Dachas, small weekend cottages with garden plots, were an important part of East German daily life. For many East Germans, these cherished weekend dwellings and gardens provided private niches and escapes from the conformity pressure of the party regime. This 1979 photograph shows a standard dacha, with a garden plot, and a Trabi car in Thuringia. Trabi (Trabant) cars acquired some celebrity status in the 1990s as a quaint but outmoded symbol of the now defunct GDR.