When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Trabants were used as escape vehicles for a population that had been locked behind the Soviet Iron Curtain for decades. Trabants were ridiculed – a symbol of a socialist planned economy gone wrong. It seemed like a piece of ancient history compared to cars from the West. Yet when the Trabant launched it used upcycled innovative new materials to bring freedom of movement to a country ravaged by war and lacking basic raw materials. It had a modern front wheel drive design with rack and pinion steering. What were the Trabant’s origins, what updates nearly came to market, and what happened after production ended? Trabant Optional Extra video: https://youtu.be/aJbrEjC0OCo A special thanks to Tim Keil for helping me with information and photos for the video. If you'd like to support what I do, and get early access to advert-free videos and exclusive channel updates, please consider supporting the channel from just $1 or 80p a month: http://patreon.com/bigcar Support me using PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/bigcartv Big Car merch: https://teespring.com/stores/bigcartv Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigcartv My second channel - Little Car: https://www.youtube.com/littlecar Sources: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant_(Pkw) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horch https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_Union https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobilwerk_Zwickau https://p70-coupe.hpage.com/der-p70/modellgeschichte.html https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/plastics-rubber/all-about-polyester-resins/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duroplast https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/IFA_F_8 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWZ_P_70 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant_P_50 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant_P_50 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant_600 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant_600 http://www.pommerngreif.de/1server/web_trab/menue.html https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verf%C3%BCgbarkeit_von_Pkw_in_der_DDR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant_601 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant_601 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachsenring_(Unternehmen) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_96 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hycomat https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_353 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0koda_1000_MB https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGW-Auto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_the_Berlin_Wall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reunification https://www.trabantteam-freital.de/extra/60jahretrabantrallyesport/index.html https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant_1.1 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpa https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant_nT #bigcar