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We're a Volkswagen. Cars and people in the transition period
25.01.2023 Clemens Tangerding
On the evening of 9 November 2019, the "Wall Trabi" will make a grand entrance. A CNN reporter stands in front of the famous image of the artist Birgit Kinder at the East Side Gallery in Berlin and reports live on the celebrations to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
At the same time, some Germans also encounter the same image motif in their letterboxes. A large department stores' chain has printed the 2019 "Wall Trabi" in large format on the cover of its advertising booklet to promote its anniversary week offer: "Now save together what belongs together!"
The Trabant "breaking through" the Wall suggests to some viewers that the East Germans had conquered "the West" in their Trabants. As if they had taken part of the GDR with them to the West. As if the Trabi had accompanied them into their new life. Others see the Trabi more as a symbol of the downfall of the GDR and the country's ailing economy - a car made of cardboard and plastic that could not compete with the premium models from West Germany.
GDR citizens take to the streets
Whether you think of the Trabant as a symbol of the conquest of the West or of the plight of the GDR economy: For the iconography of the Peaceful Revolution, it is not the car that is central at the beginning of the Peaceful Revolution, but the human being in the masses. If one traces the end of the GDR by means of photographic motifs, it is striking that large groups can be seen in different places, especially at the beginning of the Monday demonstrations. Citizens left the safety of the private sphere and went outside to protest against the political conditions in the former GDR.
The Monday demonstrations emerged from the Monday prayers. As in some other cities in the GDR, people in Leipzig met regularly in the 1980s to pray for peace. So the prayers had a political dimension. Monday prayers were held in Leipzig from 1982 onwards. On Monday evenings, not only representatives of the GDR peace movement came to Leipzig's Nikolai Church, but also intellectuals and people wanting to leave the country. On 4 September 1989, 1200 people gathered to protest for reform of the state. They did this in front of the television cameras of many Western journalists. The autumn fair was just taking place in Leipzig. The presence of media representatives became an important factor in the success of the Monday demonstrations (Mählert 1998).
The development of the Monday demonstrations
The presence of journalists offers a certain protection, but also stirs up fears. In Norbert Vogel's photo of a demonstration in Leipzig, the first thing that catches the eye is a woman holding the portrait of a detainee. If you look more closely, you discover numerous sceptical glances from other people present in the direction of the photographer: Is he a Stasi employee or one of us? Perhaps that is why people walk and stand so close together, so that they remain hidden.
The photographer Harald Hauswald is present at some of the meetings. His picture shows the Erlöserkirche in Berlin-Lichtenberg - filled to capacity. People did not come to the place of worship primarily to pray, but for an event organised by the peace movement. Like many places of worship in the GDR, the Church of the Redeemer was transformed into a place of opposition, a space of peaceful resistance against the SED regime.
In another photo, the author Daniela Dahn can be seen giving a reading at the Environmental Library in Berlin-Mitte. People sit close together around the tables. As in the church, Hauswald shows, many more listeners came than expected.
Norbert Vogel's photographs of the Monday demonstrations also show people crowding together. The black-and-white photos show the people of Leipzig as a broad stream that "floods" even the largest squares and streets of the city. People are advancing ceaselessly. Many shots of the demonstrations were taken from a distance. This conspicuously distanced point of view lends the pictures an anxious, even mistrustful note. After all, the photographers feared being seen at work and, in the worst case, being arrested.
This is particularly clear in a photo Harald Hauswald took of a Monday demonstration in Leipzig's Augustusplatz in December 1989.
The photographed candles on the railing inevitably draw the eye to the sea of lights on Augustusplatz. But the picture reveals even more: a mural from the staircase of the Leipzig Gewandhaus is reflected in the window pane. The photographer stands in front of it. Hauswald looks down on the crowd from his vantage point behind the glass façade. Even more: his silhouette visible in the window makes him an actor himself. So the photo not only shows a demonstration, it is itself part of the protest.
Monetary union becomes a significant issue
The Monday demonstrations achieved an effect that no one would have dared to dream of at the first rally on 4 September 1989. By the end of the year, millions of citizens had joined the protest marches. The movement also expanded spatially. There were demonstrations in the big cities, but also in small communities like Luckenwalde in Brandenburg.
