The Fascinating Historical past of Wartburg Citadel and the Legendary East German Automobile

The picture of driving within the GDR had one thing particular that made it the topic of infinite jokes. Due to its tight angular form and its putting look from the back and front, it was generally troublesome to gauge from a distance whether or not it was driving away from you or coming in direction of you. And the truth that the Wartburg 353, due to its three-cylinder two-stroke engine, was lined in gray-blue smoke when it accelerated, it was even more durable to inform.

Right now, nonetheless, the smoke stays solely beneath the Wartburg. The fortress, after which the automotive received its identify and rises majestically above town of Eisenach, the place the automotive was created within the native manufacturing unit.

Anybody keen on automotive historical past ought to go to Eisenach. Virtually nothing stays of the previous massive manufacturing unit, subsequent to the brick gate with the inscription AWE, only some buildings stay, one among which is now a museum. Right now, Opels are made within the western nook of the previous website, which was partially saved by town devoted to the automotive trade after the revolution.

All that is confirmed by a scale mannequin of your entire AWE manufacturing unit, which guests to the museum can see on the primary flooring. It’s actually monumental and reveals that the manufacturing unit was the guts of Eisenach, as if the city itself have been an appendage to it. In any case, 10,000 individuals labored right here at one time, ie 1 / 4 of town’s residents. After they lastly did the Wartburg in April 1991, which additionally stands within the museum, everybody misplaced their jobs in a single day.

In any case, even the grief of the employees and the riots within the streets are documented by the big photos that encompass the final pink Wartburg 1.3.

There’s a lot to see and discover within the museum that we’d quite ship you to the article gallery or immediately on a visit to Thuringia. AWE, Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach has had a colourful historical past earlier than. In any case, a number of manufacturers of automobiles have been produced right here. Firstly, the French voiturettes of Decauville have been allowed in the beginning of the nineteenth and twentieth century, Wartburg carts, then Dixi fashions, adopted by the manufacturing of BMW, after the switch of the sector below the obligatory Soviet occupation administration, EMW automobiles. Additionally, IFA model automobiles utilizing DKW know-how.

Many of the fashions of the talked about manufacturers may be seen within the museum. In fact, a outstanding place is devoted to the Wartburgs 353, however you can too see all of the prototypes of the brand new Wartburgs, together with four-stroke engines. Even automotive fans shall be shocked that the communist authorities was not keen on investing in motor upgrades, and subsequently within the improvement of recent varieties, in order that they solely managed to place out a licensed Volkswagen engine. into the Wartburg 1.3, which changed the outdated two-stroke three-cylinder.

So the AWE Museum in Eisenach is a reminder of a time that confirmed {that a} deliberate economic system solely results in stagnation.