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A queue of Trabis for the 9th Fall Meeting of Trabant Drivers in Prague (picture from 2007)
Photo: A3789 Björn Steinz/ dpa
More GDR cars of the Trabant and Wartburg type are rolling on Germany's roads again.
According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, their number has been increasing for years.
According to current statistics, 39,342 Trabis are registered nationwide.
According to this, more than 10,000 people are out and about in Saxony alone – more than anywhere else in Germany.
Brandenburg took second place with around 6,300 Trabis, followed by Thuringia (5,700).
In 2010, the Federal Motor Transport Authority counted only around 34,800 registered Trabis across Germany.
One reason for the popularity is that many felt reminded of their past by car, said the chairman of the Zwickau Trabant Club, Thomas Winkelmann.
"The car has a completely different value today than it did 20 years ago and has now arrived in the area of oldtimers." Spare parts are still available, said Winkelmann.
"The usual wearing parts are still being manufactured."
The Wartburg, which was once produced in Eisenach, can still occasionally be seen on the streets.
According to current figures, 8,726 former GDR mid-range cars are registered, most of them in Saxony (2,058).
The statistics from 2010 still showed 7700 vehicles.
In 1955 the first Wartburg was built in the Eisenach automobile plant under the designation 311.
A total of around 1.2 million vehicles of this brand rolled off the assembly line.
Production was shut down in 1991.
The first vehicle in the Trabant small car model series rolled off the production line at VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke on November 7, 1957.
A good three million units were produced before production stopped in 1991.
late/dpa
