| ??? 02/08/06 16:13 Read: times |
#109520 - Trabant, a funny and sad object Responding to: ???'s previous message |
You know the car "Trabant 601"? Most likely not. It was made in the former GDR, eastern germany before the re-union in 1989. This "car" had a 600 cc two-cycle (!!!) engine with 26 (!!!) horsepowers, yes, still in 1989! It's body was made of plastic (!!!!!) and there wasn't even a petrol-meter on board, when the tank was empty instead you had to turn the fuel cock (!!!) to "reserve", similar to a motorbike. The tank was located above the engine IN the engine compartment, so you had to open the hood to refill the vehicle. This car was the running joke in germany after the wall came down (i am from germany, i know this well!) and nobody took it serious. That was the only car normal people could buy in the GDR. After the ordering, they had to wait up to ten years to call it their own, if at all. And only the "well-behaving" people had a chance to get this car, if you know what I mean... The "Trabant" is a funny and sad object. Sad, because it is a visible proof that the socialism of GDR didn't work but heavily failed. In the time after the reunion in 1989 west Germany had to spend hundreds of billions of € to keep the east of Germany alive. That's the main reason, why in Germany today the industry has a crisis and so many people are out of work. Nevertheless, this is our own mistake. We just shouldn't have started this damned second world war... Kai |
