The East German car Wartburg remains in the shadow of a smaller and more famous Trabant, but in its time tens of thousands of these quite majestic two-stroke cars also drove on Czechoslovak roads. Like his little brother, clouds of smoke remained behind the “wartas”, but he also provided the owners with reliable services. The last Wartburgs came off the production lines in Eisenach on April 10, 1991, just three weeks before the Trabant said goodbye for good.
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Although the Wartburg engine was a two-stroke as a Trabant, unlike it, it was water-cooled and had three cylinders with a capacity of 900 and later 992 cc and about twice the power – up to 50 horsepower. Its origins can be traced back to before the Second World War, when DKW developed a car later produced as a two-door IFA 9.
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The first Wartburg also took over the front driven axle and suspension. The type, which bore the designation 311 and which began to leave the factory gates in 1956, is still one of the most elegant cars of Eastern provenance.
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Wartburg 311
Photo: Profimedia.cz
The car with round shapes was produced in a number of variations – the basis was a four-door five-seater sedan, there were also station wagons, coupes and convertibles. The “three hundred and eleven” are among the prized pieces among collectors, the preserved ones are sold in Germany for half a million crowns and more expensive.
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Nine years after the introduction of the 311 model, an intermediate type, designated 312, came into production, which hid the chassis of the only upcoming type 353 in the body of the current model. All versions of this car were produced in 300,000 pieces.
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The Wartburg 353 was presented to the public at the Leipzig Trade Fair in 1966, and at that time probably no one knew that it would come off the production lines for only a quarter of a century with only partial modifications. The body of the new type lost almost everything from the elegance of its predecessor, its shapes most reminiscent of several interconnected boxes. But what remained was a large interior space – this time only a sedan, station wagon and a later developed pick-up – and also a desperately obsolete two-stroke engine.
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Wolfgang Hofmann stands at his Wartburg 353 from 1974 in front of an abandoned factory in Eisenach, where these cars were once manufactured. The factory has been empty since 1991.
Photo: Michael Probst, CTK / AP
The designers in the GDR came up with several proposals for a new power unit (including a Wankel engine with rotating pistons), or for a whole new car. As early as 1968, a Wartburg coupe with a brand new plastic body and Renault engine was born in the development department of VEB Automobilwerk Eisenach.
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However, the cooperation with the French carmaker eventually came to an end, and without a result in the form of a production car, the several-year development of the car, which was to be created in cooperation between the GDR and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, ended. Of the plans, only a few isolated prototypes remain in museums in the Czech Republic and Germany.
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The wartburg, like the faithful companion Trabant, did not experience a new engine until the end of its career in 1988. In its case, too, it was a 1.3-liter power unit from Volkswagen. Not even a new engine, due to which the designers of the Wartburg had to substantially overhaul, but the obsolete car could not save. The end of production came exactly 30 years ago, on April 10, 1991, after about 1.4 million pieces were produced.
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The Wartburg 1.3 stands in the foreground next to the 353 at the East German Veterans’ Reunion in Wünsdorf in 2007. The cars are in the colors of the Volkspolizei, the East German People’s Police.
Photo: ČTK
Car production in Eisenach has a rich tradition. The first car with the name Wartburg (after the nearby castle) was created under a French license as early as 1898. At the beginning of the 20th century, the factory began producing cars under the Dixi brand, and in 1928 the entire company was taken over by BMW. “Bavarians” were produced here until 1942, when war production took precedence.
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After the war, Eisenach found himself in the Soviet zone and the equipment of the damaged factory was to end in the USSR. Eventually, however, car production returned to the factory, pre-war models left the gates, from 1951 under the name EMW – at that time the Bavarian factory also resumed production and enforced its brand rights (all “Bavarians” from 1945 to 1951 come from Eisenachu).
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In the mid-1950s, a new assignment finally came and the factory switched from luxury six-cylinder to two-stroke for a wider range of customers. However, the automotive industry did not leave Eisenach even after 1991, today Opel cars are being built outside the city.
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