The East German car called after Martin Luther

The Irish Times of Tuesday carried an article by theologian Gessa Thiessen titled ‘Luther was willing to die for his belief in God'.

In the piece she quotes from his famous speech at the Diet of Worms. The last sentence in that speech goes: “Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen’.

That has sometimes been translated as: “Here I stand; I can go no further.’

During the life of the German Democratic Republic the two most popular cars were the Trabant and the Wartburg, the Wartburg being the more ‘luxurious’ of the two.

The Wartburg was built in Eisenach, which is near the Wartburg castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible.

One of the tools the East Germans had for surviving and turning a blind eye to their government was to make jokes about their poor standard of living. 

They nicknamed the Wartburg ‘The Martin Luther Wagen’ because just as Luther could no no further, the Wartburg too could go no further. In other words its best-known attribute was to break down.