Trabant

Trabant is a series of small cars produced from 1957 to 1991 by former East German car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. In total, four different models were made, the Trabant 500, Trabant 600, Trabant 601, and the Trabant 1.1.

The first Trabant model, the Trabant 500, was a modern car when it was introduced in 1957. It featured a duroplast body mounted on a one-piece steel chassis (a so-called unibody), front-wheel drive, a transverse two-stroke engine, and independent suspension.

However, this 1950s design remained largely unchanged until the introduction of the last Trabant model, the Trabant 1.1 in 1990. Hence, the Trabant became a symbolic of the stagnant economy of former East Germany and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in general.

Called “a spark plug with a roof,” 3,096,999 Trabants were produced. Older models have been sought by collectors in the United States due to their low cost and fewer restrictions on the importation of antique cars. The Trabant also gained a following among car tuning and rally racing enthusiasts.