Go Trabi Go

Last updated
Go Trabi Go – Die Sachsen kommen
Go Trabi Go VHS cover.jpg
VHS cover
Directed byPeter Timm
Written byReinhard Kloss
Peter Timm
Produced byReinhard Kloss
Starring Wolfgang Stumph
Claudia Schmutzler
Marie Gruber
Dieter Hildebrandt
Ottfried Fischer
Diether Krebs
Konstantin Wecker
Billie Zöckler
Barbara Valentin
André Eisermann
Monika Baumgartner
Trabant 601
CinematographyAxel Block
Edited byChristel Suckow
Music byEkki Stein
Release date
January 17, 1991 (1991-01-17)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman

Go Trabi Go is a 1991 German comedy and road movie directed by Peter Timm. It was the first major box office hit about events concerning the newly reunified Germany. Unlike other films in this period that focused on the problems following reunification, Go Trabi Go sees the main characters, former citizens of East Germany, explore places in Europe outside the Eastern Bloc that they were not allowed to visit during the Communist era. [1]

Contents

Synopsis

The year is 1990 and Germany has been newly reunified. German teacher Udo Struutz decides that his family should go on their first vacation in the "west" to relive Goethe's Italian Journey in their family Trabant 601 ("Trabi").

Plot

Udo Struutz (Wolfgang Stumph), teacher in the East German town of Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, is a great fan of Goethe and wants to visit all places described in Goethe's Italian Journey . Following the German reunification in 1990, he sees the possibility to do so since it is now possible for him and his wife Rita (Marie Gruber) and daughter Jacqueline (Claudia Schmutzler) to travel to Italy. Driving in their family Trabant (called "Schorsch"), they set out to go on their first vacation in the "west".

Their first stop on their journey southwards is Regensburg where Struutz's brother-in-law (Ottfried Fischer) lives, who are portrayed as extreme opposites to the East German family. Following this short family reunion, the family with their Trabant is transported by a friendly truck driver to Italy where they continue on their own again. Arriving in Rome, the family's borrowed camera is stolen which prompts mother and daughter Struutz to chase after the thief, not only recovering their camera but also the money the thief stole. Not being able to talk to the police about it and not being able to find Udo again, they decide to check into a luxury hotel with the recovered money. Meanwhile, Udo sleeps in the car after driving through the city the whole day and is awakened by four young women who want to party with him, which leads to the Trabi driving down some stairs and casing being torn apart which they then replace with colorful spare parts. The family reunites at the Spanish Steps the next day and continues onto Naples where the Trabi loses its roof because the family forgot to secure it in place while trying to make a picture of themselves with Vesuvius in the background.

Reception

Go Trabi Go was a major box office hit, attracting 1.5 million viewers in both parts of Germany, making it one of only three unification films that enjoyed success at the box office. [2] This success has been described as being partly due to the love/hate relationship many East Germans had with their "Trabi", which was the most well-known and ridiculed symbol of East Germany. [3]

Stephen Kinzer of The New York Times described the movie as a way for East Germans to laugh "not precisely at themselves, but at the absurdities of the system under which they lived until last year." [4] He likens the Trabi as a symbol for the people who built it, who "survive[d] through difficult times and ultimately triumph[ed]". [4] The film was also praised for its rollicking portrayal of the car as a main character while still getting across the problems of the "East" in the newly reunified country by using the car as a metaphor — slow, breaking down and ridiculed by the West. [5]

The film was criticised for relying almost solely on crude clichés and mostly ignoring politically sensitive issues. [6] Another reason for criticism was that the film paints the main characters in a humble, fair and nice way while their West German counterparts are depicted as vulgar, mean and shallow. [4] [6]

The film was followed by a sequel, Go Trabi Go 2: Das war der wilde Osten (1992).

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was released by Hansa.

