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“Trabant-Fabrik in Zwickau” Erik-Jan Ouwerkerk Immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the photojournalist Erik-Jan Ouwerkerk was photographing in the Trabant car factory in Zwickau. A short while later, the production of the Trabant was discontinued. Ouwerkerk’s attention was directed to the labouring people and the social situations in the plant. He photographed the contract workers from Cuba, Mozambique or Vietnam as well as their relation to the German comrades. The contract workers more or less kept at a distance. This was reflected in their lodging at homes situated at the fringes of the cities, so that they were barely present in urban life – in contrast to the photographs. Ouwerkerk’s photographs also document the manufacturing methods ensured not least by the contract workers. The assembly lines in Zwickau had been constructed before the War, when the “Horch” was produced there. Many procedures for the fabrication of the Trabant were based on manual labour. Sorting metal bars, which is shown on one of the photographs, can probably not be found in any car factory today. Because of the patina of the factory, it is difficult to estimate date and location of the photographs. However, to create them was only possible within a small time frame; after 1989, Western journalists were granted unproblematic access to the works, and then, they still existed. Soon after, the company was liquidated and the greater number of the contract workers were sent to their home countries again. Photographer, born 1959, lives and works in Berlin. |
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