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Show me your DDR

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Below a volunteer badge to a helper of the Volkspolizei from 1976.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Here is another Stasi honorary award issued by the district Karl-Marx-Stadt.

    The front displays the effigy of Fritz Schmenkel, an opponent to the Nazi regime that deserted the army to become a partisan in Russia. He was recaptured and executed in 1944.

    The rear bears as usual, the arms of the Staatssicherheit, and the office issuing the award.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Below a Felix Dzierzynski commemorative medal in original case presented to members of the Staatssicherheit.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    A trio of stickpins of the GST (Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik).

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    A medal commemorating Harro Schulze-Boysen, a member of the resistance group "Rote Kapelle" or "Red Orchestra" that tried to inform the Soviets of the forthcoming invasion Barbarossa. Captured by the Gestapo and executed in 1942.

    This commemorative medal was issued by the Ministery of State Security.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Scholz was conscripted into the Wehrmacht and captured by the Soviets where he attended an anti-fascist school. Post war, he joined the Communist Party in the Soviet occupation zone, and was head of the police in Rostock. From 1975 onwards, he was a Deputy Minister in the Stasi.

    The rear of the medal states:

    Nobody will weaken our vigilance. Millions of victims compel us.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Richard Sorge was a German Communist and one of the most successful Soviet intelligence agents of World War 2. He spied on the Nazis, joining the party and attending many beer hall rallies. he worked in Japan and informed his handlers of the forthcoming attack on Pearl Harbour. He also kept Moscow up to date on japanese plans of an invasion from the east.
    Eventually the Japanese captured him, and executed him in 1944 by hanging.

    Below is a commemorative Stasi Ehrengeshenk from the MfS district Karl-Marx-Stadt.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Pablo Neruda was the adopted name of a Chilean poet and diplomat. Strongly affected by what he witnessed in the Spanish Civil war, his work and writing became more oriented toward social and political matter.

    The DDR issued a commemorative set in his honour, the rear with the text:

    Wir schwören fortzusetzen deinen Weg bis zum Sieg des Volkes.

    We swear to continue your way to the victory of the people.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Here is a Stasi award from the district office of Dresden.

    With the image of Richard Sorge on the front, the rear has the following text:

    Für hervorragende Erfolge im Kampf gegen den Feind.

    for outstanding achievements in the fight against the enemy

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    An award to members of the Stasi for outstanding achievments in the fight against the enemy. The rear is similar to the item above, except it is issued by a different Stasi district. The front has the profile image of the founder of the Cheka, Feliks Dzierżyński, and commemorates the centenary of his birth.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    The same award as the one above except in gold meaning that there must have been degrees of this award and also particular criteria to achieve each level.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    A stasi medal commemorating Ingeborg and Hans-Heinrich Kummerow, members of the Red Orchestra resistance group that were executed in 1944.

    The rear states: Their lives were in struggle for peace.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    The actual award was posted earlier in this thread.

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


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


    Below a volunteer badge to a helper of the Volkspolizei from 1976.

    I think that one's for full-time MdI, not for volunteers.

    HerrScheisse! :eek: I think you are in fact an MfS operative and probably quite fluent in wooden language. :p

    ---

    What lighting source are you using? Daylight?

    Focal length and with what lens, f-stop, Kelvin temperature, tripod, exposure time? Fill us in! ;)

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    Edit: the badge was also awarded to volunteers, seemingly, along with full-time MdI members.

    http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abzeichen_f%C3%BCr_%E2%80%9EVorbildliche_Arbeit%E2%80%9C_(MdI)


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


    Have you got any "dark collar" era stuff yet, HS? When you get into that there really is no turning back! :P Just letting you know in advance.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,371 ✭✭✭Fuinseog




  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    I think that one's for full-time MdI, not for volunteers.

    HerrScheisse! :eek: I think you are in fact an MfS operative and probably quite fluent in wooden language. :p



    ---

    What lighting source are you using? Daylight?

    Focal length and with what lens, f-stop, Kelvin temperature, tripod, exposure time? Fill us in! ;)

    ---

    Edit: the badge was also awarded to volunteers, seemingly, along with full-time MdI members.

    http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abzeichen_f%C3%BCr_%E2%80%9EVorbildliche_Arbeit%E2%80%9C_(MdI)


    Comments like that will result in more wooden language in response and may advertently result in surveillance, both overt and covert, such that the overt may be supplemented by covert to assess the effect on subject.
    :confused:

    About the photos - the most important thing when taking photos is that you are naked. Possibly wearing boots for dramatic effect, and maybe a French beret for the finishing touch.


    Thanks for the update - the Urkunde does state that it was a volunteer helper.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Have you got any "dark collar" era stuff yet, HS? When you get into that there really is no turning back! :P Just letting you know in advance.

    Not yet, I have been avoiding going there. I started with one random DDR medal less than a year ago and now look what has happened! Buying an NVA uniform and visiting Mielke's office...MfS stuff is like crack to me already and I do not want to escalate the problem any further.


  • Registered Users Posts: 184 ✭✭MedalFuhrer


    Pablo Neruda was the adopted name of a Chilean poet and diplomat. Strongly affected by what he witnessed in the Spanish Civil war, his work and writing became more oriented toward social and political matter.

    The DDR issued a commemorative set in his honour, the rear with the text:

    Wir schwören fortzusetzen deinen Weg bis zum Sieg des Volkes.

    We swear to continue your way to the victory of the people.


    DSC_0479.jpg

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    Are sure that this isn't Alfred Hitchcock??

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Ha Ha Ha now that is uncanny! Well spotted sir!

    Like your Tag Der Arbeit tinnie with Christopher Walken on it!


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


    I started with one random DDR medal less than a year ago and now look what has happened!

    So HerrScheisse, which (East) German dialect have you chosen to go with? Prussian, Platt, Saxon? :p

    My collecting has been very quiet recently, but I'm expecting some very interesting articles next week. Let's see if they materialise!


  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    A good operative should be able to switch between any of them flawlessly ;)

    I look forward to seeing your new stuff - unfortunately I have nothing new coming in the near future.


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


    True enough, HerrScheisse. Like the USSR operative from The Fourth Protocol who, we are lead to believe, could even speak English in Irish dialects. :eek: Must re-read some Frederick Forsyth books at some stage.

    Anyway, my box of goodies arrived. T
    here's a lot to get through! I'll post photos in due time.


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


    picture.php?albumid=1422&pictureid=13483

    A little collection I came by recently. I'd have liked to have gotten the other awards, but the collection seems to have been split up: I have only the later medals, not the earlier ones.

    I'll post about the other collection I came by when the dust settles.


  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    Here is the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze, a nice heavy piece and one all the high ranking cheeses had hanging on their jackets. It is a national award issued annually, possibly even by "Uncle Junior" :pac:

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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    And now for something different, a DDR stamp used for sealing official documentation with candle wax, a method beloved of the officialdom of cold war nations.

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    Considering it is such a finely crafted piece and in quite good condition, I just had to give it a try :pac:

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    I think I will use it to seal all my letters, it will certainly keep the postman alert!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 783 ✭✭✭HerrScheisse


    There are very few comrades posting lately, so I will post my new items as a call into the wilderness ;)

    The DDR service medal in original box:

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