  1. "Westward Ho" - John Parr (4:38)
  2. "Gates Of Eden" - Eena (4:38)
  3. "Questa Notte" - Francesco Napoli (3:28)
  4. "Trabi Goes To Napoli" (Instrumental) - Westlake Orchestra (4:20)
  5. "Due Ragazze In Me" - Gianna Nannini (3:44)
  6. "White Doves Have Crossed The Borders" - John Parr (3:47)
  7. "Lady Of My Heart" - Taco (3:58)
  8. "Keep On Running" - The Real Voices Of Milli Vanilli (4:08)
  9. "Jacqueline's Song" - Claudia Schmutzler (3:02)
  10. "Solo Con Te" - Eros Ramazzotti (5:01)
  11. "Lover Boy" - Gabriela Di Rosa (3:35)
  12. "Lady Of My Heart" (Hollywood String Version Instrumental) - Westlake Orchestra (3:58)

Related Research Articles

Trabant is a series of small cars produced from 1957 until 1991 by former East German car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. Four models were made: the Trabant 500, Trabant 600, Trabant 601, and the Trabant 1.1. The first model, the 500, was a relatively modern car when it was introduced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilhelm von Humboldt</span> Prussian philosopher, government official, diplomat, and educator (1767–1835)

Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt was a German philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named after him in 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German reunification</span> 1989–1991 unification process of Germany with its full sovereignty returned

German reunification was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single full sovereign state, which took place between 9 November 1989 and 15 March 1991. On October 3rd, 1990 when the "Unification Treaty" entered into force dissolving the German Democratic Republic and integrating its recently re-established constituent federated states into the Federal Republic of Germany to form present-day Germany, has been chosen as the customary German Unity Day and has thereafter been celebrated each year as a national holiday in Germany since 1991. As part of the reunification, East and West Berlin of the two countries were also de facto united into a single city, which later eventually became the capital of this country.

The caper story is a subgenre of crime fiction. The typical caper story involves one or more crimes perpetrated by the main characters in full view of the reader. The actions of police or detectives attempting to prevent or solve the crimes may also be chronicled, but are not the main focus of the story.

<i>Ostalgie</i> Nostalgia for aspects of life in East Germany

In German culture, Ostalgie is nostalgia for aspects of life in Communist East Germany. It is a portmanteau of the German words Ost (east) and Nostalgie (nostalgia). Its anglicised equivalent, ostalgia, is also sometimes used. Another term for the phenomenon is GDR nostalgia.

William Hutchison Murray, was a Scottish mountaineer and writer, one of a group of active mountain climbers, mainly from Clydeside, before and just after World War II.

East German jokes, jibes popular in the former German Democratic Republic, reflected the concerns of East German citizens and residents between 1949 and 1990. Jokes frequently targeted political figures, such as Socialist Party General Secretary Erich Honecker or State Security Minister Erich Mielke, who headed the Stasi secret police. Elements of daily life, such as economic scarcity, relations between the GDR and the Soviet Union, or Cold War rival, the United States, were also common. There were also ethnic jokes, highlighting differences of language or culture between Saxony and Central Germany.

<i>Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby</i> 2006 American sports comedy film

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is a 2006 American sports comedy film directed by Adam McKay who co-wrote the film with Will Ferrell. It features Ferrell as the titular Ricky Bobby, an immature yet successful NASCAR driver. The film also features John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Gary Cole, Michael Clarke Duncan, Leslie Bibb, Jane Lynch, and Amy Adams in supporting roles. NASCAR drivers Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. appear in cameos, as do broadcasting teams from NASCAR on Fox and NASCAR on NBC.

Daphne Berdahl was an anthropologist known for her work on Eastern Germany and Post-socialist Europe. Her work on gender and consumption as well as her writing on post-communist nostalgia has been widely cited by scholars of post-socialism.

