How a West German Rival Built a Factory on the Grave of Its Own Enemy

In 1991, the last Wartburg rolled off the assembly line in Eisenach, East Germany. Within two years, on that exact same ground, one of the most modern car factories in Europe opened its doors — built by Opel, a West German brand.

This is the story of Wartburg: from a 1890s bicycle workshop, to the actual birthplace of BMW as a car company, to a bizarre postwar trademark battle over the BMW name itself, to East Germany’s most prestigious car — one good enough to be sold directly into Britain throughout the Cold War. And how, unlike every other empire in this series, its factory wasn’t just abandoned. It was taken over almost instantly by the very system it had spent decades competing against.

00:00 A car dies, a factory rises
02:30 Bicycles, BMW, and a stolen name
14:00 East Germany’s step-up car
30:00 Selling communism’s car in Britain
40:00 Freedom, then replacement
54:00 Built on its own grave
64:00 Four empires, four different endings

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