Thirty facts from 30 years of Volkswagen in East Germany: #1 – 1989: Cooperation with IFA Car Combine Just six days after the inner-German border opened, Volkswagen offered breakdown assistance for the Trabant and Wartburg for all visitors from the GDR through its V.A.G. organization. On December 22, 1989, Volkswagen and the IFA Passenger Car Combine in the GDR founded the joint project corporation “Volkswagen IFA-PKW GmbH”. Its aim was to plan, develop and prepare passenger car production in the GDR. On March 12, 1990, the corporation presented specific proposals for the development of modern automobile production in the GDR. #2 – 1990: First the Trabi, then the Polo
On May 21, 1990, the first Volkswagen Polo assembled in the GDR rolled off the production line in what was then the assembly hall in the new Sachsenring factory of the IFA Passenger Car Combine in Mosel (now Zwickau). The small hatchback in Alpine white was equipped with a 55 hp engine. Today, this first “Saxon Polo” can be admired in the August Horch Museum in Zwickau. The Trabi and Polo rolled off the production line together for over three months before the “racing cardboard”, as the Trabant was known colloquially, was discontinued. The last one was a sky-blue Trabant with a Polo engine under its “plastic” hood. This, too, is now standing in the August Horch Museum. #3 – 1990: Helmut Kohl and Carl Hahn lay the foundation stone in Zwickau
A great day for Volkswagen in Saxony: On September 26, 1990 in Mosel (now Zwickau), Federal Chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl and head of Volkswagen Dr. Carl H. Hahn laid the foundation stone for a new automobile factory, comprising a press plant, body shop, paint shop and final assembly. The factory was designed for the production of the Volkswagen Golf.