Word: trabant
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Small, snub nosed, slow and the product of Stalinist central planning, the Trabant is the ugly duckling of East Germany's roadways. The ubiquitous "Trabi" has not had its flaky Duraplast body redesigned since the first mass-production models rolled off the assembly line in 1964. Its motorcycle- size two-stroke engine coughs out more pollution than almost any other auto. Often the motor's two cylinders come on line one at a time until they sputter in unison in a puff of blue smoke, sounding uncannily like an ancient sewing machine...
...after day new throngs poured in. There were so many abandoned Trabant and Wartburg automobiles on Prague streets that police began towing away any vehicle with East German stickers on it. On Tuesday, Ambassador Hermann Huber ordered the embassy gates closed when the refugee population had reached 5,000, then hours later, as the night turned bitterly cold, reopened them to families with children. A new round of departures was scheduled and then delayed. East German officials, moreover, insisted that the second group of trains make the trip from Prague to the West German city of Hof at night, rendering...
...honed five-year plans are no longer quite enough. Even that well-oiled machine is wearing down under the same contradictions of Communism that have driven other East bloc economies onto the rocks. Pointing to the increasing scarcity of consumer goods, ten- year waiting lists for East German-made Trabant automobiles and deepening competition in foreign markets from third world producers, a Western diplomat in Berlin says, "They are treading water. Everything is getting pretty waterlogged...
...still others, though, the most welcome fact about ROTC'S return has less to do with patriotism or practicality than with sound democratic principles. Observes University of Delaware President E. Arthur Trabant: "More students have come to the conclusion I came to many years ago, that the best army is a citizen army. The ROTC program contributes to that...
...Communist Eastern Europe. If nothing else, Skoda's snappy, rugged little family compact, the 1000 MB, proves that Communism can at least try to compete in highly competitive western auto markets. Where such products as Russia's Zil and East Germany's Trabant have failed to make even the smallest dent in the Western market, Skoda's 1000 MB has become increasingly popular on roads from Cologne to Christchurch, N.Z. Last year Skoda turned out 77,000 of the cars, up from 60,000 in 1965. Nearly half were exported to the West, bringing in more...