortage of new cars, the number of cars in the GDR increased continuously, starting at almost zero: in 1955, just every 500th household owned a car. In 1960 there were around 3.2 cars for every 100 households, in 1970 there were 15 , 6, in 1980 already 38.1 and in 1988 at least 55. (Passenger cars used by the company or the state, e.g. the Trabant 601 Universal used in large numbers by Deutsche Post , or cars from the NVA and the People's Police , are not included here). A comparison with the situation in what was then West Germany is difficult, since the statistical yearbooks of the FRG only contain supply situations for a few selected household types.

The increasing number of cars was made possible because, on the one hand, the annual output of cars was steadily increasing. On the other hand, the cars in the GDR were often not scrapped after reaching the wear limit, but underwent general repairs or completely rebuilt (essential, corrosion-prone sheet metal parts of the Trabant, for example, could be replaced on average three times.)

The fact that there were still extreme waiting times for new cars is due to the pricing policy of the GDR. Purchasing power and demand were hardly or not at all taken into account when determining the price of goods. So it happened that the steadily rising household incomes got more and more disproportionate with the fixed new price of the Trabant and an unmanageable demand arose (purchasing power surplus). Cars were driven comparatively little in the GDR, in 1989 it was an average of 9,300 km per car and year (including company cars and taxis). The inexpensive and densely developed public transport offer and, compared to income, relatively high gasoline prices, as well as the relatively small area of ​​the GDR and limited travel opportunities abroad played a role. In adverse weather conditions (salted roads), the car was left standing in order to protect it, and public transport was used instead to get to work.

Acquisition

Page from the Genex catalog

New car acquisition

New cars were often purchased using the regular way of registering an order with VEB IFA sales. The applicant had to be of legal age and often wait several years before a sales contract was concluded. In 1966 the average delivery time was six years. In the course of the 1970s and 1980s these waiting times grew to 10 to 15 years. In 1987, in an internal assessment of the situation by the GDR Interior Ministry on the speculative trade in used vehicles, it was found that the waiting times for a Trabant sedan were different. B. in the districts of Halle , Leipzig , Erfurt , Cottbus , Magdeburg and Neubrandenburg amounted to around 12.5 years, whereas customers from the Frankfurt / Oder district had to wait around 14 years. In 1988, the then general director of VEB IFA sales, Dieter Voigt, admitted in the GDR magazine Der deutsche Straßenverkehr that of currently 488,000 open orders, only 146,000 could be fulfilled with a new vehicle. The second way was the order via company channels, which resulted in a significantly reduced waiting time. New vehicles could be purchased from Genex for a currency exchange rate without having to wait . However, this was only possible as part of a donation from citizens of the Federal Republic to relatives and acquaintances in the GDR, or to a limited extent for the few citizens who had a “Genex account”. Nevertheless, this legal shortening of the waiting time was used extensively: The Wartburg production of 54,050 vehicles in 1975 was distributed as follows: 34,250 for export, 8,941 conventionally against Ostmark for the domestic market, 7,300 against Westmark (Genex) for the domestic market , 556 for investors, 3,003 for state bodies. There was also a black market where new cars were traded at a multiple of the official new price.

An extended and simplified option for purchasing a new car was available to a limited group of people. This mainly included functionaries of the SED , VVN pensioners and employees of state organs, but also artists, outstanding scientists and other prominent figures from the GDR. For these, a certain amount of consumer goods from GDR production, but also of Western origin, was kept ready and sold preferably and without the usually considerable waiting times. This also included coveted cars, especially those models that deviated from the commonly available ones. Parts of this special contingent also consisted of z. B. Vehicles with transport damage that could be applied for. There were also so-called special demand carriers among the state-run companies who were given privileged vehicles, including primarily the National People's Army . Ultimately, the export of vehicles was always given high priority, even if the shortage was already acute domestically. All of these junctions meant that the number of vehicles regularly allocated on the waiting list was quite low, which accelerated the accumulation of extremely long waiting times.

