Gordon Craig

The Representative Cord in wear.

The section of the Representative Cord which buttons underneath the right shoulderboard.

The end of the Representative Cord which loops around the top button on the dress tunic.

Next comes the enlisted man's Representative Cord. This cord is similar to the officers cord and is worn by Honour Companies, Central Orchestra of the NVA, Staff Music Corps Berlin and since 1977 may be worn to military ceremonies. The Representative Cord.

The cord in wear by the navy on the Pea Coat.

The cord in wear by the navy on the Keiler Shirt.

The cord in wear by the army and airforce.

I would like to cover the topice of shoulder cords worn in the NVA by both officers and enlisted men. There are a number of different cords used in the different arms of the NVA and by officers and enlisted men. There will be several photos attached and they are all taken from the uniform regulations of the DDR NVA date 1986 called; DV 010/0/005 Uniformarten und ihre Trageweise Bekleidungsvorschrift or from Uniformen der Nationalen Volkesarmee der DDR 1956-1986 by Klaus-Ulrich Keubke and Manfred Kunz. Since the topic title stars with the Shooting Cord that is where I will begin. It is worn on the right shoulder of the dress tunic for the NVA army and airforce and with the Nr. 1 Parade Uniform (Kieler shirt) for the navy. The army and airforce will have a small button sewn onto the right shoulder under the shoulderboard and one end of the cord is attached to this. The other end of the cord is looped over the second button of the jacket before it is buttoned. The navy has a button sewn on top of the right shoulder of the Keiler Shirt and another button sewn on the front of the Kieler Shirt. The cord is attached to these two butons. The button on the front of the Kieler Shirt is hidden by the knot of the neckerchief. The navy als wears their cords with the Pea Coat in the same fashion as the army and airforce except the lower end of the cord is looped over the top button before the coat is buttoned. The cord for the Motorschutzen.

The reverse of the badge. There is a variation of this badge where the ring on the badge is rotated 90 degrees and there are two rings between it and the suspension part of the badge.

In 1950, the President's Council of the Hungarian People's Republic established an order to recognize artists. The founding proclamation said "The Hungarian Board of Cultural Development orders that the acknowledgement of excellence in the theatre, film and opera be recognized and the workers shall be awarded an Award Badge." This award was given in two forms 1st Class: Distinguished Artist of the Hungarian People's Republic, 2nd Class: Artist of Merit of the Hungarian People's Republic. The badge was awarded as a medal along with a pension upon retirement. It was bestowed annually on August 20th. From 1952 other artistic branches were considered to worthy of receiving this badge. The central motiff of the badge was changed from the crest used during the Rakoci period to the crest of the Hungarian Republic in 1957. The 1950 and the 1957 issues of the 1st Class had the wording "MAGYAR N?PK?ZT?RSAS?G KIV?LO MŰV?SZE" written around the outside of the medal section of the badge and the 2nd Class had the wording " MAGYAR N?PK?ZT?RSAS?G ?RDEMES MŰV?SZE" in the same location. The reverse of the badge is blank. The 1990 issue of the badge had the wording changed to "MAGYAR K?ZT?RSAS?G KIV?L? MŰV?SZE" (Distinguished Artists of the Hungarian Republic) for the 1st Class and to " MAGYAR K?ZT?RSAS?G ?RDEMES MŰV?SZE" (Artist of Merit of the Hungarian Republic) for the 2nd Class. The 1990 1st Class was awarded to 27 recipients and the 2nd Class to 39 recipients on only one occassion; 15 March, 1990. The badge was abolished by the passing of Act XXXI in 1991. Pictured below is the 1st Class of 1957.

Gents, Charles was kind enough not tomention that we went to the Children's Railroad Museum at my suggestion. We went on a Wednesday and it turned out that the museum is only open on the weekends. Oh well, a future trip on some nice warm spring day. I'd like to point out one more thing in the photo posted by Charles. The cap badge being worn by the young girl in the photo is almost identical o the suspended part og the badge worn on her lapel. The cap badge design also appears on some flags in the museum as well. Regards, Gordon

Kevin, The medal actually came from the U.S. I was surprised when no one else bid on this particular lot. Very pleased to get it and find out it was of the 1958 variety. There is very littel DDR stuff here in Hungary and what I have seen hasn't been worth picking up. Ed, Those are nice early medals you have there. Thanks for posting the threads. I'd like to get a documented set as well but will probably be lucky to get an award document and a mappe of the correct date to go with it. But then again, the chase is half the fun! Regards, Gordon

I forgot to mention in my first post to this thread that these medals were only issued with the 28mm bandspange in 1958. From then on they were issued with a 24mm bandspange. Regards, Gordon

Dan, That style of badge was worn from 1964 until 1985. When it arives please post a picture of the back and perhaps we can narrow it down a bit further. Regards, Gordon

Rick, I have that info, or at least some approximate dates somewhere. I'll see if I can dig it up over the next few days. The one thing you can be pretty certain of is that only an award with a barrel type latch should be found in an early type wooden case. Regards, Gordon

Last is the latch in use during the final years of the DDR. Now just a bent piece of metal without even a cutout.

The next catch was a much simplified catch. Just a flat piece of metal with a notch cut into it.

Now lets move on to the catches on the pins that held the awards on. The first one is the barrel catch used on all awards during the early years of the DDR.

Next up are the final white plastic cases used in the DDR. The top to these boxes is shown in the first photo.

Now the interior of the case showing the medal.

Next is the yellow plastic case for the Ehrenmedaille sum 40 Jahrestag der DDR. It has a red interior. There is some damage around the edge of the hole that the medal sits in.

Here is a photo of the bottom of this case. It is covered with the same material as the top but does not have a ridge around the end.

Back from my trip and now to continue by looking at some cases for DDR awards. First I'll post one of the ealy awards. It is made of wood and covered in red papaer to simulate leather. It has a brass catch to hold it closed and a steel hinge. The interior is of black flocking with a recess for the nedal. The top is white nylon (or Dederon if you prefer) and is heavily padded. Here is a pic of the top of the case. It has some damage at the rear unfortunately.

Here is the award with the polystyrene glued back into place. Need to take a break here. I'll continue with the rest of this thread later today. Regards, Gordon

Here is the polystyrene pieces in the lid of the award case.