Trabant in the International Spy Museum November 5, 2011
Trabant small car that has played a big role in the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Adventures of driving a Trabant CNN Frederik Pleitgen poses beside a Trabant before being painted and signed by thousands The vehicle was an icon for the Germans from small cars built Communists began to roll on the border between what was then East and West Germany in 1989.
Frederik Pleitgen CNN takes the iconic German Trabant car for a spin.
The cars were rolling across the border between what was then West Germany and East in 1989.
CNN has hired artist Martin Raumberger to give the car a makeover.
Thousands of people crowded around the car to the sign, shot, and take their picture with it.
There are few cars in the world where the difference between lead and watch the leads is greater than the Trabant.
There is a small car cute Its two large round headlights look almost as innocent eyes staring back at the viewer and her tiny frame looks so fragile that all the other drivers give you the right of way when you choose to take a tour around the city.
But driving a Trabant is an adventure, to say the least that pedestrians smile and take selfies front of the car, you will be locked in a constant battle just to keep the vehicle on the road.
Slipping behind the wheel of a Trabant is a kind of squeeze in a sleeping bag - especially when you are 6 feet 5 inches tall, like me get the engine started is half the battle - the car immediately if you take hold your foot on the gas - and the brakes about gift not work at all.
Take all these factors together and traveling in stop-and-go traffic quickly becomes torture nerve racking You are happy when you finally reach your destination, and the car can become again the eye-catching backdrop of a myriad pictures snapped by gawking tourists.
Nevertheless, the Trabant was an icon for the Germans from small cars built Communists began to roll on the border of what was then East Germany and West in 1989. There have been movies the car, where he is portrayed as an outsider in the race - almost like American movies about Herbie the Volkswagen Beetle.
Trabant is so important that CNN Berlin just had to get one for our coverage of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and it quickly became one of the cornerstones of our coverage.
We looked online and found that there is little left trabis Those were offered up for sale not for driving, but for spare parts When we finally found one that was able to spend his last inspection driving we seized immediately.
Trabant, produced by communist East Germany by the government-run conglomerate VEB Sachsenring 1957 to 1990, was flawed from its inception a few changes were made to the design in 1962, but never really fundamentally changed the car part of the Trabi is PVC cheap plastics - a material that Germans nicknamed the running board - and small houses frame 26 horsepower, two-stroke engine that runs on a mixture of oil and the petrol.
We needed a good concept to make our Trabi - a break 601 S - the cornerstone of our fall from wall coverage, we rented the artist Martin Raumberger to give the car a makeover He focused on three themes Berlin, CNN and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Martin has done an amazing job He made many of the most famous symbols of our Trabi, including the Berlin broadcast tower and the Brandenburg Gate He also called a people tree violate the Berlin Wall, a symbol of penetrating human life and destroy the anti-human barrier between East and West.
The longest part of the wall still standing today the East Side Gallery, for example, is an outdoor museum, a living piece of art covered with thousands of graffiti scrawled their names on the wall with a permanent marker We decided our Trabi should not be different.
We asked people from around the world to sign the car with their name and hometown, and the response we got was incredible.
On November 9 thousands of people crowded around our car for the sign, shot, and take their photo with at a given time the authorities asked us to stop because the crowd was so large that it was blocking the track Bicycle and the street to the East Side Gallery.
Now that the celebrations are over it is time to decide what to do with CNN following Trabant is transformed into a true work of art by Martin Raumberger and all those who signed their names.
I will definitely miss our little Trabant, but I will certainly drive.
Trabant small car big role in the fall of the Berlin Wall, Trabant little role.