Adventures in East Germany 21-24 Feb 2011. Horch Museum

For some time now I've wanted to visit East Germany, or more correctly the regions that were
formerly the Gdr as it is now no more.
It is still different though to the rest of Germany, or what used to be West Germany.
It's poorer for one thing and cities like Zwickau and Chemnitz, former industrial giants, are full
of run down areas of grey concrete desolation, that no investor will touch and now shoulder the
 highest rates of unemployment in the country.

Trabant P50 prototype 1957

I was fortunate enough to visit parts of the former Gdr in the last week of February, this year.
My son and I flew from Dublin to Berlin on a Monday, stayed three nights and flew back
again on the Thursday. Not a long trip, but I planned it well and we packed plenty into our
time there.
I booked the flights around Christmas time, so about two months in advance and got a
great deal. We paid 57 euros each return, including taxes and all charges, which included
5 euros on each flight, credit card charge. We just had a carry on bag each, which keeps the
costs down a lot nowadays with budget airlines.

People complain about Ryanair and it's true they give you less baggage allowance, the
planes are not the biggest or the most spacious. But their flights are usually on time and
they're consistently the best value out there.
There was a girl on the plane I overheard telling her friend that she'd never fly with
Ryanair again and it was a pity they didn't fly with Aerlingus, who also fly Dublin-Berlin.
Turns out, she was refused  her oversized bag onto the plane and made pay for it
to be put into the hold to the tune of 35 euros.
In all likelihood, she would've had to pay the same to Aerlingus.
The baggage restrictions are made clear on the boarding passes, which clearly states
the weight, length, height and depth allowed, so the information is there for all to see.

I had booked car hire for our trip with an online price comparision site and got 4 days
hire with insurance for 145 euros, which wasn't bad value.
The car we got was a practically new Ford Fiesta and it did the job for us well, being
big enough for our needs with small running costs. It was actually quite quick too and
drove well on the Autobahns for hours at 90-100 mph, with no ill effects.
Motorway services are like most everywhere nowdays, very expensive and you usually
have to pay to use the toilet in German ones, which usually costs 50 cents to spend a
penny!
Our first leg of the trip was to drive to Zwickau, which is roughly 175 miles from Berlin and
we got there in about 3 hours driving time, which included some slow going due to roadworks.
The roads in Germany are superb and I found myself reminiscing about the travels I had a
number of years ago driving the length and breadth of France, yes chasing classic cars!
The roads are on par with the French ones but unlike France, I didn't have any hefty tolls
to pay for the privilege of using the motorways.

It was a bloody cold few days with temperatures ranging from minus two to minus
fourteen and usually averaging minus six or seven in the afternoons.
For our first night's accomodation I booked an Etap Hotel, which is situated in a place
called 'Crossen',  about five miles from Zwickau town centre.
Although Zwickau has city status based on its population, its centre is quite compact and
it feels much more like a smallish town.
The Etap hotel was a good choice and only cost twenty two euros for the night, as I'd
booked more than thirty days in advance. Normal price was still a very cheap twenty nine
euros at short notice.
They're a chain of hotels very similar to the Formule 1 and Premiere Classe franchises,
where the rooms are modern, made of low maintenance materials and comprise of
a Double bed with a single overhead, so the room rate is for 1-3 people.
There's 400 Etaps all across Europe and some of them charge per person, but most by
the room.
The room also had a small writing desk and a Television.
The room isn't the biggest but it's adequate and has its own shower and toilet and the
security in these new build type of hotels is excellent.
There's free internet and vending machines where you can get a hot drink.
We headed into Zwickau town centre for a bite to eat around six and I was surprised how
quiet the place was. Even traffic was minimal.
The whole place seemed a bit dead, although it was a Monday night I suppose.
Compared to Berlin and other cities in Germany, the former East states of Saxony and
Thuringia where we stayed are not as used to seeing tourists and the people have a habit
of staring as they realise you're from foreign climes.
There's a distinct lack of English spoken in general, which is not surprising as they're not
dependent on tourism and English didn't appear on the school curriculum until after the
opening of the Berlin Wall and subsequent  fall of Communism.

1951 IFA F9

We ate dinner and had a coffee in Zwickau Town centre and just went back to the hotel.
Zwickau seems an extremely subdued and almost melancholy place, with very little
life or much going on after 7pm.
We went to bed early and also rose early as we were heading to the Horch Museum
in downtown Zwickau the next morning.
We got to the Horch museum at opening time of 9.30, after first having breakfast in a
small bakery cum coffee shop in Zwickau's indoor shopping centre.
I also got a parking fine notice slapped on my windscreen when we got back to the car
after breakfast, despite having paid for a ticket. Apparently, you also have to have a permit
from the Town council!    No doubt I'll hear more about it in due course.

