Gulf stream to the East

How the Beetle, Golf and Bulli came to the GDR

Wie Käfer, Golf und Bulli in die DDR kamen – Buchcover

When 10,000 units of the VW Golf I officially arrived in the GDR at the end of the 1970s, everyone wanted to buy one. Some of the coveted cars were distributed via institutions and companies and only a few were sold via a Wartburg registration. However, small numbers of Beetles and Bulli also made their way to the East. The various models were considered dream cars in the workers' and farmers' state. It was not until the pre-reunification period that modern four-stroke engines replaced the two-stroke engines of the Trabant and Wartburg. Eberhard Kittler, a specialist on both the GDR and VW, has researched the history of western cars in the East using numerous documents that have only just been discovered and illustrated them with exclusive, mostly unpublished pictures.

Lecture: 

Eberhard Kittler, journalist and non-fiction author, Braunschweig

Next date:

• Date Wednesday, 21/August/2024 18:00 bis 20:00
• Venue DDR Museum Berlin
• Address Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 1, 10178 Berlin-Mitte