Gordon Craig

The correct cap badge back in place.

Here is a view of the backs of both cap badges. The prongs on the army cap badges fit the premade holes exactly. To get the police cap badge to go on the hat one prong had to be broken away from where it was soldered to the cap badge to make the distance between the two prongs smaller.

The cap with the police cap badge removed. This shows the holes made in the cap band, during the manufacture of the cap, for the installation of the cap badge.

The interior of the two caps.

A side view comparison of the two caps.

Gents, I was sure that I had done an indepth article, on the forum, showing the differences between modern army officers caps and those from the Communist era but I don't find it listed. I was going to post these pictures to that thread but since I can not find it I'll start a new thread. Yesterday I bought a cap from a militaria store in Budapest and the vendor said it was a police cap because it had a police cap badge. I knew that it wasn't and was interested in the cap anyway as it was a Kadar period musician officers cap. The pictures that follow show a comparison between a pre 1989 cap and a post 1989 cap. The older cap is mis-shapen from poor storage but still good to illustrate for my purposes. The two caps are very similar in design with identically shaped sweat shields, cap cords and basic overall shape. The older cap has a slightly lighter colour and the gold chin cord has turned dark with age. The older caps were also slightly shorter from th surface the peak rests on to the top of the crown.

Some time ago, Olivier started a thread on the Wehrmacht Awards DDR Forum to try and find out what the meaning of the numbers, preceeded by a large "S", was on the bottom of the plastic brims of peaked caps. At that time, I suggested they were mold marks IE they indicate the number of the mold used to make the brims. There were some who agreed and no doubt some who disagreed. The next photo shows these same markings on the bottom of the brim of this protective helmet and leaves no doubt in my mind that these marks on both the hat pictured here and the brims of peaked caps are mold marks. Regards, Gordon

The interior showing the simplified liner and chin strap.

The side view of this helmet.

These next pictures show a completely different helmet. Nither Nico or I had seen this particular design before. Whereas the previous helmet is made of fibreglass, this helmet appears to have been made from high impact plastic in an injection mold. It is a two piece helmet with the brim and the rain channel forming one part while the body of the helmet forms a separate part. They are held together with opaque plastic rivets. The liner is a much simpler plastic piece with a single piece of leather as a chin strap. The decal on the front of the helmet is much larger.

The interior showing the liner and the chin strap.

A side view of this helmet.

Gents, The title is a general term for workers protective helmets. They were often standard hard hats used by individual organizations in the DDR. Sometimes there was a crest on them and sometimes not. An example of some of the organizations that wore helmets like the ones pictured, or similar ones, while working was the DRK, ZV, Volkespolizei, and the Betriebsschutze. Both these helmets come from a trip to the basement of Nico's shop! The first one is a standard type of protective helmet often worn in building trades. It has a small ZV decal on the front. There is an adjustable nine finger liner as well as two nylon straps to help absorb the shock of blows to the head. The chin strap is of the Y type design. There are leather tabs around the circumference of the interior for attaching a neck flap which did not come with the helmet. Regards, Gordon

Here is another photo from this display. It is a well known photo of the Anniversary parade of April 4, 1956. I chose to show this picture because it shows the Political Oficers badge in wear by the officer at the very front of the picture. You should also note the parade helmets used only on these parades. Gordon

Here is a photo of a parade at the Petofi Military Academy. The officers on parade appear to be wearing the large round badge pictured above. Gordon

One of my main areas of interest in badges of this period is for the Political Officers. Charles has shown those in an earlier photo but here are pictures of badges worn at the Petofi Political Officers School. The only place I have seen these badges is in the museum and as pictures in books. Gordon

One of the discussions we had on the thread devoted to the orgaization from above was about the smaller of the two badges being a cap badge rather than a breast badge. This next shot shows that Charles was correct in his statement that the small badge was a cap badge leaving the larger of the two to be the second type breast badge. While at the museum Charles mentioned that he wasn't so sure about the side cap and cap badge time frame since our membership books don't show stamps for as late as 1953 when these hats would have come into wear. We'll have to talk to the uniform curator about this and get back to you. Gordon

Another view of the belt Charles showed here. This time, on top of the shirt and arm badge worn during the early years of this organization. It also shows the two breast badges from another thread that I started some time ago. Gordon

Next is the sword displayed with this uniform. Gordon

Here is a close up of the sword belt displayed with this uniform. Regards, Gordon

Eric, I don't remember any other WP countries medals on display. There is one uniform display in this exhibit which appears to have other WP countries uniforms on display but it is a case full of all kinds of countries uniforms, helmets etc and not captioned so it is hard to tell what is in the case, or what they are getting at with the display. Next time I am in the museum I'll keep my eyes open for this type of display. Regards, Gordon

Picture #2

Ulsternan, Your wish is my command! Charles and I visited the new exhibit today and took a lot of pictures. Cropping and resizing them for posting here will take some time but I will try to post what I feel will be of interest. Some exhibits need to be looked at carefully as we are not sure all of the pieces were authentic. We did see some great stuff but all I have time for tonight is a teaser to keep your interest. These two pictures will speak for themselves. Regards, Gordon

Grant, I might be able to help. I do not have any of the pins myself but have a possible contact for them. I'll get back to you asap. Regards, Gordon

Charles, Too bad things didn't turn out better for the interview. I guess we will just have to be patient and wait for the National Museum to answer. Regards, Gordon