Show me your DDR

Almost nobody talks of the DDR anymore and at most of the fairs I have been at, you rarely see any items. Its almost like Germany's Experiment with communism was a pubescent quirk during their growing pains to democracy and is best forgotten. Yet it lasted so long, from 1949 to 1989, a lengthy period of forty years where the old men in the Normannenstrasse repressed 17 million of their own people to prevent them being exploited by the West German capitalists :eek:

What is sinister about the DDR medals is that awards for "Excellence in Border Duty" or "Loyal Service" do not have the same connotation as they would in democratic countries. And the awardees must have felt like they were doing their people and country a service without realising that they were a minor cog in a much bigger wheel.

Miehlke, the head of the notorious Stasi, in his defense stated "Ich liebe doch alle Menschen" - "I love all people", a perfect example of how skewed their worldview had become.

Below my collection:



Treue Dienst - Loyal Service in Bronze, Silver and Gold.



Service Excellence in the NVA (Nationale Volksarmee) - Bronze and Silver. 20 Years in NVA.



Defense of Fatherland in Bronze, Excellent Achievment and Excellent Border Service in Bronze.

Hi Preusse,

Can you tell me a bit more on that auction house?

Is it bidding like Ebay or can you simply buy items, Are they reliable (no fakes)??

Ta!

MedalFuhrer wrote: »

After visiting East Germany/ East Berlin and talking with some of the locals an interest in one of the most repressive societies in history was formed. So from East Berlin the following small collection was formed over a few months.

I bought a small display case last week:

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East Germany ceased to exist when the post war borders were officially recognised in 1972.
as for the GDR, repressive is a matter of perspective.
everyone had a job. everything was cheap. people were for the most part, apart from travel restrictions, happy with their lives.
the current German state could also be considered repressive. indeed our own green isle was not adverse to oppressing its citizens.

I have a few GDR things in my collection. Once I find out how to post photos here I will put up a few photos


http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h359/rexmundi77/DSCF0647.jpg

Very interesting. Do you have any tales of life in the GDR? We would be very interested to hear them as we collect GDR.

There is a great book - Stasiland by Anna Funder. The type of book you cannot put down until it is finished.

I overlooked one of my DDR medals. Here it is below - in fact it is the first first DDR medal I found and it stimulated my further interest in this subject.

This is 15 years loyal service in the workers militia in silver (Kampfgruppen der Arbeitersklasse). Featuring a worker bearing an AK47 against an industrial backdrop.

When I was in Berlin in 2007 I was surprised that there are still divisions among the people after all this time has passed.

a few more decorations and a FDJ membership book

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h359/rexmundi77/DSCF0675.jpg

MedalFuhrer wrote: »

Wow, that is a nice collection! Puts my 3 medals to shame!

most of them are run of the mill and easy come by, but i operate on a limited budget.

Little Alex wrote: »

Thanks for putting all the photos up! Nice to see them. I have some DDR stuff myself and must take a few pics soon.



I think you must have taken the pic down already, but is it by any chance a hat with the fake "Ministerium für Staatssicherheit" cuff title instead of a strap, held on with shoulder board stars?

thats its exactly. I bought it in the mid nineties when the original items outnumbered the fakes. I haggled with the gypsie, but I guess they had the last laugh. I think I paid ten euro for it.


http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h359/rexmundi77/DSCF0635.jpg


I also have an NVA dagger, similiar to the Whermacht one.

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h359/rexmundi77/DSCF0653.jpg

they appear to have gone up in price since when I bought it.

The hat looks like a traffic cop's, if I'm not mistaken.

The dagger is lovely, alright. I have the parade belt, but no dagger! :pac: It's an army officer's parade dagger, HerrScheisse, which can also be worn by the MfS (Stasi) Guards Regiment and Grenztruppen (border guards). If you want to check out what they're going for, go to ebay.de and search for "Ehrendolch" in the category Militaria > DDR.

Was there a new law brought in a year or two ago banning (the importing of) daggers and swords?

Both the uniform and hat fit me. The hat was no problem, as it is uses the standard metric sizing system. Tunics and trousers are trickier as the DDR had its own unique military sizes.

That is some nice DDR! The helmet looks great!

May I ask if you bought them online or if you located them yourself in Germany?

East German stuff always makes me think of this photo


Conrad Schumann
On 15 August 1961 he found himself, aged 19, guarding the Berlin Wall, then in its third day of construction, at the corner of Ruppinerstraße and Bernauerstraße. At that stage of construction, the Berlin Wall was only a low barbed wire fence. As the people on the Western side shouted Komm rüber! (“come over”), Schumann jumped the barbed wire and was driven away at high speeds by a waiting West Berlin police car. Photographer Peter Leibing captured a photograph of his escape on film and it became a well-known image of the Cold War.
Schumann was later permitted to travel from West Berlin to the main territory of West Germany, where he settled in Bavaria. He met his wife Kunigunde in the town of Günzburg.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall he said, “Only since 9 November 1989 [the date of the fall] have I felt truly free”. Even so, he continued to feel more at home in Bavaria than in his birthplace, citing old frictions with his former colleagues, and he even hesitated about visiting his parents and brothers and sisters in Saxony. On 20 June 1998, suffering from depression, he hanged himself in his orchard near the town of Kipfenberg in Oberbayern.

http://thepirata.com/photographs-that-changed-the-world-part-4/

Little Alex wrote: »

Both the uniform and hat fit me. The hat was no problem, as it is uses the standard metric sizing system. Tunics and trousers are trickier as the DDR had its own unique military sizes.

when the Wall fell a lot of NVA stuff was shipped abroad especially the bigger sizes. when I was there it was hard to get a hat in size 59, but there were plenty in size 57 and 56. if you are looking for your size then sometimes it may be easier to find outside of Germany.