The regulation of new car sales via long waiting lists instead of prices in line with market conditions resulted in an enormous inflexibility and susceptibility to arbitrary privileges. In order to shorten this problem, in addition to the alternatives mentioned above, the procedure was often that many young people ordered a vehicle immediately after their 18th birthday and so often every adult in a family was “supplied” with an ongoing order. Since only one order was allowed per person, these waiting times could only be avoided by skillfully staggering several orders, for example from spouses or relatives who did not intend to buy. However, this led to a further increase in regular waiting times, even beyond the actual demand or purchasing power. The waiting time had to be used to save the purchase price. Until the spring of 1990 it was not possible to finance a new vehicle purchase from VEB IFA sales with a loan.

The imported Zaporozhez and Moskvich played a special role . These were regularly available, at least in the 1970s, without undue waiting, as they were not particularly popular with the population. At the end of the 1970s, the import of the types mentioned was completely stopped. With a few exceptions, there were no long waiting times for motorcycles and mopeds either, which was due to the relatively large production output in the two-wheeler sector. The opposite was true for small vans . Most of the already small production was sold to state bodies, even used small vans were difficult to get privately. The numerous private small businesses in the GDR often had great difficulties in getting suitable vehicles for their business. Not to mention other private transport issues. As a result, cars with cargo trailers, which were used to make up for the shortage of small vans, were typical of the streets in the GDR.

When ordering, it was initially only possible to specify the vehicle type and body (sedan or station wagon). After the waiting time, the details of the equipment and the associated price range were agreed. Non-binding information on equipment requirements or a color request could be made. A specific vehicle was offered a few months later. If it did not correspond to the desired equipment, another month-long waiting time had to be accepted until the desired version was provided. Many customers therefore refrained from specifying detailed equipment requirements in order not to unnecessarily prolong the waiting time.

The handover of the new car was often unprofessional at first. At first there were no specialist sales outlets except in Berlin - the interested party ordered the vehicle from the local consumer or HO store , and it was handed over to them there. The vehicle was often picked up by the customer at the factory. In later years, new vehicles were often handed over to IFA sales offices. The sales of imported cars were mainly organized by VEB Imperhandel .

used cars

Used car trading was only permitted for non-commercial purposes, i.e. without commercial intent. If you wanted to sell your own car, until 1975 it was compulsory to show the vehicle to a government agency to determine its current value before it was sold. This was to prevent excessive profit from being made on used car sales, which was the practical reality due to the long waiting time for new cars.

From July 1, 1975, sellers were exempted from this estimation requirement if the cars were "acquired by another citizen, from VEB IFA sales or a VEB Maschinen- und Materialreserve" . For this purpose, tables were issued to determine the value, which were based on vehicle type and condition. As a rule, however, the prices actually paid were significantly higher due to the long waiting times for new cars. A seven-year-old Trabant was paid about as much as a new one. A new Trabant with no waiting time could achieve three times the official new price. In general, the price for used cars was around twice the new price minus a discount of 1,000 marks per year of use. A used price below the new price was officially stated in newspaper advertisements, since otherwise there would have been problems with their publication. Likewise, the purchase contract was usually issued for a lower purchase price than the new price, since the contract had to be presented when the vehicle was re-registered by the police.

The exemption from the obligation to estimate explicitly did not apply to "Westautos" that came to the GDR in different ways - above all via the state-controlled gift service Genex. The corresponding legal requirement was: “VEB Maschinen- und Materialreserven has the right of first refusal on all passenger cars acquired through Genex after January 1, 1970 and on all passenger cars imported for foreign currency since 1959 (including removals or inheritance). The obligation to offer to VEB MMR has only expired for those vehicles that were purchased through Genex before January 1, 1970. ” This right of first refusal of the state was intended to prevent first owners of such coveted cars given by relatives in the Federal Republic of Standard offer of VEB IFA sales included, benefiting from a resale to private individuals. The state thus secured such profitable business for itself.

