Go back 50 years and in any international sports gathering, such as the Olympic Games, one thing you could guarantee was dominance in the gymnastic events by the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The name constantly cropped up at the top of the medal table list as a show of strength to the Western world. Divided from the West by the Berlin Wall, the GDR, more commonly known as East Germany, was regarded as a communist state. Like so many countries in the Eastern Bloc, it was renowned for building rather agricultural-looking and basic vehicles that were lacking in style. Cars such as the Trabant were flimsy in construction and severely underpowered, being equipped with only the most fundamental necessities required to act as a form of transport.
Two-wheeled offerings didn’t fare any better, and the GDR’s most prominent two-wheeler was the Schwalbe. It was manufactured between 1964 and 1986 by VEB Fahrzeug- und Jagdwaffenwerk ‘Ernst Thälmann’, a vehicle and hunting weapons factory. The Schwalbe looked like a scooter
