Heaven Is A Sky Blue Trabant
Posted: January 14, 2011 Filed under: Berlin 2 Comments »The DDR’s Sonja Schmidt never really made the big time until she released ‘Ein Himmelblauer Trabant’ in 1971.
It’s an unashamed, uninspired novelty song with pathetic lyrics . . . so it should have won the Eurovision Song Contest hands down if East Germany had been a contestant at the time. All the same, it grabbed a gold for DDR’s State record label – Amiga.
Still today, equally pathetic Trabant enthusiasts pay fortunes on e-Bay to get hold of a copy of the record Sonja made in 1971. It’s a Trabant owner, glove-locker, must-have.
A two-stroke car, the Trabant requires you to open the bonnet to fill it up with its noxious mixture of oil and petrol. The ritual is celebrated here by a fellow Ostalgist and modelmaker.
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I pass through Berlin quite often en route to Estonia by road. It is surprising how many of the little Trabbies you still see on the German roads.
I guess they are a bit of a cult car there now, like the people in the UK who tear around in old Minis.
Not terribly appealing to me though…… a Merc is the only way to do the autobahn.
Thanks for the comment.
I’m sure you are right about Mercs and autobahns, but there aren’t too many autobahns after Germany. I’ve driven to Riga a couple of times and it was pretty slow through Poland.
‘Michelin Routefinder’ suggests going to Tallinn via Scandinavia – less driving, but the ferries are expensive.