barkas

An East German company that produced small trucks, minibuses and vans. It was founded in 1957, on the basis of the nationalized factories of the company Framo, which produced small trucks, in the city of Karl-Marx-Stadt (Karl-Marx-Stadt), now Chemnitz or Chemnitz (Chemnitz).

Production began in 1961. The first car rolled off the assembly line on June 14th. For almost 30 years, the plant produced only one model - Barkas B1000. The front-wheel drive car was quite successful and tenacious. And the lack of competition and government orders did their job - there was simply no need to update products. Only occasionally minor technical improvements were made.

Model B1000 not bad at odds across the countries of the Socialist camp - in total, almost 200 thousand copies were produced. Only in 1989, the car was slightly updated - a more powerful engine was installed, manufactured under license. Volkswagen. The updated model is called Barkas B1000/1. There were no changes in appearance.

After the reunification of Germany, the company could not oppose anything to Western competitors. Since 1990, the production of Barkas cars has been discontinued. However, it should be noted that products VEB Barkas-Werke differed in good quality - even after 20 years, minibuses of its production are still used for their intended purpose.