As a Trabant fanatic and enthusiast from the USA, this never stops fascinating me.

My gfs mom grew up in the GDR and she told me "the trabant was like the freedom of speech in the GDR... can't be that bad if nobody complains about it"

I smiled when the 'precision' forklift driver hit that support girder with the car. I curled up in my chair when I saw the workers using that bandsaw. Choreography indeed! I wonder if any new owners found a severed limb in the boot?

Trabant was my first car, I enherited it after my gradfather from Hajnówka, Poland, who had it since new in 1983 (as my year of birth!). I rode it for 1.5 years only and I regret to have crushed it. But in the meantime I gave it a new look and roared the roads of Warsaw and outskirts. It was my first true mechanical - automotive adventure! I love old cars ever since.

OMG nostalgia. My father had his first car in like1972. My uncle had one but it was made back in the 60s' the 500CC Trabant. My friends had in the early 80s' also. It was cheap and if it break down (every week) we could fix it with no problem. It was 6V then later it was 12V models. After 5 years my father did a major rebuild on the motor in our kitchen. It was light so 1 man can take it out. His was still with the Dynamo but the 12V versions were with generators. Didn't start? Come here son go to the store and get me 2 brushes for the starter. Cost like pennies. OK, I went home he changed it and like new kept going. That is how simple it was to fix many things on it. It was a big deal. Top speed 120Km we juiced it up and it was going 135Km. My dads were 1:33 the gasoline then the later models were 1:40 and later 1:50 gas-oil ratio. Can you imagine we went to the disco club and 8 of us fit inside? Well, my friend had the station wagon style. I'm not kidding like 8 teenagers. But that was the only car we could afford. My dad's model had only 1-speed wipers and the later models had 2-speed and even with a washer. Only air heating no coolant nor radiator in it. 4 speed 26 horsepower. The best way is if you take a couple of sparkplugs with you just in case. lol. Oh, in the winter it was bad with no heating and take you about 15-20 kilometres by the times started blowing some warm air in and the fume was bad and the smoke. Had no adjustment just as you turn a blade in a hose that's all. No seatbelts only in the later models had it. Only the speedometer the blinker had 1 indicator and 1 was for the high beam. No other instrumentation. They made a space a cut out for radio but they put a plastic sheet there so it was up to the customers what kind of radio they want to put in. No built-in speakers. My father had a good radio it was stereo. I had put in a tape deck Alpine brand. Oh, also the antenna too. I had one of those 3-meter high fibreglass antennas and sadly every time I parked I had to take it down or people would steal it. The gas tap was by the passenger's feet and sometimes accidentally people kicked it and turned off the gasoline flow so it stopped. Many times people didn't know. There were no instruments to show how much gas you have. but had on the gas tap a quarter turn and that was the reserve. My dad also had a 4-liter plastic can just in case. What we did is when you wanted to turn around instead of the 3-point turn just pull in the hand break turn the staring wheel to left or right and floor it in first gear. Made the turn in the same spot. No other cars could do that in the world. The seat and the shocks were basic like a wooden bench. We used to call the Trabant paper Jaguar or soap box. I laugh now but back then it was a big deal and we loved it. Sadly yes as a 2-stroke engine it is polluting a lot. On 100Km eat about 6-7 liters of mixed gas. Memories. OK not my first sex but I had a few girls and I was a cool guy back then a teenager has a Trabant a car. many laughed but then hey what do you drive? Take the bus and shut up. lol. Oh, those good ol' days. Then when defected to Toronto my first car was a 1979 Ford T-bird. 5 liter engine and eat 22 liters on 100 Km. Here it was at the time 35 cents a liter of gas. Back there was 18.40Ft/liter. Back home 2 days' pay was a tank of gas. Here only 2 hours of wages. To me, it was like an airplane carrier compare to the Trabant cause that is what I saw in American movies. lol. I love them both equally. I think Trabant was the Hippie car for the eastern Europeans. Thanks for the upload it brought back sweet memories and a few tears and big smiles. so TY again !

I love that the drivers loading them onto the trains got them up on 3 wheels going around the corner.

Great video, A mate of mine bought one and drive it back to the UK, he ran it for years in the Scottish Highlands. Love the guy checking for leaks with a torch that looks very much like a US made “Mag-lite”. Great to see how things were.

Thank you for posting this retro video. It is a very insightful look into the production of such an iconic car. Two thumbs up!

Thanks for providing English subtitles, I enjoyed watching this

昔、長野県の会社にお邪魔した際に、トラバントを見せてもらった事があります。 社長がドイツに出張された際に数台購入され、会社の近隣の工業高校にも寄付されたそうです。確かにエンジンルームも余裕があり、高校生がメンテナンスするには丁度良かったのでしょう。デザインも味のある素敵な印象でした。 ボンネットやトランク、屋根が紙で出来ていると聞いて驚きました。

Thank you for the English subtitles. The deaf community appreciates it!

