Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau ('Industrial Association for Vehicle Construction'), usually abbreviated as IFA, was a conglomerate and a union of companies for vehicle

Vehicle

A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft....

 construction in the former East Germany ( - DDR).

IFA produced bicycle

Bicycle

A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....

s, motorcycle

Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...

s, light commercial vehicle

Light commercial vehicle

Light commercial vehicles is a commercial carrier vehicles with a Gross vehicle weight of up to 3.5 tonnes. The formal term within the European Union is Light commercial vehicles. Vehicles which qualify in this category are pickup trucks, vans and 3 wheelers all commercially based goods or...

s, automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

s, van

Van

A van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or groups of people.In British English usage, it can be either specially designed or based on a saloon or sedan car, the latter type often including derivatives with open backs...

s and heavy truck

Truck

A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile...

s. All East German vehicle manufacturers - like Trabant

Trabant

The Trabant is a car that was produced by former East German auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau in Zwickau, Sachsen. It was the most common vehicle in East Germany, and was also exported to countries both inside and outside the communist bloc...

, Wartburg, Barkas, Robur

Robur (truck)

Robur was a marque of the Volkseigener Betrieb VEB Robur-Werke Zittau of East Germany . It mainly produced 3-ton trucks. The vehicles were produced in the town of Zittau in what now is South-East Saxony...

, Multicar

Multicar

Multicar is a small, specialized multifunctional equipment transporter manufactured at the Hako-Werke GmbH Multicar factory Waltershausen, Germany. Multicar is the only brand that has survived from the East German vehicle industry.-History:...

, Simson or MZ

MZ Motorrad- und Zweiradwerk

MZ Motorrad- und Zweiradwerk GmbH is a motorcycle manufacturer located in Zschopau, Germany. MZ an acronym, stands for Motorradwerk Zschopau in the Erzgebirge region of Saxony...

 - were part of the IFA.

Car production

IFA cars were based on the pre-war designs of Dampf-Kraft-Wagen (DKW) and made in a factory in Zwickau

Zwickau

Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...

. The F8 had a two cylinder 684 cc engine, and the F9

IFA F9

The IFA F9 was a compact saloon manufactured under the auspices of the Russian and East German states between 1949 or 1950 and 1956. It was initially built at Zwickau at the plant previously owned by Auto Union...

 had a three cylinder 804 cc unit. The F8 bodies were straight copies of the pre-war models, and rapidly looked old-fashioned, but some had more modern coachwork by Baur

Baur

-People:* Erwin Baur, German geneticist and botanist* Esperanza Baur, Mexican actress, 2nd wife of John Wayne* Ferdinand Christian Baur, German theologian and leader of the Tübingen school of theology* Fred Baur, United States chemist and food storage technician...

 of Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

, then in West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

. The three cylinder cars (F9) had not got into production before war broke out in 1939, and so had more up to date bodies similar to the West German DKWs. Over 26,000 F8's and 30,000 F9s were built. IFA also produced W50 trucks and Robur

Robur (truck)

Robur was a marque of the Volkseigener Betrieb VEB Robur-Werke Zittau of East Germany . It mainly produced 3-ton trucks. The vehicles were produced in the town of Zittau in what now is South-East Saxony...

 light trucks and vans.

The IFA badge was dropped from cars in 1956, and the F8s became Zwickau P70

Zwickau (car)

The AWZ P70 "Zwickau" was a car made in East Germany by VEB Automobilwerke Zwickau between 1955 and 1958. After 1958 AWZ was united with the former Horch factory to the VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau and called Sachsenring P70....

s, and the F9 was rebodied to become the Wartburg and production transferred to Eisenach

Eisenach

Eisenach is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated between the northern foothills of the Thuringian Forest and the Hainich National Park. Its population in 2006 was 43,626.-History:...

.