At 6 pm on November 9, 1989, the press has been summoned to the headquarters of the SED, Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands or United Socialist Party of Germany, which, with an iron fist, controls the German Democratic Republic. Gunther Schabowski, spokesman for the SED Politburo and head of the party in East Berlin, is in charge of the appointment with journalists. The clock has not yet reached 7 pm when Question Time opens. The correspondent for the Ansa agency, Riccardo Ehrman, who was late for the appointment due to parking problems, asks about when the new regulation that allows citizens of East Germany to apply for permits to travel abroad, to emigrate from permanently without having to meet the requirements previously necessary to make such trips. Schabowski is not well informed and answers somewhat confused: “immediately, from now on.”
The hundreds and hundreds of citizens of East Germany who follow the press conference live on television (Deutcher Fernsehfunk) and radio, pour into the streets of Berlin and head towards the wall that separates them from the western zone. They want to exercise their right to cross over to the other side. The communist guards do not dare to face the human tide. One of them, at the stand on Bonholmer Strasse, raises the barrier. The Wall has fallen and many citizens will spend the following days behind the wheel of small and outdated cars that emit bluish smoke from their exhaust: the Trabant P601.
origins
Its image is from another era, not in vain to know its origins you have to go to the early sixties, when it was designed at the AWZ (Sachsenring Automobilwerk Zwickau) study center. The history of the Sachsenring has its starting point in the Horch (manufacturer of luxury cars until World War II) and Audi plants in Zwickau. Horch was expropriated along with the rest of Auto Union in June 1948. In the same year, the plant was reopened as VEB HORCH Kfz- und Motorenwerke Zwickau, a company in the Association of the Vehicle Construction Industry (IFA). Initially, trucks were made here.
In front of the Zwickau factory, a Trabant P-50, two AWZ P 70, a Horsch Saschenring and two IFA H3A trucks
In 1950 production of the new IFA H3A began, powered by a diesel engine also built in Zwickau. The Horch factory attempted to continue luxury sedans with the P 240 “Sachsenring” (known as the Horch “Sachsenring”). The vehicle name was transferred to the plant in 1957, which was thereafter called VEB Sachsenring Kfz- und Motorenwerk Zwickau. With the idea of putting a popular car on the street, for two adults and two children, with a weight adjusted so that a simple and small engine could drive it without spending more than 5.5 liters per 100 kilometers, they joined the May 1, 1958 to form “VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau”.
And so the AWZ P 70 was born, a small car with which it was possible to gain initial experience with body parts made of duroplast, a resin plastic reinforced with cotton or wool fibers similar to that used in the lids of car cups. services.
Advertising from the time of the P-601
The AWPZ P7 70 was but the prelude to the P 50, the first Trabant as such. Inspired by the Lloyd 400, it was shown to the public for the first time at the Leipzig Trade Fair in 1957, and was manufactured until 1962. It was followed by the P 60 or Trabant 600, of which, until 1965, 106,117 units were built. The 600 was a short-lived intermediate model that combined the external shapes of the Trabant P 50 with the technical design of the Trabant 601. Both models were even produced together for a few months.
And so we come to our protagonist, the Trabant P-601. Presented in March 1964, its engine is a simple two-cylinder 2-stroke air-cooled 594 cc, which will reach up to 26 DIN CV of power (transmitted to the ground through the front wheels), to move just 600 kilos, adjusted weight which is obtained thanks to the duroplast body, and which allows it to achieve up to 100 km/h top speed with that small engine. The engine is associated with a four-speed gearbox (all synchronized) and the fourth with a free-wheel mechanism that allows it to circulate “under sail”.
Variant with a canvas roof and no doors, called Tramp.
As for the design of the P-601, it does not stop remembering in reduced dimensions (we are talking about 3.51 meters long) and less fortunate proportions, the Peugeot 404 designed by Pininfarina. Let’s not forget either that, in addition to the two-door sedan, there was a family version, and we still have to add two variants: a pick-up, and one with a canvas roof and no doors (very beach-style), called Tramp.
The P-601 remained in production between 1964 and 1990.
The P-601 will be a successful model (not that there would be much competition in the GDR, except for the Wartburg) until 1990, it is said, a total of 2,818,547 units. Hence, many East German citizens drove this car over the wall. By the way, in the last series produced, the two-stroke engine (with a mixture of gasoline and oil at 2%), would give way to a four-stroke gasoline and 1043 cc (41 CV, 700 kilos and 125 km/ h) from the Volkswagen Polo.
But this was not enough for him to survive. And in 1990 this car ceased to be produced that he was born to put a country surrounded by a wall on wheels. And that on November 9, 1989, he led many of them down the dream path of freedom.
By the way, in 2021, the German Federal Transport Agency identified more than 38,000 Trabants on the roads. No, it is not surprising that the “Trabi”, as it is called by its supporters, in particular fans of the 60 series, has remained in the hearts of the Germans. Including in the eyes of the Wessis, the former citizens of the FRG, and today there are many enthusiasts, who restore and maintain copies that they have saved from dying in a scrapyard.