I met the Genex car collector par excellence, Gerrit Crummenerl, to talk about the cars' journey to the GDR.

For example, there was the Genex catalogue, there you could buy an awful lot of things and best of all, you didn't have to wait long.

About ninety percent of the catalog contained goods from GDR production. In addition to groceries and consumer goods such as furniture, cosmetics, clothing, tools and hifi systems, motorcycles, cars (without the usual waiting times of several years), campers and even complete prefabricated houses, socalled Neckermann houses, could also be ordered.

In the catalog there were, among others, motorcycles from MZ and Simson, and in 1986 a Yamaha motorcycle. East German cars included the Trabant, Wartburg (also available as a pickup), and Barkas, as well as vehicles from Škoda, Polski Fiat, and Lada, which were considered highend in East Germany. Select models from Western European car manufacturers were also available. For example, a Fiat Uno 60 Super, Renault 9 GTL, Ford Orion, VW Golf, VW Passat and VW Transporter were offered in the 1986 catalogue. At times, brands such as Mazda, BMW, Lancia and Volvo were also available in the range.

There were no costs for the recipient, and the goods, which were otherwise difficult to obtain, were delivered directly to the GDR citizens without long waiting times (only four to six weeks for cars, for example).


To take a closer look, I met up with what is probably the biggest Genex collector, Gerrit Grummenerl, to talk about the GENEX and what other ways cars from the West got into the GDR.


Due to a lack of foreign currency, the GDR government occasionally entered into barter transactions, for example 10,000 VW Golfs were procured in this way.


If you had a certain celebrity status and were indispensable, you could also choose and have a car of your own. add other things


How Mercedes, church and GDR fit together, we learn in the last chapter