As recently as January 1989, efforts were being made by the government to enable a wider selection of cars, at least on the used car market. The GDR negotiator for special matters, lawyer Wolfgang Vogel , was commissioned to negotiate with the Düsseldorf used car dealer Auto Becker for the delivery of around 30,000 used cars. Becker thereupon even spread the rumor that the GDR government's request for 100,000 used vehicles from the Federal Republic had been conveyed to him. This project ultimately failed because of the price expectations on the part of the West German used car dealers and the tight foreign exchange reserves of the GDR. This, too, was ultimately an attempt to counter the growing dissatisfaction of the GDR population with regard to the supply situation with cars.

Spare parts supply

The increase in the supply of cars in the GDR, which is comparable to that in the FRG, was made possible despite insufficient new car production because the cars in the GDR were not scrapped after reaching the wear limit, but underwent a general overhaul (in GDR parlance: rebuilding) or completely rebuilt. This resulted in an extremely high need for spare parts: Although spare parts production accounted for an exorbitant 30 percent of total production, there was a chronic spare parts shortage. 80 percent of all spare parts were needed for the basic overhaul of old used cars. This laborious work, in turn, placed an excessive burden on the workshops. What was used on parts was what was currently available. Older GDR cars were therefore often a hodgepodge of components from different years of construction and development stages.

However, increased new car production would have further exacerbated the spare parts supply - a vicious circle that the GDR could not get out of until the fall of the Wall. So it happened that the Trabant (which, according to engineering calculations, has to have the important sheet metal parts replaced about every seven years, which is possible three times), achieved a calculated average service life of 27.8 years (for comparison, cars in West Germany: 12 years; figures determined 1985). From 1955 to 1966, the Wartburg 311/312 , for example, sold almost 180,000 units domestically; 127,000 of these were registered in 1985.

Vehicle Models and Prices (1970s and 1980s)

Following the ideology of price stability, the most important vehicle model, the Trabant, hardly changed in 1962 or in 1986, cost 7,850 or 8,500 marks. However, this only affected the standard version, which in the 1980s only accounted for around five percent of total production. For other equipment variants considerably more was to be paid; the top model was the Universal S de Luxe , which in 1989 cost 15,000 marks. But even this price did not take into account the high demand and the increased income of the population: In 1960 a Trabant was equivalent to 10.8 monthly salaries, in 1980 it was only 5.7 (based on average household income). In 1976 the Trabant accounted for 47% of all cars registered in the GDR.

With new prices of 17,000 to 21,000 marks, the Wartburg was an alternative to the Trabant for people with a higher income. In 1976 it made up 19% of the GDR's car population, and in 1989 it still made up 18%, making it the second most popular car model. The cost-intensive introduction of the four-stroke engines built under VW license at the end of the 1980s was reflected in the sharp rise in the price of new cars. The cheapest Wartburg with a four-stroke engine cost 30,200 marks instead of the previous 16,950 marks for the Wartburg with a two-stroke engine.

The imported cars available were less out of date. The popular Škoda and Lada ( AwtoWAS ) each made up just under 10 percent of the car population. The Ladas were among the most modern vehicles available, and the Škodas were valued as a relatively inexpensive four-stroke engine alternative to the Trabant and Wartburg, as well as for their fuel economy. Zaporozhez and Moskvich were less popular, at least from the 1970s, and as a result were even available without a long wait. Despite the four-stroke engine, the Saporoshez had a number of significant disadvantages compared to the Trabant (poor processing quality, unreliability, insufficient trunk). The Moskvich, on the other hand, was on par with the much more modern Ladas in terms of price, so that prospective buyers usually preferred a Lada. Other vehicles common in the GDR were the Dacia 1300 , the Zastava 1100 , the Polski Fiat 125p and the Volga . Certain types of western production were also sold on a limited scale for Ostmark, including VW Golf , Mazda 323 , Citroën GSA and Volvo 244 . Types such as Sachsenring P 240 , Tatra and various Soviet luxury limousines were reserved for functionaries , among which the GAZ-13 Tschaika model was one of the most common. From the late 1970s onwards, Volvo 264s with the model designation TE, which were specially equipped for the GDR market, replaced the Soviet functionaries' limousines, some of which were old and regarded as uncomfortable. These could initially be ordered with a short or long wheelbase as a custom-made product from Bertone (Italy), but with increasing quality problems from the company Nilsson from Sweden, were only used for representatives of the state government and as command and escort vehicles. The vehicles from Soviet production could subsequently be purchased privately as used cars, but played hardly any role on the GDR vehicle market due to their small number. Cars for recreational purposes (sports cars, convertibles, coupes, camping models) were no longer part of the offer , with a few exceptions ( Škoda 110 R ).