The Horch Museum is most impressive, aided by Audi's money in developing, building and
maintaining it. It's not situated on Audi Street for nothing!
My satnav brought us right to the door, but it's easy to find anyway as it seems all roads
in and out of Zwickau have signs for it.
The museum is built on the site where August Horch started his Audi works in 1909.
The same site along with the nearby Horch factory would eventually build the Trabant,
when both factories became AWZ( Automobile werks Zwickau) in 1958.
A lot of the staff here are middle-aged and elderly as the museum employs many former
members from the Trabant/ Sachsenring factory, some of which is still visible behind the
 museum. It's derelict and forlorn appearance in stark contrast to the new showpiece
within the same grounds.
There's a huge tradition and abundant history in German car-making within this place
and the museum highlights over 100 years of Zwickau Car production.
The museum is dedicated to August Horch, who was the founder of the 'Horch' and
subsequently 'Audi' brands.
Horch first started building cars in Zwickau in 1904, but left the company to set up a rival
factory( also in Zwickau) in 1909, when he had a falling out with management.
His rival company initially also used the name 'Horch' on its cars, but he changed the
name to 'Audi' for legal reasons, after a  court ruled that the 'Horch' name was registered
to his former partners and he couldn't use it.
Audi means 'Horch' in Latin and the first Audi badged cars appeared in 1910.
August Horch left Audi in 1920.
Cars carrying the Horch name were large, luxury cars, handbuilt by the very best
craftsmen and they were serious competitors to Mercedes. They were renowned for
their smooth, powerful engines, class and comfort.
In 1932, Dkw acquired Horch, Audi and Wanderer, another German car manufacturer
and they amalgamated to form Auto-Union, although the four brands would still
make cars under their respective logos for many more years.
The four ringed logo on Audi cars today represents each of the four marques that
comprised Auto-Union.
The museum showcases some of all the marques in its display.
It's interesting that Dkw was the only one of the 4 manufacturers to use two stroke
technology exclusively and yet they were successful enough to buy out the others.
Although there were many fantastic pre-WWII luxury Horch cars to look at, my main
interest was in the Dkw era from 1931 onwards, up to the production of the Trabant models.

Dkw also had a factory in Zwickau and they are the ancestors of practically all two
stroke cars that came after them, so far ahead of the competition for their time.
They were using front wheel drive and mounting their engines transversely as early as 1931
with the Dkw F1. Citroen with their Traction Avant would claim to be the first front wheel drive
 car, yet their fine car didn't make production until 1934.
Dkw made cars from 1928-1966 and only used two stroke engines.
They did however also make some cars with conventional rear wheel drive, although the
majority of their work was front wheel drive cars.
Their range of small front wheel drive cars sold remarkably well as they were inexpensive
compared to offerings from rivals and well appointed for their time with faux leather seats.
Their F1 car was the least expensive car available in Germany in 1931 and was a two seater.
The early thirties were severe times of economic crisis and these cars signalled the move
away from luxury, expensive cars that only the rich could afford, to cars that were a bit more
affordable to folk with more modest means.
I think the F1 sowed the seeds for the drive for a people's car that consumed Hitler for many
years and eventually spawned the Beetle and a spate of others that followed across Europe,
including the Citroen 2Cv in France and to a lesser extent the Morris Minor in Britain.

Other models followed the F1 and the F signified 'Front' meaning front wheel drive.
There were four seater models and also commercial, small van types.
The range went from F1- F9 up to 1939 and the outbreak of WWII.
Obviously there was no development during the War years and in the immediate aftermath of
the War, any development was in making trucks and tractors to try and get Germany
productive again after their country was ravaged and razed. There was no money in these
early post War years for buying cars.

After the War, Dkw and many other German manufacturers operating in the East, found
themselves in the Russian sector, which was to become Communist.
Furthermore, the Russians were confiscating, crating and sending back anything and
everything of industrial value to Russia in the name of War reparations.
Dkw and many others left East Germany and their factories behind and had to start over
in West Germany from 1949. They too found little demand for cars in the post War period
and concentrated their efforts on Motorbikes and the remarkable 'Schnellaster' van which used
the same two stroke, two cylinder engine as the F8 car, which dated from 1939.
These small vans were a tremendous success for Dkw and helped create much needed
revenue to boost their business in those lean times.

Mock street full of Dkw's and an Ifa F8

                                      

Eventually, the Dkw factories and their technology would be put to good use by Sachsenring,
AWE ( Wartburg) and also Barkas. All the East German vehicle manufacturers were controlled
by the Industrial Association for Vehicle Construction, known as the IFA, who in addition to
the Sachsenring and Wartburg badged cars, also made cars under the IFA logo.
The IFA determined that all East German car and motorcyle manufacture would use two stroke
engines, thus utilising the existing technology that Dkw had created and left for them.
The Horch and Audi factories in Zwickau were merged by the IFA in 1957 and the
new company was called 'Sachsenring'.

The first car the IFA made under Communism was the IFA F8, which was basically
the DKW F8 with a different badge. This car was made in Zwickau from 1949-57.


