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Show me your DDR

124

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


    Fuinseog wrote: »
    if you go over again there is plenty to see outside of Berlin. fewer tourists as well. Dresden has an army museum. Leipzig has a Stasi museum.

    Yes would like to visit Leipzig as well as other surrounding areas. Would like to spent more time in Berlin itself too. Any suggestions would be appreciated.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Good ole uncle Erich :pac:

    If you are curious on sizes, the one on the left is SG or very big, the one on the right is K or "Kurz" meaning "short" or more colloquially - stumpy.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    In Bronze, Silver and Gold :)

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    The visitor ticket has the same shape as the awards above and is made of cloth material.

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,273 ✭✭✭Morlar


    Those are excellent & sounds like a productive trip ! Very well photographed too :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,302 ✭✭✭Little Alex


    I agree. Great photos!
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    Do you know anything about this badge? I don't think it's a Bester (Bestenabzeichen) badge, but maybe it is. It doesn't appear in my awards reference book (printed 1979).

    I must put some photos up myself at some stage!


  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


    I wonder did people actually wear these in public? And how many were disposed off after the wall came down?

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  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


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  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


    Long service in bronze, silver and gold. Service medal in bronze and silver.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,302 ✭✭✭Little Alex


    I wonder did people actually wear these in public? And how many were disposed off after the wall came down?

    My understanding would be that many "fervent" supporters of the Grenztruppen would have been so in the hope of appeasing the authorities so that their village and farmhouses, located close to the border, would not be bulldozed, resulting in them being forcibly rehomed. Others may have had other motivations, of course.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


    Same as Above
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  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


    SED badge with profiles of Marx, Engels and Lenin:
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    SED enamel party pin type lapel badge:
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    Later SED polyester party screw type lapel badge:
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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,302 ✭✭✭Little Alex


    Little Alex I took more photos that night so I would appreciate anything else that you can tell me about them.
    What do these numbers mean? Are any of them a date?
    The boots have been re-soled and re-healed at some stage.

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    The stamp in front of the 7 looks like it might say "Weitschaft", which means they are wide-fitting.

    See here for more details on the different stamps.
    My boots are different to yours!

    Mine have:

    - different soles, not hard brown leather like the ones above.
    - the sole does not extend as much around the edge of the shoe.
    - the shape of the foot is slightly different.

    There are some official markings on the inside, and some handwriting, if I am not mistaken, possibly the name of the original owner.

    Any opinions on these parade ground stompers?

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    They're glossy parade boots. Probably is the owner's name written inside.

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    For those chilly days and nights. NVA winter hat.
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    Anything interesting in the rolled-up newspaper?
    A "schlagstock" or whacking stick. A simple but effective tool of oppression and control used by The People's Police and prison guards. Also will be used if my dog takes my hat again! ;-)

    Aw! He doesn't look like a disobedient dog at all! You'll need to get yourself the dog handler badge, by the way.
    Stasi jacket shoulder boards.
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    You're both second year officer cadets! Wiesler and Grubitz: who is who? :pac:
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    This badge comes with a blue or white background. The blue one was awarded by a civilian university (I think) and the white one is from the Stasi's own academy in Potsdam-Eiche.

    Wiesler wears the white one while Grubitz chooses not to wear his. Grubitz wears his ribbon bar, whereas Wiesler doesn't. I guess you didn't have to wear your decorations???

    Yours looks like the old version. The newer ones have a softish, bulging polyester coat on them.


  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


    Thanks Little Alex- that is actually interesting reading (in a boot lovers way!). Great info to have. Thanks! So from that my boots weren't actually resoled, the top leather sole that I presumed was a resole is actually they way that they are meant to be. And teh are definitely parade boots. I was wondering how they were so unused but yet were resoled. So they weren't! :)
    I didn't actually look at the newpaper padding in the cap yet. I was thinking that it was probably just a random paper but I will remove it to see if there is a date or anything interesting on it. Good question!

    Second year officer cadets- interesting! Still have a way to go so! Wiesler and Grubitz! :-) Again another good question! :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


    My Stasi Academy badge, but unfortunately the enamel is damaged and cracked.
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  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Unfortunately I do not. I had bought the Volkspolizei Award and then came across this item later so purchased it to piece together with the previous item. I will try find out about it and post back.
    I agree. Great photos!



    Do you know anything about this badge? I don't think it's a Bester (Bestenabzeichen) badge, but maybe it is. It doesn't appear in my awards reference book (printed 1979).

    I must put some photos up myself at some stage!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    An amateur border guard - a snitch with a badge ;)
    I wonder did people actually wear these in public? And how many were disposed off after the wall came down?

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Why thank you!

