- As communism was collapsing across eastern Europe in 1989, an 18-year-old Tomasz Czechowicz was combining partying with running an illicit business. And doing a lot of long-distance driving.
A keen computer enthusiast and electronics student, Mr Czechowicz realised that there was a huge pent-up demand in Poland for personal computers. But because of the communist regime, there were hardly any to buy.
So Mr Czechowicz, who lived in the south-western Polish city of Wroclaw, hatched a plan to start smuggling computers from the then West Germany.
First thing every Saturday morning, he would drive into East Germany, taking a four-hour car trip to the then still-divided Berlin, before sneaking into West Berlin, which was an exclave of West Germany.
Now 45, and one of Poland’s richest businessmen, he says: “I went with my mate in a battered old Maluch [Fiat 126], and we had to drive around Berlin to get in from the western side.”
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