How Did The VW Golf 1 Briefly Break Through The Iron Curtain?

If you wanted to buy a car in East Germany (GDR), you had to wait more than 10 years and sometimes 15 years. Only then would a Wartburg or Trabant run into your yard with the joyful sounds of a two-stroke engine and the unpleasant smell of exhaust gases.

The waiting lists got longer in the late 1970s, and the authorities became aware of the problem. The solution? Repentant to call the biggest enemy on the other side of the Iron Curtain the capitalist society on the other side of the border, FR Germany. At the beginning of 1978, 10,000 Golfs were sent to East Germany, with gasoline and diesel engines of the same power—50 HP.

A Volkswagen Golf could not be obtained by anyone; the candidates were only the best workers in the largest factories, but there was no interest. Many were worried about where to service the car because Volkswagen in the GDR, of course, did not have a service network; the price of the Golf was about 35,000 East German marks, and the Trabant cost about 10,000 marks. In the end, the authorities had to reduce the price, so all the Golfs were sold.

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