Western models such as Fiat Uno , Renault 9 GTL , Ford Orion and VW Passat could also be bought through Genex . Furthermore, "West Cars" were occasionally introduced into the GDR on their own initiative. A Porsche 911 Turbo with a GDR license plate is said to have run in Leipzig .

Try to improve the care situation

The designers in Zwickau and the GDR government initially agreed that the Trabant 601, which went into series production in 1964, would be sold on the market for about five years, but that a successor model would then be necessary. Until the early 1970s, there were promising developments in both Zwickau and Eisenach, including prototypes. These include u. a. the P 603 developed as the successor to the Trabant 601 , for which the IFA had previously acquired the license to build a Wankel engine from NSU Motorenwerke , which had been tested at Sachsenring since 1962. However, this project involved investments in machinery and production facilities, which had to be approved by the SED management. This ultimately refused to give its approval, because the very efficient machine tool industry of the GDR was fully utilized by export obligations, to a large extent also from reparation obligations to the USSR and other Comecon countries. The embargo policy of the western industrialized countries also forced the GDR economy to build up its own raw materials and supplier industry, which had priority over everything else. The P603, developed at the same time in Zwickau, should be ready for production in 1967. This was confirmed by the Politburo on December 30, 1966, whereby the costs for the series production were estimated at around 7.7 billion marks of the GDR, but stopped in November 1968 under political pressure from the Politburo of the SED , in particular by the Party Economics Secretary Günter Mittag ; all prototypes were destroyed. At that time, the developers had already designed a vehicle that outwardly resembled a later developed VW Golf I or a Renault 16 . Rumors that still persist today, but have never been credibly proven and also implausible, say that the development of the VW Golf was ultimately based on these developments. Corresponding documents were secretly sold to West Germany and would later have saved the then ailing VW group.

The path actually aimed at was the transnational organization of efficient , cost-effective production of certain types of cars in large numbers for the entire economic area of ​​the Comecon . Similar to how it was implemented relatively successfully for example in bus construction with the commitment to Ikarus as the central bus manufacturer. However, such an organization did not come about in the passenger car sector. At the same time, by the beginning of the 1960s at the latest, it became clear that Western car manufacturers were increasingly ahead of those of the Eastern Bloc. Even then there was considerable resentment, which even led to open criticism of the economic conditions in the automobile sector in the GDR.

Automobile development under socialism is inhibited as long as we tinker with yesterday's concept. We need today's passenger car; a COMECE-compliant automobile. Cheap, but not a new Trabant, fully-fledged, but not a new Wartburg. We need it soon. "

- Motor vehicle technology 5/1963: On the development of automobiles under socialism

Years later, the SED leadership finally decided to intensify cooperation within the Comecon , which later became the Comecon Auto project , which was to replace the Trabant 601 , Wartburg 353 and the Škoda 100 at the same time . The planning for this vehicle, which was later also called the P760, began in 1970 and was discontinued in 1973. The project failed not least because the various manufacturers did not want to give up their own design principles (Wartburg / Trabant: front engine, front-wheel drive; Škoda: rear-engine and rear-wheel drive), so that no agreement was reached on a uniform vehicle concept. Due to the more than six years of wasted time concentrating on this project, the GDR failed to optimize its own IFA productions and to effectively counter the delivery problems that were increasing due to the constantly increasing demand, which despite all imports of cars Backlog of orders steadily increased. The P610 project pursued in Zwickau after the COMECON car stopped in 1973 was ended with the confirmation of the Politburo resolution of November 6, 1979 by the Council of Ministers on November 15, 1979. The 35 million marks in development costs that had accrued up to then were ultimately missing from the vehicle industry when it came to the necessary renewal of its production facilities, which at that time already no longer allowed production increases, which further exacerbated the shortage of new cars. Even the four-stroke engines that were repeatedly developed for series production at AWE were always politically refused to go into series production.