    It was indeed a very productive trip, but we should have taken more items. Some of the objects were ridiculous prices and now we are kicking ourselves. It feels like going on a diet while in a sweet shop :(
    Morlar wrote: »
    Those are excellent & sounds like a productive trip ! Very well photographed too :)


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    This was more pricey than most of the other items posted so far. I understand it is a hochschule or Academy award but the exact name escapes me at this moment. Any ideas?

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  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


    I like that one. Especially since he is sporting a mean looking beard! Beard power!


  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


    I bought this as a set:

    Banner der Arbeit 3rd Class (The Banner of Labor) in original box,
    Original award documents
    And the person's ribbon bar.

    It was given for "outstanding achievements of many years which stabilized and strengthened the country, and in particular for high results of working in the national economy" and came in three classes.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


    Order of Merit for Service to the People and Fatherland, 3rd Class

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,302 ✭✭✭Little Alex


    This was more pricey than most of the other items posted so far. I understand it is a hochschule or Academy award but the exact name escapes me at this moment. Any ideas?

    Very nice, HerrScheisse!

    That's Friedrich Engels. One of the very biggest of spiritual names in the DDR.

    Your Absolventenabzeichen der Militärakademie Friedrich Engels is from 1987 onwards. Check here for more info on graduation badges.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Vielen dank Genosse!

    I am in touch with somebody now and should have the Potsdam Academy award very shortly, also in discussion for some MfS medals - I'll post if the deal goes through! Appreciate the pointer on that last item ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer




    Anything interesting in the rolled-up newspaper?

    So Little Alex you question made me curious. So I took the newspaper out of the cap in order to have a look. It is dry and verging on brittle from age. My German is not good so I can't read it, but I have scanned the page in on both side:

    Neues Deutschland
    16/17th of February 1980

    Page 11 (well half of it!)
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    Page 12
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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,302 ✭✭✭Little Alex


    The first page has an article about illiteracy in Nicaragua, actively being stamped out by the socialist Sandanista regime. The second article on that page is about a Japanese theme park which features an ice sculpture of Mischka, the mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

    The second page has articles covering an advanced production method for radiotherapy medicine in the DDR, research into an automatic translation machine which recognises syllables and allowable letter combinations in each language, therefore accurately translating, again in the DDR. USSR research into volcanoes being the source of life on earth, a joint USSR-US oceanographic research project, analysis of oyster colonisation of anchor chains with the view of using the findings to develop methods of shellfish farming, again in Russia make up the other articles.

    There are also the articles without socialist influence: a journal entry from an American medical publication about colon cancer detection and a potential breakthrough in cancer treatment from Switzerland.

    The joint USSR-US adventure is very strange, given that this was at the time when the Americans had announced their boycott of the Moscow Olympics.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    The DDR certainly liked their science - you would not get so much highly detailed scientific reporting in a Western daily unless it were a specialist magazine on such subjects. At it is good that this newpaper was stuck in the hat as it gives a clue to the vintage of our uniforms.

    Just beside the Ostbahnhof in Berlin, you can see the offices of "Neues Deutschland".


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    I just received some new DDR and these Zivilverteidigung medals were thrown in as an extra. The bronze was awarded for ten years service whilst the silver was for twenty years service. You got gold for thirty years.
    Note the extra ribbon for the silver medal is not the correct one (should have white stripe).

    I'll post the rest up the coming days as I do not like to photo them at night under artificial light (as I did with these two).

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,302 ✭✭✭Little Alex


    HerrScheisse, as far as I know these are worn by civilian reservists of the Zivilverteidigung (ZV). I guess they were a kind of analogue to the Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse (KdA), but arguably manned by less fervent types of people: the ZV existed to help people in case of nuclear war and so forth and the KdA existed to suppress uprisings. They both wore the same fatigues, but the ZV were NVA-stamped and the KdA were MdI-stamped.

    There was also a full-time Zivilverteidigung arm of the NVA. They had their own Waffenfarbe - purple - and their own medals. In the same way as the Grenztruppen, their medals were identical to those of the NVA, but stamped Zivilverteidiguing instead of Nationale Volksarmee (I think these are quite rare). They also had their own cuffband: I posted a photo of my ZV tunic some time back.

    I think I have a full KdA outfit with all the trimmings somewhere. I'll see if I can fish it out.

    My recent acquisitions include a genuine paratrooper officer's orange beret and an air force gala jacket, which should arrive any day.

    I'll put up a few photos soon!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Thanks for the extra information my good man! I will be interested to see your new items.

    And now for something a little different, the insignia of the DDR Forestry Service.

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    The Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik (GST) was a military organisation whose melmbers occupied themselves with activities such as motors, aircraft and radio installations. They also held shooting events to militarise the youth.

    Below three GST shooting pins, in bronze, silver and gold.

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


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