Rory MacLean FRSL is a British-Canadian historian and travel writer who lives and works in Berlin and the United Kingdom. His best known works are Stalin’s Nose, a travelogue through eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall; Magic Bus, a history of the Asia Overland hippie trail; and Berlin: Imagine a City, a portrait of that city over 500 years. In 2019 John le Carré wrote that MacLean "must surely be the outstanding, and most indefatigable, traveller-writer of our time."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wartburg 353</span> Motor vehicle

The Wartburg 353, known in some export markets as the Wartburg Knight, is a medium-sized family car, produced by the East German car manufacturer AWE for their Wartburg brand. It was the successor of the Wartburg 311, and was itself succeeded by the Wartburg 1.3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nora Tschirner</span> German actress and musician

Nora Marie Tschirner is a German film actress, musician and former television and radio presenter.

<i>Spy Story</i> (novel) Espionage novel by Len Deighton

Spy Story is a 1974 spy novel by Len Deighton, which features minor characters from his earlier novels The IPCRESS File, Funeral in Berlin, Horse Under Water, and Billion Dollar Brain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vietnamese people in Germany</span>

Vietnamese people in Germany(Vietnamese: Việt kiều Đức / Người Việt tại Đức; German: Vietnamesen in Deutschland) form one of the country's largest groups of resident foreigners from Asia. Federal Statistical Office figures show 103,260 Vietnamese nationals residing in Germany at the end of 2020, which is the fourth largest community from Asia excluding transcontinental, Caucusus and Middle Eastern states. Not included in those figures are individuals of Vietnamese origin or descent who have been naturalised as German citizens. Other data from 2020 shows 183,000 people of Vietnamese descent, of which 117,000 have a migration background.

The Moon and the Sledgehammer is a British 1971 cult documentary film directed by Philip Trevelyan and produced by Jimmy Vaughan which documents the eccentric lives of the Page family, consisting of the elderly Mr Page and his adult children Jim, Pete, Nancy and Kath, who live in a wood in Swanbrook, near Chiddingly, Sussex without mains gas, mains electricity or running water. The sons find employment by fixing mechanical things as odd jobs and maintain two traction engines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolfgang Stumph</span> German actor and cabaret artist

Wolfgang Stumph is a German actor and cabaret artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trabant 601</span> Motor vehicle

The Trabant 601 was a Trabant model produced by VEB Sachsenring in Zwickau, Saxony. It was the third generation of the model, built for the longest production time, from 1964 to 1990. As a result, it is the best-known Trabant model and often referred to simply as "the Trabant" or "the Trabi". During this long production run, 2,818,547 Trabant 601s were produced overall and it was the most common vehicle in former East Germany.

<i>Trabbi Goes to Hollywood</i> 1991 film by Jon Turteltaub

Trabbi Goes to Hollywood is a 1991 American comedy film directed by Jon Turteltaub and starring Thomas Gottschalk, Billy Dee Williams, Michelle Johnson, Dom DeLuise, and James Tolkan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hildegard Trabant</span> East German woman killed at the Berlin Wall in 1964

Hildegard Johanna Maria Trabant was an East German woman who became the fiftieth known person to die at the Berlin Wall. Trabant was shot and killed by East German border guards during a crossing attempt, one of only eight women victims of the Berlin Wall, and was the only escapee victim known to have a record of loyalty toward the East German regime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1900–1999</span>

The history of Dedham, Massachusetts in the 20th century saw great growth come to the town. It played host to the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, saw the Endicott Estate and a number of schools constructed, a great deal of economic development, and growth in the number of services provided by the Town.

References

  1. Naughton. p. 165.{{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. Naughton. pp. 119, 166.{{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. Rodden. p. 176.{{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. 1 2 3 Kinzer, Stephan (March 7, 1991). "CHEMNITZ JOURNAL; That Good-for-Nothing Car Is Good for a Laugh". The New York Times . Retrieved 2009-11-03.
  5. Rodden. p. 175.{{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. 1 2 Clarke. pp. 107, 108.{{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

Bibliography