NAMES IN THE NEWS : E. German Playmate ‘Romantic’

Life can be difficult for East Germany’s first “Playmate of the Month.”

Anja Kossak, the first East German to appear nude in the international edition of Playboy, said today that entertaining boyfriends in her country’s cramped Trabant cars can be a little uncomfortable.

“Making love in a car is fun. Only in a Trabbi there are a few problems. No sooner have you finally managed to push the seat down than it’s as good as over,” said the 21-year-old centerfold for the magazine’s January West German edition.

But Kossak, a dental assistant from Magdeburg, said she would rather have sex in a cornfield.

“Where love is concerned I am very romantic,” she said.

Playboy and other Western men’s magazines went on sale in East Berlin for the first time this month after the reformist government overturned a ban imposed by the regime of ousted Stalinist leader Erich Honecker.

So far, however, they are available only in large hotels for hard currency.