The IFA F9 model first appeared in 1950 and it used a new 3 cylinder, 2 stroke engine of 900cc.
This was developed by DKW pre WWII but the onset of war delayed its production until
it appeared under the IFA badge. The similar DKW car 3=6 Sonderclasse, or F93 would not
make its debut until 1953. Somewhat of a propaganda victory here for the Communists!
The F9 was made in Zwickau from 1950-1953 and then production transferred to AWE
Eisenach from 1953-1956.

It is the engine from the DKW F5 and F7 cars that are remarkably similar to all the
Trabant engines and the 700cc Zwickau P70 that would be produced nearly two decades later.
The P70 used water cooling but all models bearing the Trabant name would be air-cooled.

Dkw always used water cooling for their engines.

The Horch museum has a number of perfectly preserved Dkw's on view, including a mock
period street with different models on display. There's a particularly fine F7 van and of
course the progenitor of them all, a concours F1.
There's a Ifa F8 prototype with some Duroplast panels.

There's a number of Zwickau P70's, including a lovely coupe in white.

When you look at the styling of the P70 coupe, there's a striking resemblance to the
Nissan Figaro, the retro styled car made in the early nineties, based on the Micra.
It's clear and somewhat flattering to the stylists in Zwickau that their car would
provide inspiration for Nissan's development, of that being the case I have no doubt, if
not proof.
The Zwickau P70 was created due to problems the Sachsenring engineers had with fixing
duroplast panels onto the steel body cage of the Trabant P50 and its creation gave much
needed breathing space and time for the engineers to iron out these problems and create
a new technology for mounting duroplast to steel.
The Zwickau P70 used the wooden chassis of the F8 and the duroplast panels were basically
nailed or screwed on, somewhat crudely. The P70 also shared the F8's engine, albeit with
some minor changes and a different carburettor that raised the Hp slightly.

At the same time the Sachsenring Engineers were busy with the P70, they were also
producing the Sachsenring P240, which was formerly known as the Horch P240.
This was a conventional, high quality, large saloon car with a 2.4 litre, 6 cylinder
engine and rear wheel drive. It had all the typical Horch qualities, smoothness, luxury,
refinement and build quality. The export market was where this car was aimed, as
Germany was still economically challenged and few could afford luxury cars.
The Horch designed car was built from 1956-1958.
The exporting of this car brought much needed foreign currency into the Gdr
economy.
It was badged ' Sachsenring' from 1958-1959 and only dropped when the Russians
inexplicably banned its exportation.
There's a cracking P240 on show in the Horch Museum.

Sachsenring P240

interior of Sachsenring P240

All the subsequent Trabant models which followed of course had a monocoque body and
chassis, with the duroplast panels bolted on. The P70 was the only one to use a separate
chassis. All the models bearing the Trabant name would share basically the same chassis
and wheelbase, although there were modifications as time went on.
This explains how many cars that started out as Trabant P50's and 60's would later
be updated with P601 body panels. This happened quite regularly.


The museum devotes quite a few exhibits showing how the Trabant was constructed
and in particular shows nicely how thw duroplast panels were mounted onto the
steel frame of the cars.

Then there's all the Trabant models on display including many prototypes that never
made it past the Politburo, including a fine looking three cylinder diesel engine,
from 1983 of 1100cc and 34Hp at 4500 rpm.
It's claimed top speed was 74 mph and average fuel economy was
reputed to be over 50 mpg, making it comparable to the VW Golf 1.5 diesel of the
same time.

Trabant Diesel prototype 1983

Trabants were ridiculed as being archaic and poorly engineered by Western opinion,
yet prototypes such as these shows that Sachsenring were severely handicapped
not only by the financial constraints of a failing planned economy, but also by their
Government in what they were allowed to develop and put into production.
There were also many planned and proposed petrol engines and prototype cars
that were never given the green light.

Trabant Kubel 1988

I wonder how the skilled work force who honed their skills on luxury Horch and
Audi cars felt about making  two stroke cars with plastic bodies!
It also shows that despite their handicaps, their engineers were extremely talented and
savvy of developments in the West.
Basically, there was no money for new development available and they were forced to
stick with two stroke power until were allowed to use the Vw Polo engine in 1990.

Trabant 1.1 1991

It's like they were given a directive stating, let's make a car as mechanically simple
as possible, that's cheaper to make than anything else in Germany, yet is as good
as can be within the imposed restraints and limitations throughout the car's lifespan.
In being forced to continue for decades with two stroke engines they, along with
the Eisenach factory producing Wartburgs made as many improvements as they
could and bettered the original Dkw engine designs over time.
This can be seen in the proportion changes in the two stroke oil necessary, over
time. Early engines needed 25:1 petrol/two stroke oil, then it improved to 33:1
and eventually the last two stroke engines used only 50:1.

1964 Trabant 601 with trailer