Mostly they didn't, which is probably why you're not getting very far! (Even by the fall of the wall, less than 25% of the East German population owned a car).
Also, if he was living in an old apartment building (not impossible - try Prenzlauer Berg), I doubt very much whether it would have been refurbished. He certainly wouldn't have been parking in the courtyard, though, because you can't - the typical old Berlin block of flats doesn't have vehicular access to the courtyard - you can get a bike in, but that's it.
Does your journalist actually need a car? Public transport was reliable, pretty frequent and cheap. If he absolutely has to have one for plot reasons, my best guess is he'd park it on the street.
A quick addendum to this: If he does absolutely need a car and parks it on the street, and if he chooses to import a Western car, he will have trouble with the size of the parking spaces. The other cars will be Trabants (with a few Wartburgs and a very few others, like Skodas), and they will need a *lot* less space than his; any public parking spaces will be designed for cars considerably smaller than his.
Plus he may have trouble getting suitable fuel for a Western car, but this I'm not sure about. Still, Trabbis had two-stroke engines, and trying to run a Western car on that fuel would lead to engine damage.
All in all he'd be better advised to get a Trabant, though that too will not be easy - you couldn't just walk into a dealership and buy one. There was a waiting list (and you would wait for many years). No idea how one might go about buying a used Trabbi, but I'm pretty sure he'd need connections for that, too.
Americans can't imagine life without a car. (I say this as an American who has lived abroad and can imagine life without a car quite well and would prefer it, actually. $650 for new brakes yesterday!)
Small cars that were available in Germany in the late 80s: those Citroens that look like VW Bugs, VW Bugs, Skodas. I once had a link to a blog that listed the most popular cars within Germany in various years, but I can't find it right now, much to my dismay.
Yeah, I realize. :-) If the character must have a Western car, something like a Mini Cooper might work best. However, the problem with the fuel remains.
I think he'd be best served by obtaining a used Trabbi. I am unsure of whether this would have been easy or next to impossible for an American, however. On the one hand: he can pay in actual hard currency like DM. On the other hand: he is possibly dangerous to sell something to for Stasi reasons. Maybe some mid-level Stasi bureaucrat would want the currency and be confident they could safely do it. Or maybe some US embassy employee can sell him their Trabbi.
ETA: Forgot about the timeline. Yeah, at this point he should be able to buy a used Trabbi by asking around a bit. Some neighbor will know someone who knows someone.
If the character must have a Western car, something like a Mini Cooper might work best.
It's extremely unlikely it would be a Mini Cooper in 1989, since it would have to be almost 20 years old at that time. The Cooper name was discontinued from the Mini range in the very early 1970s, and not reintroduced until 1990-91.
We used to have West German family visiting quite a lot and they never had any issues with the fuel. In fact they would always fuel up right before leaving because it was so ridiculously cheap for them.
Unless he needs to have a small car for some other reason, don't bother. :-) My uncles had run-of-the-mill cars, nothing fancy but not particularly small either - my one uncle used to bring his whole family: 2 adults and 4 daughters! In East Berlin a West German car would have stood out less than in the rest of East Germany and in any case the vast majority of people watched West German TV and were more or less familiar with all sorts of car makes and models.
That's not why I suggested a small car - I suggested it as a matter of practicality because of the small parking spaces, which were meant for smaller cars. I do know that was a problem for regular-sized car models from the West because I encountered this problem when visiting the DDR in 1990. We often had to park awkwardly in at least 1.5 parking spaces when spaces were marked out, and mostly the trunk still stuck out or we couldn't park somewhere because we would have blocked access.
We weren't in Berlin, but I assumed the parking space allotment was the same there as in Saxony.
What, to you, is 'a regular-sized car model'? Because the Trabi was no smaller than a Mini, a VW Polo, a 2CV, or any number of other popular Western European cars.
