Trabi Museum

On your right, you will see the Asisi Panorama of Berlin, known as The Wall, where you can relive the daily life of Berliners in the 1980s, thanks to hundreds of retouched and scaled photographs. On the other side, you will see the Trabi Museum, which tells the story of the famous car. The Trabant, which means Satellite in German, is a reminder of the space race and the launch of the Sputnik satellite. It was the famous little car of the people, built between 1964 and 1990 by the East German state-owned company. Affectionately nicknamed Trabi, it is as legendary as the Volkswagen Beetle, the Austin Mini in England or the Fiat 500 in Italy. An urban legend claimed it was made of cardboard! It is true that steel resources were scarce in East Germany at the time, and an alternative material had to be found. Of course, they did not actually choose cardboard but Duroplast, a type of plastic. The car’s body was made of plastic panels assembled onto a steel frame. This allowed for the production of low-cost cars, sold at the unforgettable price of 1,000 Ostmarks. I say unforgettable because the reality was quite different! First, as in all communist countries, you had to prove that you deserved to buy one, and then delivery times ranged from 10 to 15 years. And don’t laugh, but once you got it, you had to pay extra for the additions. And additions didn’t mean GPS or air conditioning, but wheels, seats, a steering wheel, and seat belts—without which the car could not be registered. People still joke to this day that some models have heated rear windows to keep your hands warm while pushing the car! Still, it was the most popular car in East Germany and remains one of it’s symbols to this day. In the 1990s, East Germans were sick of hearing about it, but little by little, it has made a comeback, riding the wave of Ostalgie—a term that refers to nostalgia for East Germany. If you go to an Ostalgie party in Berlin, you’ll drink Club-Cola and dance to music from the former GDR. In the meantime, you can visit the museum or learn some of the many jokes made at the car’s expense. For example, they used to say that when a rich American finally received the Trabi he ordered, he thought, “Wow, those Germans are always on top of their game! Before delivering the real car, they send a plastic model first!”.