In these times of climate crisis, maintaining an old vehicle is somewhat absurd. Nevertheless, I love my motorhome, a vehicle that allows me to learn to work with my hands. The vehicle, which was probably manufactured in the early 1970s in what was then Karl-Marx-Stadt, bore the perhaps justified name “Blitz”. Better known as Barkas, it shaped the image of everyday life in the GDR, was used as an ambulance, police and Stasi transporter, but also in retail and in companies as a “fast transporter”.

Since the opportunity to drive one myself became available after the fall of the Wall, I have fallen in love with this vehicle – who needs a VW bus when a two-stroke engine will do? And it is beautiful, even if I always prefer to take the train rather than the Barkas. But sometimes I tell myself that looking after an old vehicle is more sustainable than buying a new one. Well, I have contradictions too.


Here is a picture of a Barkas that drives through Terry Gilliam’s visions of the future as an ambulance.