Old diesel cars are banned in Berlin, but the smelly Trabant is still driving around the city center. Watch Ulrike Nagel’s report for RTL News.
The little car is still the pride of East Germans. The question is how much longer, because politicians are now getting involved in the debate.
The steering is heavy, and shifting gears is tricky. The body is a mix of cotton and resin and feels a bit like stiff cardboard. In short, zero comfort, but it did get you to your destination.
A luxury item until 1989
“We called it ‘Rennpappe,’ a cardboard race car,” says Ulrike Nagel (40), who was born in the former East Germany. As a child, she often sat in the back seat. “We had a white one with a blue roof that we’d inherited from Grandma.”
Although it looks a bit shabby, the Trabant was still considered a luxury item right up until the fall of the Wall in November 1989. You had to save up a lot for one and wait a very long time. After placing your order, it could easily take ten years before you received the keys.
“We didn’t even have a phone”
Nagel: “We didn’t even have a phone at home, so you can imagine how special a car was.” Ulrike was about eight years old when her parents’ first car pulled up in front of their house.
Meanwhile, the Trabant is still driving around Berlin. There are enthusiasts, but it’s mainly tourists who take a spin in one. The rental company Trabi-safari has 35 of them. Their competitor even has a hundred.
Technology from the 1960s
When you get in, it’s a bit like going back to the early days of driving, and meanwhile you chug past Berlin’s sights.
Under the hood is a two-stroke engine. Blue plumes of smoke billow from the exhaust—the remnants of burned oil and gasoline. It’s technology from the 1960s, a time when no one gave a second thought to CO2 and nitrogen emissions.
Things are quite different in 2019. A Berlin city council member wants to put an end to this polluting little moped on the road. In his view, it’s no longer fit for this day and age.
An ugly duckling?
Germany correspondent Jeroen Akkermans also thinks the plans to ban the car have little chance of success. The little car is simply too beloved for that, he believes. We see an ugly duckling, but many residents see a showpiece on the road, a living relic of the GDR, says Akkermans.
When the Wall fell on November 9, 1989, East Germans piled into their Trabants en masse and crossed the border in long lines—heading toward freedom. Ulrike therefore has fond memories of their little car. In 1991, they went on vacation to another country for the first time. They took the Trabant on the ferry to Denmark.
“Just a few left”
After living in the Netherlands for years, Ulrike is back in Berlin. If it were up to her, the Trabi would keep driving through the streets there. “There are so few left, and they’re not building any new ones anymore.”