The demonstrators put increasing pressure on the politicians, but it was not only the people on the streets who forced the GDR's politicians to act. The gradual opening of the Hungarian-Austrian border between May and September 1989 further increased the GDR government's need for action. It had long been clear to the state leadership that their country's economic decline could no longer be stopped. What was new in 1989 was that many citizens were no longer stalled by slogans and some had completely lost confidence in their government.
It is precisely the economic viability of the GDR that concerns people. For only the prospect of a certain standard of living for the citizens of the GDR in their own country can still prevent a mass exodus to the West. After all, the borders had been open since 9 November 1989. Even before the border was opened, more than 340,000 people had left the GDR, either via third countries such as Hungary and Austria or by moving directly to the Federal Republic. The mass flight also poses challenges for GDR economic policy. Poor productivity and low wage levels threaten to worsen the situation further. It is to be feared that the companies will have to stop working because of the exodus of their employees.
With no improvement in the economic situation in sight, the question of the currency's future takes on special significance. Accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic would not increase the economic power of GDR enterprises, but it would make the GDR part of a successful economic area. Moreover, a favourable exchange rate could increase the purchasing power of the GDR population without the national economy having to recover first.
In the first months of 1990, therefore, the question of monetary union becomes central for the governments of both German states.
The threat to leave the country en masse is a strong trump card in the hands of the citizens. They feel empowered that they can also make demands on the government of the Federal Republic. They write on sheets: "If the DM comes, we stay, if she doesn't come, we go to her!
People on Monetary Union Day as a photo motif
A look at the photographs from 1 July 1990, the day of monetary union, shows how intensively the changeover to West German marks is captured in pictures. Regine Richter, for example, captured the moment before the big moment in Dresden: Dresdeners patiently queue in front of the Sparkasse branch on Neustädter Markt to exchange Deutschmarks.
Harald Hauswald, on the other hand, captured the moment after the exchange. A woman beaming with joy stretches a 100-mark note in the air. A man holds her arm up as if the banknote were a trophy. Above them, the Berlin night sky shows, because the German Bank branch on Alexanderplatz had already opened its doors at midnight. In numerous other photographs, people fan out the new notes for the photographer so that every single banknote can be seen.
Unlike the photos of the demonstrations, individuals are now in the foreground. Her facial expression has changed. The cautious, sometimes suspicious looks have given way to smiling faces. Gone is the urge to hide in the crowd and merge into the protective mass. Whereas protest could only be expressed in masses, happiness is now felt by each and everyone individually.
The monetary, economic and social union between the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR came into force on 1 July 1990 and included the introduction of the D-Mark in the GDR, although economists had advised against it. The "five economic wise men", a council of experts for the assessment of macroeconomic development, suggested a more cautious transition. This was to prevent GDR enterprises from finally becoming uncompetitive vis-à-vis Western enterprises due to the revaluation of the currency - and thus of their costs.
For GDR citizens, the one-to-one exchange rate is very advantageous, at least in the short term, because it revalued their savings from one moment to the next. This makes it possible to buy long-awaited Western products. However, since salaries are also adjusted on a one-to-one basis, wage costs for businesses increase dramatically. The GDR citizens' protest against an exchange rate that would have corresponded to the real purchasing power of the GDR economy was successful. But the citizens of the GDR had exchanged a fleeting illusion of prosperity for a lasting depression.
Trabants are disappearing from the streets
The parity exchange leads to a peculiar development. In the GDR, the supply of goods produced in the GDR is suddenly greater than the demand for them. It is true that even before the conversion, the Trabant was not technically competitive with the "West cars". But only now are GDR citizens able to actually buy a model from the Federal Republic.
