The Trabant was introduced in Communist East Germany in 1957 as the country’s answer to the Volkswagen Beetle. However, the car’s inefficient two-stroke engine, duroplast body and production shortages turned it into a disaster. The car was regarded as a symbol of the economic downturn of East Germany and of the fall of the Eastern Bloc. The fall of the Berlin Wall saw many East Germans stream into West Germany in their Trabants. It earned a strong cult following in reunified Germany partly due to its poor image, and is today considered a nostalgic symbol of the erstwhile East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic or GDR.