In the USSR, however, the company relied on its own solutions, concluded a license agreement with Fiat and built a large production site projected for an annual output of 700,000 vehicles, so that from 1970 onwards, Lada cars could be produced efficiently and in large numbers. These were then also imported into the GDR, which temporarily eased the shortage of cars. Erich Honecker , who came to power in 1971, tried to generally improve the supply situation for the population by expanding the import program, including Dacia 1300 from Romania (from 1971), various Lada models from the Soviet Union (from 1972), and Zastava 101 from Yugoslavia (from 1976) and VW Golf from the Federal Republic of Germany (1978). With the Dacia 1300 in particular, however, there were significant quality problems with the first deliveries, which forced IFA sales to take back defective vehicles. On May 31, 1981, as part of a state visit by the GDR party and state leadership, a far-reaching trade agreement was concluded with Japan , which also included the delivery of 10,000 Mazda 323s. In the course of the 1980s, however, the import activities declined again. The background was the troubled trade balances with the Eastern bloc countries. For example, in the ČSSR, Wartburg and Trabant were increasingly difficult to sell, which resulted in a corresponding decline in Škoda imports into the GDR. Contemporary Eastern vehicles such as the Lada Samara and Škoda Favorit were hardly or not at all imported, so that the GDR's automotive sector was even worse off than in other, generally poorer, Eastern Bloc countries. Taking into account the fact that there were originally two renowned locations for the automotive industry in the GDR (Zwickau and Eisenach), the course of further development is actually extraordinary and can only be explained by mismanagement to the greatest extent.

The efforts and successes on the part of the GDR vehicle manufacturers to improve the offer and also to develop their own four-stroke engines were abruptly ended with the decision of the Politburo of November 6, 1979.

Later, the AWE was again approved to develop a four-stroke engine, because two-stroke Wartburgs that had previously been exported to Great Britain in large numbers were no longer allowed there from 1974, and from 1979 onwards, due to changed ECE regulations, could no longer be sold in the rest of the European NSW , and that was achieved with this The GDR's foreign exchange income collapsed. The AWE then worked on a unit with three cylinders, which would have been operational in 1986. Because of the completely outdated two-stroke engine, the Trabant and Wartburg could hardly be sold even in the Eastern Bloc. In addition, there was the increasingly acute environmental problem with increasing traffic density.

In the face of these problems, Günter Mittag signed a contract with Volkswagen for the license production of four-stroke engines at the 1984 Hanover Fair without authorization and without coverage by GDR law . The four-stroke engine VW EA111 , known from the VW Polo, was initially to be used for the Wartburg 1.3 , later also for the Trabant 1.1 and the Barkas B 1000-1 . This brought work on the AWE three-cylinder four-stroke engine to a standstill.

List of available car vehicles (sometimes limited in time)

Other vehicles from the VEB IFA sales system

All other vehicles in the GDR could also be acquired through the VEB IFA-Vertrieb sales system. These included, in particular, bicycles from the Mifa and Diamant brands as well as mopeds and motorcycles from the Awo brands and later Simson and MZ as well as Jawa and Pannonia two-wheeled models until the end of the 1960s . In some cases, there was also a waiting time for bicycles and motorized two-wheelers, although this was not nearly comparable to that for passenger cars.

literature

  • Stefan Wolle : The perfect world of dictatorship. Everyday life and rule in the GDR 1971–1989 . Federal Agency for Political Education, Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-89331-349-4 . (The exact source of the data is not listed there, but the corresponding article repeatedly cites the GDR's statistical yearbook in 1989 and 1990, respectively.)
  • Information from IFA-Vertrieb Berlin, 1973 edition. 1963–1973 10 years VEB IFA-Vertrieb Berlin, published for Berlin and the Frankfurt (Oder) district. GDR publishing house