I own a Trabant P601s Universal from 1988. They are certainly a quirky little car! But, better to ride a Trabi 30Km than have to walk in the rain for 30Km!

Thank you Zwickau For The amazing trabant

No adverts… and yet, the entire video was an advert for the Trabant. Fascinating. Thank you - especially for the subtitles.

I remember my uncle’s Trabi! We loved it. It took us everywhere and never broke down, never complained.

I drove with trabant in the beginning of 90 ties. We had a few of them. Big noise, big smoke. Little space. But we had no choice. Later we got Lada. That was another level... Gauranga1008

Nice video! Im italian i love the trabi!the ddr 500 Thanks for the subtitles!

More simple than Vespa engine! Love tre trabi

Simple, reliable, easy to fix, decent size of interior and trunk for the size of the car, cheap to buy and even cheaper to fix. What more does one need from a car? I don't want a bloody Tesla that drives itself, I don't need TV screen on the dashboard, I would not want a huge SUV like some suburban Karen, I love these old cars made for ordinary people - Trabant, Beetle, Isetta, Mini, 2cv and so on ...

Hervorragender Beitrag, kommentiert von einem Sprecher mit einer guten Portion Fachwissen, was bei solchen Beiträgen extrem selten ist. Alle Achtung!!!👆👆👆😃😃😃😃😃😃

Fascinating! I use to see those cars some 15 years ago on the roads in my country.

The Trabant was a big deal in East Germany where it offered the common citizen a chance to own an automobile, even if it took years of waiting. To the West Germans, driving their sleek, advanced Mercedes and BMWs, the "Trabi" was a joke. Its powerplant was a two-stroke, gasoline engine. When filling up petrol, the diver needed to add a quart of oil, much the same procedure for using a lawn mower back in the United States. Yet in the grand scheme of things, it got you where you were going, which was pretty much city driving and local trips to the near rural areas. You weren't going to drive across Europe with a Trabant. When the Berlin Wall fell, East Germans quickly poured into West Germany, fearful their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity might close if the East German government changed its mind. After entering West Germany, a lot of Trabants were simply abandoned on the side of roads by their East German owners. No one knows why they didn't continue using their Trabis. The reasons might be a few but probably the West German government would take a dim view to the awful ecological disaster that the Trabant was, spewing burnt oil smoke along with gasoline. The West Germans had become very environmentally conscious and the Trabant was never going to pass West German automotive safety and environmental regulations and restrictions.

This helps me appreciate why they were so reluctant to introduce new models. They really had the process figured out.

Fascinating, I had no idea the bodies were made of comressed cotton, I had always assumed it was glass fibre.

The narrator is so funny! Good video . Greetings from Romania!

Fantastic, detailed, excellent. Thank you.

I'm 12 and I absolutely love this car. I loved this since I was 6

My parents had Trabant 601 Kombi when I was a child. That was good way to design a simple and serviceable car. It was designed much better than Mini. Power was sufficent to drive in city (max speed about 100 km/h), plastic parts could be repaired without welding skills or replaced using screwdriver and knife (because of glue/rubber sealing). The 2-stroke engine wasnt so good, but last Trabants had 4-stroke engine from VW POLO and it was small go-kart :) Liked it so much In communism, only three things went well - Kalashnikov, Trabant and UAZ-469

The delivery delay for a new Trabant was something like seven years, that's why the used Trabant were more expensive than new ones.

Thanks for posting this video with English subtitles, thus ensuring that more people see and understand how these vehicles were made! I lived in West Berlin in ‘89 and when these cars flooded into my part of the city, I got my first chance to really give them a proper inspection. My neighbor had friends who owned a 1985 Trabi 601 who came from the East to visit, and I got the chance to drive it and the most I could say for it was that it “ran”. Fit and finish were horrendous. The two-stroke engine reminded me of my chainsaw and snow-blower back in the States. The smell of its exhaust fumes reminded me of my trips to the East, where the odor was omnipresent. While people may have waited 15 years to buy one while the DDR enforced its travel restrictions, once those were lifted all of the car dealers in West Berlin sold out of their stocks of used VW Golfs and Ford Escorts almost overnight. Of course, no dealer took a Trabi as a trade-in, they were totally valueless in the West. I’ve read somewhere that the Duraplast panels are so unrecyclable that the best way to get rid of them was to let sheep eat them, although I don’t know this for a fact. But they were then, as they are now, a product of the DDRs self-imposed economic isolation from all things western, unless you happened to be a government apparatchik, because then you’d get a Volvo. Growing up in Detroit, I’ve been a part of the USA’s car culture almost since birth. There are many cars produced that weren’t successful, but they remain iconic and desirable to this day, so I can understand how some people still find the Trabi exciting, but I certainly can’t. Give me an AMC Gremlin over one of these rolling, smoke-belching eggbeaters-on-wheels any day of the week and I’d be happy.

