Vortrag: Autos in der ČSSR

Although the ČSSR and the GDR were neighboring socialist countries, there were clear differences in terms of road traffic. For example, the ČSSR had neither a highway nor a speed limit. You could drive as fast as you liked on country roads outside of towns and even in towns at night. Czechoslovaks could also buy a new car much more easily than GDR citizens.

Although Germans helped shape the history of cars in the Czech Republic - the first car owner in Bohemia bought his car from Carl Benz in 1893 - the life of the motorized people in the home country of the Škoda, Tatra, Jawa and ČZ brands was different than in the GDR.

The GDR had cars made of plastic, so the Trabant was often ridiculed. Czechs came with the Velorex and a body made of leather. Like the Trabant, this car provided plenty of material for jokes: "How often do you go to the car wash?" - "Never, I have it cleaned with my pants."

Martin Karlik, a journalist who works for the Czech magazine and television program "Svět motorů" ("Motor World") and the Slovakian radio program "Pozor, Zákruta!" ("Watch out, bend!"), tells us about the history of cars, motorcycles and the road traffic regulations in our neighboring country. As a native of the Czech Republic, he has witnessed much of this and has also processed it in his journalistic work. He is intensively involved with history and in October he is publishing a book on the development of automobilism.

In the lecture, visitors will also learn how it was possible to get cars from the West in the neighboring country - see Karel Gott with his Mercedes-Benz or Alfa-Romeo. And which brands from the West were available to buy from Tuzex, the Czechoslovak Genex? Martin Karlik also mentions the history of the Trabants that the East Germans left behind on the streets of Prague in 1989 and talks about the home-made trailers, motorhomes and even cars.