Web links

References

  1. a b c d e f mdr.de: Slowed down: The automobile industry of the GDR | MDR.DE. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
  2. ^ Peter Kirchberg: Plastics, sheet metal and planned economy . Nicolai-Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-87584-027-5 .
  3. The departure in the 1950s
  4. The departure in the 1950s
  5. The Wartburg 311 - a dream car from the GDR
  6. The long way to your own car ( Memento from October 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  7. Statistical Yearbook of the GDR (1989 edition), read on July 16, 2020 at https://www.digizeitschriften.de/dms/img/?PID=PPN514402644_1989%7Clog73
  8. a b c d e f Peter Kirchberg: Plastic, sheet metal and planned economy , Nicolai Verlag, Berlin 2000. ISBN 3-87584-027-5 .
  9. ^ A b c Arnold Freiburg: Crime in the GDR: On the phenomenology of deviant behavior in the socialist German state . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-88220-2 , p. 132 ( google.at [accessed on July 12, 2020]).
  10. a b MDR television: The Wartburg story , May 1, 2006 (10:00 p.m.)
  11. ^ The GDR civil justice in conversation: 26 interviews with contemporary witnesses, page 160
  12. ^ Matthias Judt, GDR. History in documents. Resolutions, reports, internal materials and everyday testimonies (research on GDR society)
  13. Weird automobiles rolled through 40 years of the GDR; Cars were in short supply in the GDR
  14. Birgit Wolf: Language in the GDR. Verlag Gruyter, 2000, ISBN 3-11-016427-2 , p. 206.
  15. There was no credit for cars
  16. The sale of motor vehicles . In: Motor Vehicle Technology 6/1959, pp. 245–246.
  17. ^ A consideration of the trade in motor vehicles in the German Democratic Republic. In: Motor Vehicle Technology 12/1957, pp. 447–449.
  18. Price order no. 422. - Order on pricing for used motor vehicles, motor vehicle trailers and sidecars - From July 7, 1955. Law Gazette of the German Democratic Republic, list of publications, year 1955, part 1 (Foundation archive of the parties and mass organizations of the GDR in the Federal Archives Berlin , List of publications, order signature ZB 20049 a / 60)
  19. ↑ Appraisal certificate dated May 9, 1960 for a motor vehicle unterbrecher.de (accessed on March 8, 2011)
  20. Der deutsche Straßenverkehr , issue July 1977.
  21. ^ GDR live: Right of first refusal for the system, obligation to estimate
  22. Contacts made. In: Der Spiegel. 2/1990.
  23. ^ Werner Oswald : Motor vehicles of the GDR , 2nd edition, 2000.
  24. Oldtimer Markt issue 4/2013
  25. THE HISTORY of automobile construction in the GDR: Wankel engine for the successor type. ( Memento from April 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  26. Picture of a P603 prototype
  27. Was the VW Golf invented in the GDR?
  28. ^ Automobile development under socialism. Motor vehicle technology 5/1963, pp. 161-163 and 09/1963, p. 324.
  29. Fig. P610
  30. The Cars of the GDR Part 2 - Import Cars  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.motorvision.de  
  31. Generation East Golf, 30 years of GDR export of 10,000 VW Golfs
  32. ^ GDR car market in the 1970s: the shortage is managed
  33. Unbelievable: IFA takes back car ( Memento from April 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  34. 40 years of Mazda Germany
  35. Review: With a trick to the new Mazda 323? Caught! ( Memento from August 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  36. "Documentary DDR vehicles - Trabi, Wartburg and Ostrennwagen", ZDF 2016, viewed on July 18, 2020 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej3TZWGOIA4
  37. Cars in the GDR: These cars mobilized the East Germans (magazine; auto-motor und sport)
  38. 20 years of reunification. Cars of the GDR!