@20:21, those workers were exposed to terrible danger with those band saw! 😢

Looks like hell on earth. "The phenol dust permeates everything". Including the workers lung no doubt. However all other things being equal there are countless millions who would love a cheap simple get you to where you want to go car without frills and fancies.

Around the 7 minute mark, how to smoke and weld at the same time.

The fact that the factory was so contaminated by cotton and noise ... and disregard for human life and limb ... basically, the car that I appreciated so much for being so practical and cheap, I am glad that it is over with for the sake of the laborers. Lack of love brought the URSS down!

Great video! It's good that you're restoring your Trabant.

A car ahead of it's time - phenolic resin and cotton strands - essentially an early form of carbon fibre.

Wow... !!! My best friend, It's always great. Your video is excellent quality. We liked and enjoyed to the end. Thanks

13:45 the worker showing how much he appreciates the DDR.

These were funny little cars. Brings back memories of East Berlin. Too bad I never got to drive one.

1200 Mark, das war ein hoher Lohn. Ich habe in 3 Schichten am Fließband 600 verdient. 1200 Mark was a really high wage. I got working in 3 workshifts, early, normal, late, 600 Mark.

I love that technical application of the sealer on the halves of the engine block! Just rolling over some gooey stuff and hope you got all spots covered and slap it together! Lordy!😳

10:35 -- "The fine plastic dust permeates everything" Notes total lack of dust masks on workers

Brilliant, thoroughly enjoyable video 👍 Now if only we could be allowed to have such a cheap, simple car again (but with modern fuel-efficient, reliable engines).

I had no idea that the production included many manual (and potentially dangerous) steps. Applying lacquer without a mask probably for hours every day - that is insane!

Very fine film indeed.

Though the trabant was very simple and had no special features, we came always from a to b. I am sure, there will be a time again when we will remember the good old days when we had individual transport. We now may laugh about, but the times will change.

Good to be reminded of the day when people worked hard in very bad factories. Life today is much better. All those peope worked so well. Respect to them now all probably retired.

12,000 people to make a maximum of 580 vehicles per day. That's the most accurate explanation of Soviet style production economics I've ever seen.

Wow! What a coincidence! I was watching an OPL3 video of yours and then found you have a video about my favourite car! This one has English subtitles too which the video called "Trabi Produktion Zwickau" doesn't to my recollection.

Vielen Dank für diesen sehr informativen Beitrag. Er räumte bei mir mit manchen Vorurteilen aus Hörensagen auf. Er ist doch mehr als "Leim und Lumpen". 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏼‍♂️

I was drive 1987-2013 (26 years) Trabant and i am was satisfacted ! To mee, nice and amusing automobile !

Imagine the health problems that these poor workers faced over the years, being exposed to cotton dust, resin dust, and spraypaint all day, every day. For a "Worker's Paradise", the Communist state seemed to care little for the safety of its workers.

You watch this and say it is poorly to not at all automated. I watch this and think: handmade in Germany, it must cost a fortune!

25:43 -- "The (fuel) tank was located above the motor; no pump was needed." Also, in case of death from front-end collision, no cremation was needed.

Great video, i love to see the low tech fabrication of these cars. Regards from Chile.

Trabant will sell today in USA for people over 60 years old on fix income like SOC. SEC, CHECKS

OSHA would have a total meltdown!! Tell you what...I just saw an all Trabant road rally video, and it was totally fun to watch, and the little car looks like a total blast to hook around a track like that... I'd do it. I almost want one for fun, better than a Yugo.

Bonjour , merci pour cette excellente vidéo . Au revoir .

An old colleague told about colliding with a Trabant many years ago in Hungary. According to him, the Trabi exploded, with panels flying all around - there wasn't much left of it. His Mercedes had a few scratches.

These are beautiful cars, the prototypes are too. Why do I love the look of these cars so much? There must be a market today for an up to date safe, clean emissions, simple and reliable version (although it was simple and reliable at the time). I hope the cotton and phenyl didn’t damage the workforces health in any way..

So was a VW Beetle, and unlike the trabant, the Beetle's engineering and technology was continually improved.

Each product has its own challenges

The way that bandsaw was used made me uneasy.

Sehr interessant, danke!

It wasn’t such a bad car. It was better than walking.

tHE video is about the industrial chalenges, processes and solutions. I've been highly well impressed. If I understood well they rolled out the 'fiberglass' intensive use

I've heard the origins of the "Audi" name many times but never the reason why it was chosen over Horch and Wanderer for revival when the Ingolstadt DKW company chose to rebrand while going over to four-stroke engines in the '60s.