Speaking from a European / West German perspective: Yes, those were and are widely spread, and they are all Kleinwagen (Supermini) or even Kleinstwagen - i.e., small cars. When I refer to what would have been / is considered "regular sized" cars in the West, I am talking of cars that belong to the so-called "Kompaktklasse" (compact cars) and "Mittelklasse" (family cars). If you check out the links to those Wikipedia entries, you'll see that these are considerably larger than a Trabant
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very interesting and useful to know. I also thought that all those diplomats and reporters in EB, they had to fuel their cars somewhere, right? Somehow I can't see them all driving in Trabants ;) thank you for your thoughts and comments!
I've been trying to remember the gas situation we encountered in 1990, but I confess it wasn't one of the details I found very fascinating. I can ask around if you'd like to know more about this, though.
He would, usually paralell to the street, in a parking bay next to the sidewalk (like this).
Aside from that, you're also right that buildings in Prenzlauer Berg/Friedrichshain/Mitte buildings were mostly left to decay (or at least not refurbished. Until 1987, my parents, my little sister and I lived in a studio apartment in Prenzlauer Berg which had like half a bedroom, a living room, no heating despite a tiled stove and no bathroom, not kidding). Also, you're right, a bike would be a much better mode of transportation, both more inconspicuous and more practical than a car, if the journalist doesn't want to rely on public transport (which he could, though).
Also, if he was living in an old apartment building (not impossible - try Prenzlauer Berg), I doubt very much whether it would have been refurbished. He certainly wouldn't have been parking in the courtyard, though, because you can't - the typical old Berlin block of flats doesn't have vehicular access to the courtyard - you can get a bike in, but that's it.
Does your journalist actually need a car? Public transport was reliable, pretty frequent and cheap. If he absolutely has to have one for plot reasons, my best guess is he'd park it on the street.
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Plus he may have trouble getting suitable fuel for a Western car, but this I'm not sure about. Still, Trabbis had two-stroke engines, and trying to run a Western car on that fuel would lead to engine damage.
All in all he'd be better advised to get a Trabant, though that too will not be easy - you couldn't just walk into a dealership and buy one. There was a waiting list (and you would wait for many years). No idea how one might go about buying a used Trabbi, but I'm pretty sure he'd need connections for that, too.
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Small cars that were available in Germany in the late 80s: those Citroens that look like VW Bugs, VW Bugs, Skodas. I once had a link to a blog that listed the most popular cars within Germany in various years, but I can't find it right now, much to my dismay.
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Yeah, I realize. :-) If the character must have a Western car, something like a Mini Cooper might work best. However, the problem with the fuel remains.
I think he'd be best served by obtaining a used Trabbi. I am unsure of whether this would have been easy or next to impossible for an American, however. On the one hand: he can pay in actual hard currency like DM. On the other hand: he is possibly dangerous to sell something to for Stasi reasons. Maybe some mid-level Stasi bureaucrat would want the currency and be confident they could safely do it. Or maybe some US embassy employee can sell him their Trabbi.
ETA: Forgot about the timeline. Yeah, at this point he should be able to buy a used Trabbi by asking around a bit. Some neighbor will know someone who knows someone.
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It's extremely unlikely it would be a Mini Cooper in 1989, since it would have to be almost 20 years old at that time. The Cooper name was discontinued from the Mini range in the very early 1970s, and not reintroduced until 1990-91.
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We weren't in Berlin, but I assumed the parking space allotment was the same there as in Saxony.
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We lived out in the country and people just parked on the property - a bus would have been just fine. :-)
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thank you for your thoughts and comments!
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Thank you for responding and for sharing your thoughts!
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He would, usually paralell to the street, in a parking bay next to the sidewalk (like this).
Aside from that, you're also right that buildings in Prenzlauer Berg/Friedrichshain/Mitte buildings were mostly left to decay (or at least not refurbished. Until 1987, my parents, my little sister and I lived in a studio apartment in Prenzlauer Berg which had like half a bedroom, a living room, no heating despite a tiled stove and no bathroom, not kidding). Also, you're right, a bike would be a much better mode of transportation, both more inconspicuous and more practical than a car, if the journalist doesn't want to rely on public transport (which he could, though).
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