The Wartburg museum is an AWE-inspiring relic

The Wartburg Museum is actually called Automobile World Eisenach, hence the pun with AWE is not just intended but also quite fitting.

The surrounding decay and the sober decoration transpires a sincere no charm, no bullshit, down to earth attitude, yet with a comprehensive collection of artefacts, presented with love for details. Along with the authentic cars (either meticulously maintained or deliberately derelict), all that provides a feeling of authenticity to the museum.

Upon arrival, the cash desk charges an extra euro for taking photos, with the attitude of a DDR customs officer, completing the full Checkpoint Charlie experience. Again I am not complaining about it, just noting that this attitude actually makes AWE more authentic.

The Museum may not have the professional layout of brand museums, like the BMW World, neither the flamboyance of million-dollar collections like Louwman Museum or the Cité de l’Automobile. But the cars are perfectly restored, or staged in decay for the message of that segment.

The vehicles include many rare and old classics, such as pre-war Dixi models, Melkus race cars or Wartburg concept cars that were never marketed. The vehicles follow a clear theme, and they are embedded in dioramas and surrounded by informative decoration. As the website does not feature an English version, let me give you a short summary of the factory’s quite exciting history.

Wartburg is a defunct brand now, mostly remembered for its two-stroke family cars developed during the dark ages of East Germany. But its long history dates back to long as 1896 and illustrates well the unsurmountable tides of history.

Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach was one of the earliest companies to manufacture cars in Germany, with the introduction of the first Wartburg, a licensed model of the French Decauville in 1898. The founder Heinrich Ehrhardt gradually withdrew from the company, that went through turbulent times in the next decades.

During World War I the factory produced trucks and guns for the German army, but the post-war reparations after the war crippled the company.

In 1919, car production resumed with a company renamed as Dixi-Werke AG in 1920, focusing on cheaper model needed to restart the German economy. Due to financial difficulties, the Gothaer Waggonfabrik AG acquired Dixi in 1920, but after a few years of struggle, they sold it to BMW in 1928.

The BMW period was the company’s golden age, with several models enjoying considerable market success, like the BMW Dixi, and upmarket six-cylinder models.

In 1942, BMW moved its motorcycle production to Eisenach, freeing up space in Munich for aircraft engines. By the end of the war, the factory was devastated by the bombings, and things hardly got better afterwards.

The worst thing in the soviet “liberation” was not the wartime devastation but the crippling of the entire society. While the US helped democratise the beaten enemies and even provided financial aid, the soviets usually transferred much of the confiscated production facilities. But the worse comes from the conversion into a communist society where the society is levelled by pushing down everybody, who stands out.

The company’s post-war history illustrates really well how people who knew how to make cars were struggling to go through the chains of the planned economy. After the war, Thuringia found itself in the Soviet sector, and the factory became a Soviet stock company named Awtowelo. Curiously, the first years seemed not so dire, and according to records of the time, Marshall Zhukov played a personal role in preventing that the factory is dismantled and relocated to Russia.

Production restarted with the BMW models in 1945, and since the Munich factory was not producing cars yet, all BMWs made from 1945 to 1951 were East German. Also, as long as the Soviets owned the company, BMW in Munich could not bring legal proceedings to protect its tradename.

In this particular situation, DDR had the upper hand over the Federal Republic, and about 4000 BMW 321 models were built until 1950. In 1949 the Eisenach Automobile Works launched the production of BMW 340 (a development of the BMW 326 with modified front and rear pontoon bodywork) and the BMW 327.

In 1952 the company was transferred to the ownership of the East German government, and by that time BMW was able to get back on its feet. By that time, the Bavarians secured their tradename, logo, and started to produce cars again in Munich.

As the air was getting thin, the East German company was renamed EMW (Eisenacher Motorenwerk) with the propeller logo taking up the red colour. This period was about survival of the factory, and in total, some 30 000 four stroke cars were produced between 1945 and 1955.

The company needed a new model, and they again turned to an existing model stemming from a nationalised company. The IFA 309 was based on the DKW F9 prototype, developed in 1939 but never marketed. This car had a three-cylinder two-stroke engine, that became a company’s trademark and East German car manufacturing.

These were the last times when DDR did not hopelessly lag behind. I recommend the relevant historical exhibition of the PS Speicher that starts with the identical twin IFA and DKWs, to show that in 25 years, how far the evolution of the two Germanies diverged.

This corner also hosts the most incredible post-war effort, an AWE R3 race car. AWE’s race programme ran between 1953 and 1955 with cars formally entered by the EMW / AWE racing collective, as a factory team.

The cars used tech derived from BMWs with a 1.5-litre engine peaking at 138 hp, comparable to the early Porsche 550 at that time, which not as powerful and even heavier. The team scored commendable results at international races from 1954 to 1956.

The R3’s most tremendous success was the GP of Dessau where it actually beat the Porsche factory team. On April 29, 1956, factory drivers Arthur Rosenhammer and Edgar Barth entered the Paris Grand Prix, finishing third and fourth. The ADAC 1000 km race at the Nürburgring ended with retirement for one car, but Barth and Rosenhammer finished seventh overall.

The last match with Porsche took place in September at the AVUS ring, and the AWE cars took third and fourth place after the Porsches. The racing collective started for the last time in Dessau, and Barth won ahead of Rosenhammer without any West German competition. After the 1956 season, the racing programme was stopped, and the racing collective was dissolved. Edgar Barth then emigrated to the Federal Republic of Germany and joined Porsche concluding a versatile career with many victories.

In 1956, the company launched its first really own model, baptised after the very first model from Eisenach. The Wartburg 311 received a new brand-new design, but the technical platform used the old DKW based two-stroke engine.The 311 was offered in several chassis variations, including pickup, sedan, limousine, coupé, and even a cool two-seat roadster. The versions are neatly numbered up to number 9., starting with the coolest Roadster 311/1 down to the Station Wagon 311/9. The Museum showcases several of these versions, including a camper, built from a station wagon.

My personal favourites were the Roadster coupés awarded the prestigious 313/1 model code and a design that matched some of the fanciest German coupés, at least by the looks.

The Wartburg Roadster was equipped with longer bonnet and ventilation grills on the side, along with the style of fancy western roadsters. Its engine tuned up to a whopping 50 BHP, could bring the roadster to a top speed of 140km/h.

As one of most fancy cars in the East, the roadster served primarily to annoy those capitalist pigs, and harvested shock and AWE (get it? : ) )The vehicle was quite a sensation at the 1958 New York Car Show, crowned as the most beautiful European car.

After this historical overview, it is time to take a rhetorical break before we continue with the modern times.

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