From Berlin to North Carolina: A U2 Fan Gets His Trabant

I’ve traded emails with a fellow U2 fan named Chris S. for several years now, and it’s always been obvious that he has a thing for Trabants — those tiny East European cars that U2 used prominently during the Achtung Baby/Zoo TV era. I vaguely remember Chris trying to track down the locations of all the Trabants that U2 used, and he may have said something at one point about wanting to own one. I probably wished him luck in my reply, while simultaneously thinking to myself, That ain’t gonna happen, buddy.

I was wrong.

Chris emailed me a few days ago to share the news that his U2 Trabant — the male, dark “UNO” car from the “One” video — arrived in the U.S. last week.

U2 Trabant (in the U.S.)

Chris found the car for sale on eBay Germany over the winter and won the auction. (He didn’t say how much he paid.) He made arrangements to have it shipped over from Germany to Baltimore, picked it up there, and hauled it home to North Carolina.

U2 Trabant (in the truck)

From what he can tell, Chris says he’s the car’s third owner since the video shoot and he thinks there have been some minor touch-ups on the exterior paint (mainly around the face and hands).

Overall, the car’s not in great shape — the rear window on the driver’s side is missing and the window on the driver’s door is stuck and won’t roll up, so years of rain and snow have damaged the interior. The kind of weather you see below in a photo Chris took when he went to Germany (near Frankfurt; the Berlin in our headline is a reference to the music video) in January to claim his purchase.

U2 Trabant (in Germany)

So, what have you added to your U2 collection lately? :-)

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4 Responses to “From Berlin to North Carolina: A U2 Fan Gets His Trabant”

  1. zedg 18 March 2010 at 8:15 pm permalink

    This is genius.. he da man! Cant believe this has been available to buy/sell, etc. I know they have a few in Hard Rock Cafes, and Hall of Fame’s, but considering this one was in the One video, would have thought it should be on display somewhere also aswell..

    Wonder if he’s gonna hang it in his living room.

  2. Tim 19 March 2010 at 7:58 am permalink

    There are actually several in private hands.

    “Baby” The yellow trabant with a red Keith Haring-esque baby that was used above the stage for the entire ZooTV and Zooropa tour was up for sale on ebay a few years ago and was owned by a guy in Texas.

    There was another one that was used on the Outside Broadcast tour that was attached to a boom arm and would swing around the concerts. This one was won by a woman from an MTV contest in ‘92. Last I heard, she still had it in New Jersey.

    Neither of those two were drivers, they were stripped and were used to hold lighting equipment.

    There was another one somewhere in Europe about 10 years ago that was used for promos and such during Acthung Baby that was for sale on a website.

  3. chrisS 19 March 2010 at 5:09 pm permalink

    Tim, youre one of the few who know about the yellow trabi on ebay years back. It was listed in spring of 03, but only lasted a few days. I put a bid on it. U2s management caught wind of it and had him shut it down. He did tell me that he had a “few” of them. It still drives me nuts that they are wasting away out there in the Texas summers.

    The one that was used for the AB promos, must be this one here…23rd image down…..

    http://eil.com/shop/presetlist.asp?pageID=735&artist=U-2:BNO:A-M:LMU:PSS&artistname=U2

    Nice paint job, although I dont recall seeing pics of it from that era, except in Antons book ‘u2 and I”.

    I was able to submit some questions to Willie Williams back in 2003 about the other Trabants used by u2. The original “fly trabi” from the first leg (white car with the Fly lyrics on it), that one eventually fell apart so they made one similar to it, but with different wording. That one is hanging in the rock hall. The green one with the words “smell the flowers while you can”, that is also hanging in the rock hall, but is covered in ugly shag like carpet.

    The other trabant from the the “one” video…the female/eins/larry trabi, was given away in a radio contest prior to u2s 1993 show in Bremen. He held onto to if for some years, then sold it to a person in Luxembourg.

    Do you have any contact with the owner in NJ?? Would be great to see which one she has…and if she wants to sell! :-) ))

  4. MistyLeigh32 23 March 2010 at 6:21 am permalink

    I think we have the ultimate collector’s item! Way to GO Chris S!


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