Nothing says communist East Germany quite like the Trabant — a plastic car with a two-stroke engine that was produced in East Germany for nearly thirty years.

A friend of mine in Poland had a Trabi for a few weeks and I had the privilege of riding in it. Winter in rural Poland is the worst time to be on the road, as snow is continually packed down into ice, making conditions less than ideal. To ride around rural Poland in the winter in a plastic car with a lawn mower motor for an engine was probably not wise.

Der Spiegel has a photo essay on East Germany, comprised of pictures taken just after the Wall fell, in 1990. It includes many pictures of Trabis, including this one:

It’s well worth a look.