So, the Trabi was an AUDI :), it's cool!

it does look like a fun car, but they’ve become quite expensive now

krasan videjo!

We hired one from Hertz while on holiday with my girlfriend in Yougoskavia. An absolutely beautiful place and people. My girlfriend was pretty beautiful too. The car was a convertible and once overtook a Mercedes SLK. ha ha downhill..

Very interesting history video. How things were back in East block prior to 1990

The factory, with its paint and adhesives, had a safety mask budget of zero.

This was my first car!

The Fiat factory in Poland was a fancy club, compared to this.

Почему бы не возродить производство Трабанта ,авто эконом класса ,

fun fact: workers of the factory were all color blind and could only see the colors: bright green, bright orange, and white. So all cars had to be painted these colors to make the job of the workers easier. source: I made it the fuck up

Thank you for the film and the subtitles, much appreciated! I was born in Czechoslovakia and I currently live in a former eastern bloc country. That *_arrogant sneer_* of the narrator, that is how western Europeans have viewed and *still* view Europeans from behind the iron curtain to this day. The westerners thought and *still think* we are tra5h, because their pr0pa9anda from c0rporaтions and wesтern governmenт agenc1es told them so. They were taught that their better, shinier, more stylish products make them better, more worthy people. This is confirmed by the many c0rporate office people I talk to (I work in training). They work for German and French coгp0гaтions and coгp0rатioпs of other western countries. There was state pгорagдапda in the communist bloc and there was and is corporaтe and g0vernmenт pr0paгanda in the capitalist "exтоrтioп" economies. It goes both ways. But somehow most westerners still think that evil bгainwasнing techniques were only used behind the iron curtain. Concerning work safety and protection of the environment - the *нурoсгisy* of the commentator *is* *staggering.* Many of the western corporations have factories and sweaтsноps in Asia, with conditions little different to those in the film. They make their products there and they happily ship them ACROSS THE PLANET, burning through _TONS_ of fuel. Somehow, that is perfectly fine. And they put lots of green graphics on their coгpоraтe websites, with photos of happy, smiling people. And they don't forget to tell you how _much_ *they* are doing то _save_ the planet. By producing disposaБle, planned 0бsolesceпce producтs. About communisт contr0l over production and over every отнег aspect of your life - the c0llecтive West is headed in a direction that is suggesting a future *_much_* darker than what has ever existed in the former communist bloc. There are some very nice examples of this т0тaliтariaп-like c0nтrоl from the European Union, I am sure some of the commenters will share their stories down below. And lastly, to finish my carefully crafted KZfaq commenter's treatise. For people commenting that you couldn't say whatever you wanted in the coммuпisт counтries - you may have noticed some strange formaттing in this comment. Unfortunately experience has shown (my own experience, that is) that УоцтuБe either gнosтs my c0mmenтs or they don't show at all. Он - I almosт forgot - has anyone seen the dislike button lately? Yes, yes. _Much_ freedom, *so* happiness.

Yes this is giant go-kart engine anytime the gas tank sits above the engine so you don't have to use the fuel pump. You don't know how many times we have just stuck the gas tank on top of the engine when we do our go-kart builds here in the state I guess some things never change I would say to trabant is a luxury go-kart

The workers with no protection...that is disregard for human life from the authorities.

19:45 -- "DuroPlast is covered worldwide by over 30 patents" -the world's potential patent infringers: "That's OK; we're not interested. _Really._ Your patents are totally safe."

I would actually get my license if cars this simple existed today.

Wrääääm. 😁 Ich liebe den Trabant. Unserer hieß "Paula" 🤣

Re: "The only car made with a plastic body" See: Pontiac Fiero, Saturn SL1, SL2, SC1, etc...

Factory is another name for hell!

The guy spraying paint without a mask @ 23:53 looks pretty intense. I wonder why...

Imagine East Germany back with AI and heavy automation and high end computers and high dicipline of the workers... It could rule the world. It's never too late to have the East back!

‘The fine plastic dust permeates everything’ including the workers lungs. The working conditions look atrocious.

A car made out of cotton fiber with a motorbike engine(meaning: CHEAP MATERIALS).

Deberian colocarle motor eléctrico y volver a fabricarlo

I would love to get one little box 2-stroke engines definitely would go into one of my go-karts

Thanks for the subtitles! We don't have a Trabant 601 in Israel. 🇮🇱

trabant ist kein lateinisches, sondern ein slawisches wort (leibwächter). begleiter heisst auf lateinisch comes, spätere bedeutung "graf".

Nice little car. Dream of many in those years...

Those western imperialists with their 1500 welds

Sehr gutes Zeitdokument.

Thanks! That was very interesting…and scary…LOL

I LIKED IT

20:07 how they saw free handed, coordinated by two individuals. Whelp. Any accidents there?

Seeing production process I have no clue, how they produced so much trabant with acceptable quality.