ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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Wartburg 353, known as Wartburg Knight in some countries, was a mid-low-class car produced from 1965 to 1989 by Wartburg in the then East Germany. During the first year of marketing the correct and complete name was Wartburg 1000 Typ 353, but it assumed the name 353 from 1967. It was the model of this House to stay on the list longer.

Profile and history

Genesis model

The studies for the heir of 311 were started in 1962 from some drawings made by the then young designer Clauss Dietel. This new model was established that it would have had to propose new content on the technical level and especially regarding the aspects of safety and comfort. For this purpose, suspensions were designed, which on both axles became independent wheels. The choice of the engine fell again on the two days, a choice considered already in those years anachronistic in Western Europe, but a custom in the German oriental cars. As for the body shop, it was the result of the joint efforts of three designers inside the AWE, holder of the brand Wartburg. These designers were Hans Fleischer (already author of the lines of 311), Rudolph Lutz and Clauss Dietel himself.

A first glimpse of the mechanics of the future heir of 311 occurred in the second half of 1965, and more precisely from 1 September, when the 311 was removed from the sale, replaced by 312, a model of transition that combined the body of the outgoing model with the new chassis and the new propulsor from 1 liter of cylinder. Because of this last aspect, the name chosen for the new car during the final phase was that of Wartburg 1000 Typ 353, but during his commercial career, in fact shortly after his debut, the car would take the name of Wartburg 353. The launch on the market of this model took place on 1 June 1966 and also sanctioned the end of the very short commercial career of 312.

External design and interior

The car body of 353 was slightly more compact than that of 311 because of the 13 cm less from one bumper to the other of the new model. The line was undoubtedly more modern, not only for the standards of the automobile production of the DDR, but more generally for the stylistic themes in force in those years internationally, since it anticipates some characteristics of the European automotive design of five or six years later. But with regard to the actual paternity of his design, even today there are heated debates at historians who attribute the merit of the work on the design of the car now at Fleischer now at Dietel. In any case, the three-volume and 4-door car body of 353 was characterized by being rather sharp, in contrast to the arror lines