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Eisenach (dpa / th) - 30 years after production was discontinued, there are currently around 8,400 GDR cars of the Wartburg brand on German roads.
The registration figures for the car, which was built in the former Eisenach automobile plant up to April 10, 1991, have been stable since 2015, with a slight upward trend, following the sharp decline in recent decades.
That comes from figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority in Flensburg.
Because of the corona pandemic, the production stop and the shutdown of the automobile plant (AWE) on Saturday in Eisenach were virtually thought of.
Fans of the former GDR mid-range car uploaded photos of their vehicles on the Internet or started individual trips.
A big joint excursion of the active clubs that keep the history of the Wartburg alive was not possible because of the corona pandemic, said Eisenach's mayor Katja Wolf (left) of the German press agency.
“There are still many contemporary witnesses active.
The Wartburg DNA is still there in Eisenach, ”says Wolf.
After all, Eisenach is the third oldest German automobile manufacturing location with a tradition going back more than 120 years, which is being continued.
The foundation and the “Automobile Welt Eisenach” museum remind of this.
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According to figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority, most of the Wartburgs are still registered in Saxony with around 2,400, followed by Brandenburg and Thuringia with more than 1,500 each. 30 years after production was discontinued, they are now vintage cars.
According to the figures from Flensburg, ten years after the Wartburg-Aus, 52,000 of the GDR vehicles were still registered, in 2011 it was only 7,500.
The automotive tradition in Eisenach has been continued by Opel since the early 1990s.
The Rüsselsheim-based car manufacturer built a plant in which the Grandland city SUV is currently rolling off the assembly line.
"The traditional automobile locations in East Germany survived the upheaval of the 1990s with wounds," said Thuringia's Minister of Economic Affairs, Wolfgang Tiefensee (SPD).
Eisenach and the West Thuringia region with the Opel plant and a large number of medium-sized suppliers are still a center of vehicle construction in Germany.
Obviously, regions with strong industrial traditions and competencies are in a position to survive crises and upheavals.
According to Tiefensee, they are currently facing new challenges: "The ongoing structural change in the automotive industry will fundamentally change entire areas of value creation, for example in the area of drive technologies."
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210410-99-151547 / 2
Automotive history in Eisenach