This is my latest one:



It's a Transportpolizei uniform and came with all the decorations along with the breeches, shirt and necktie (not in photo). Not sure if the badges on the breast pockets are correctly positioned.

HerrScheisse wrote: »

Very nice uniform Alex! Would you mind telling me the seller of these items - you can pm if you like.

Have any of you ever used EGun? There are some interesing items but also a lot of fakes and shysters.

But look at this set

http://www.egun.de/market/item.php?id=3292505&PHPSESSID=6b087cbf17dfd509723103dcac0a04b9

Thank you, HerrScheisse.

I got that uniform off someone who had some stuff to get rid of once-off, but I've PMed you with an eBay link to an identical uniform that's going at the moment.

Just had a look at that EGun auction now. It's already ended and the highest bid was €241, which seems to be a bargain. The dagger alone is worth that and it seems to be an original. The only thing that isn't correct is the helmet: the steel helmet was for field use only and there was a plastic one for parades. That, and maybe the shirt is the wrong colour: white for parade, grey for everyday use, but the photos are poor and I cannot make out if it is white or grey. Other than that it is a correct parade uniform - the boots are proper officer's high gloss parade boots and the medals with 15 years service seem right for the rank of captain.

Here are a few DDR badges. They are worn over the right breast pocket.







The first two are the pre and post-1986 versions of the same badge. The newer one is above and is made of thin, stamped metal.





These three are from bottom to top Rear Services, Flight Engineer and Dog Handler.

The Rear Services badge is post-1986. These badges have a plastic coat which is prone to falling off and this one is missing its green colour.



This is a pilot's badge with the hanger for 4000 flight hours.



Paratrooper's badge with the hanger for 50 jumps.

The miniature one is for wear with civilian clothing.

just seen on

http://www.butschek-antiques.com

East German customs Generals dagger
Item No.: 220511015
Available at 375,00
might be of interest to DDR collectors.
they have gone up price since I lived there

Orange is the colour of the Fallschirmjäger.

Now, I think this is an example of a pimped-up tunic...

The tunic is real, as are the shoulder boards and collar tabs, but I do not think they actually belong together. The tunic is stamped as being manufactured in 1974, but the paratroopers already stopped wearing this style of tunic in 1969/1970. From then on they wore the open-collar style with stylised parachutes on the collar tabs. The collar tabs on my tunic are genuine. I had a little prod around to see if they had been coloured orange with a marker, and they had not been.

Still, I don't mind at all if it was put-together as the dark collar tunic itself is a desireable and uncommon item.

The decorations...

The medal ribbon bar is a 1960s/70s-era model and is made up of cloth ribbons with a plastic film applied. From the mid-1970s, the newer style was introduced which were paper ribbons with a rigid plastic strip of plastic placed over the ribbons.

The jump badge is genuine and has a hanger shwing 50 jumps. These items are commonly faked, but usually come with hangers for huge, improbable numbers of jumps: 500, 1000, etc.

The parachute qualification badge is the model issued from the mid-1960s onwards. I think it is a restrike. In the early 1990s the manufacturer of these decorations began reproducing some of the more collectible items, I guess as a source of income in a bid to survive, but using the original materials and die machinery. I do not have a problem with having such an item as it is not strictly a fake.

Anyway, I'm happy with this tunic. I'm looking out for a beret to go with it.

Little Alex wrote: »

Orange is the colour of the Fallschirmjäger.

Now, I think this is an example of a pimped-up tunic...

The tunic is real, as are the shoulder boards and collar tabs, but I do not think they actually belong together. The tunic is stamped as being manufactured in 1974, but the paratroopers already stopped wearing this style of tunic in 1969/1970. From then on they wore the open-collar style with stylised parachutes on the collar tabs. The collar tabs on my tunic are genuine. I had a little prod around to see if they had been coloured orange with a marker, and they had not been.

Still, I don't mind at all if it was put-together as the dark collar tunic itself is a desireable and uncommon item.

The decorations...

The medal ribbon bar is a 1960s/70s-era model and is made up of cloth ribbons with a plastic film applied. From the mid-1970s, the newer style was introduced which were paper ribbons with a rigid plastic strip of plastic placed over the ribbons.

The jump badge is genuine and has a hanger shwing 50 jumps. These items are commonly faked, but usually come with hangers for huge, improbable numbers of jumps: 500, 1000, etc.

The parachute qualification badge is the model issued from the mid-1960s onwards. I think it is a restrike. In the early 1990s the manufacturer of these decorations began reproducing some of the more collectible items, I guess as a source of income in a bid to survive, but using the original materials and die machinery. I do not have a problem with having such an item as it is not strictly a fake.

Anyway, I'm happy with this tunic. I'm looking out for a beret to go with it.

I picked up a book on DDR uniforms in German recently called 'Militärische Uniformen in der DDR 1949-90' by Keubke and Munz. (Mittler Verlag)
it seems in the sixties they had an open collar tunic for walking out and closed collar as a working tunic. though not sure about the paras the closed collar tunic was still being worn in the seventies.

There is a beret for sale on Ebay at 30 euro.
www.ebay.de
http://www.ebay.de/itm/NVA-Fallschirmjager-Barett-Offizier-Grosse-3-/180776845947?pt=DDR_Ostalgie&hash=item2a1723c27b#ht_500wt_1166

Little Alex wrote: »

The one that goes with my tunic has a metal cockade and not an embroidered one.

I just discovered that the orange beret was only ever worn with the new uniform.

Anyway, I got these two in the course of last year...

Transport police:



Prison warden: