Close but no cigar: Product plagiarism in the GDR

For many years, residents of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) were only able to admire the Trabant in catalogues because of the incredibly long waiting time to receive one. The car became known as the "Saxony-Porsche." In actual fact, the "Trabi" was based on the West German Lloyd LP 300 from Bremen. The GDR tried to replicate the car in order to satisfy the people’s hunger for consumerism.

For many years, blue jeans were a symbol of Western capitalization. Nevertheless, the GDR purchased a million pairs of jeans from US manufacturer Levi's in 1978. East Germans snatched up the opportunity to buy them. Jeans produced in the GDR, with names like Wisent or Shanty, were slow sellers in comparison. The material did not feel real, and the wash-out effect left plenty to be desired.

DeDeRon was the latest trend in 1972, as the model on this catwalk demonstrates. Dresses, stockings and aprons were made of the synthetic fiber. The man-made material could be likened to nylon from the west. The DDR insisted on this socialist nylon variety, that referred to the German abbreviation for the DDR.

While West Germans could quench their thirst with Coca-Cola, the GDR offered citizens two socialist variations of the beloved carbonated drink: Club Cola and Vita Cola. Both were supposed to taste like the US version. But that was an impossible challenge that even Coca-Cola’s top competitor Pepsi could not achieve. Visitors from the West were not taken by the bitter flavor of Vita Cola.

In 1982, the Economization and Reseach Center for Restaurants introduced the Grilletta. The nifty kitchen device made it possible to copy another symbol of the Western culinary lifestyle - the hamburger. The recipe sounds familiar: a bread roll sliced in half, filled with a ground meat patty smothered in ketchup. The latter, however, was a scarce commodity, so an alternative was used.

A so-called sweet bar is concealed in this packet. The proportion of cocoa in this block of chocolate was only seven percent, meaning it could not officially be referred to as a chocolate bar. To cover up the absence of the key ingedrient, sugar, fat and a paste of hazelnut and peas were added. East German sweets makers, unlike their Western counterparts, had to learn to manage scarcity.

Through their record label, Amiga, the GDR was able to listen to Western music groups like the Beatles, even though the government labeled it “rubbish.” This album only distantly reflects the original. The records comprise a mix from different songs from the artists' various albums. No wonder the black market for Western records boomed.

Aerobics became hugely popular amongst East Germans in the 1980s, though it was considered taboo as it represented foreign capitalism. Instead, “Popgymnastik” emerged. The aerobics television program “Enorm in Form” on West Germany's ZDF television station soon found its match in the East with “Medizin nach Noten” (roughly, Medicine to Music).

This computer, from GDR manufacturer KC compact is based on a western model Amstrad PC made by Amstrad Schneider. As East German computer technological advancement was so far behind that of the west, DDR engineers were happy to copy models from the west. The KC compact came into production shortly before the fall of the wall in 1989 – and as a simple East German copy, it was a non-seller.

East Germans were only able to buy products from the West from the chain store Intershop with West German money. Today, they sell items once available in the GDR, profiting from a boom in East German nostalgia. Many products are available in their old GDR-styled packaging but have been adapted to meet Western standards. The chocolate content in the sweet bar, for example, has been quadrupled.