People are no longer interested in products that they had to wait years for just a short time before. This is especially true of the "plastic bomber", as the Trabi is popularly known because of its plastic body. Manufacturers such as VEB Sachsenring or VEB Automobilwerk Eisenach, where the Wartburg is produced, are left sitting on their new cars. Even a 50 per cent discount can no longer boost sales. Demand collapses, there is an oversupply. Photographer Martin Langer has documented the misery of GDR cars. His photos show torn open and burnt out wrecks. What should happen to the Trabants from VEB Sachsenring? Since the start of production in 1957, around three million units have rolled off the production line. The front-runner is the 601 model with 2.8 million vehicles delivered. By way of comparison, the Volkswagen Group sold a total of 6.3 million units of the VW Golf II between 1983 and 1991, albeit worldwide.
East Germans who want to buy a "Western car" cannot trade in their Trabants. West German car dealers charge up to 500 West Marks for taking delivery of GDR cars. Only a few scrap metal dealers buy the decommissioned cars, because they trade in metal, not plastic. While companies and the Federal Environment Agency are still discussing recycling concepts, many are getting rid of their cars in a pragmatic way. Some just leave it on the road and unscrew the number plates. Particularly resourceful car owners sell their 601 abroad. In Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and Hungary, the Trabant becomes a real sales hit after 1989.
Car dealers from the West seized the opportunity and secured locations in the territory of the former GDR, which was absorbed into the five "new federal states" after reunification on 3 October 1990. In "East Germany", companies and car groups offer used cars within a short time. By July 1990, Volkswagen was already operating 420 locations for new and used cars. But the prices in the new federal states are higher than in West Germany, because the dealers have the buyers pay for the transport of their cars to the GDR. Many GDR citizens therefore take advantage of the new freedom to travel and drive to the former Federal Republic to buy a new car for the family. The choice is much greater there anyway.
The photo by Roland Bunge, taken in Dresden-Löbtau, shows an interesting scene: Of seven people walking past the gap in the building with a used car market, five are looking at the cars behind the fence.
There had been no commercial used car market in the GDR. Until 1989, there was no provision for disposing of a Trabant. New cars that could have replaced the old car did not exist. If the car was broken, it was repaired or recycled down to the last screw. But now the used car trade was flourishing. The sales talks between the buyers from the GDR and the sellers from the Federal Republic are often the first interpersonal contacts in which both sides do business with each other. For West Germans, the stakes are much lower than for East Germans. The latter invest a lot of money to fulfil their dream of owning a Volkswagen. For the West German sellers - whether private individuals or companies - the trade does not involve any risk. On the contrary, the prices they charge for their car bodies are exorbitant. So it's the former GDR citizens who get a bad deal.
Repair shops in East Germany profited from the boom in West German cars. In a photo by Ivo Petrík, a workshop can be seen in Dippoldiswalde, where only Barkas wagons were repaired until now. Now a VW logo hangs on the front of the workshop.
Martin Langer's photo shows men stowing a West German television in their much too small Trabi. Soon this Trabi will also have disappeared from the streetscape.
With the purchase of the West cars, the journey of the GDR citizens in their standard car came to a temporary end. Life as a citizen of the reunified Federal Republic opens up new opportunities for many, but also requires a quick adjustment to the new circumstances - both economically and politically. But one thing is certain: the Trabi will not be seen again in this life. It survives only as a photo motif.
They had taken to the streets with nothing but themselves. What drove them was a common goal - something that concerned the citizens of the whole country. Months later, the demonstration marches have dissolved, the protesters have joined the long queues in front of the bank branches. At this moment at the latest, they leave the public space and return to the private sphere. Their wishes are now no longer political.
Literature:
Hydrogen cyanide in the briquette. Environmental problem Trabi: The indestructible material Duroplast can neither be burnt nor scrapped, in: Der Spiegel 33 (1990)
Elke Kimmel, West Berlin. Mood pictures from the last year, in: From Politics and Contemporary History<, vol. 35-37 (2019), pp. 40-46.
Birgit Müller, The Disenchantment of the Market Economy. Ethnological Explorations in East German Companies, Frankfurt/Main 2003
Markus Mechnich, The great car rush, in: Der Tagesspiegel, 09.11.2014
Ulrich Mählert, Little History of the GDR, Munich 1998
Norbert F. Pötzl, "Halleluja D-Mark", in: Der Spiegel, 01.07.2020
Wolfgang Seibel, Managed Illusions, 2005