German.Militaria

the medal was given to FDJ members that volunteered to serve in the armed forces in 1961. There was no conscription in the DDR until 1962 and anyone serving in the armed forces until that time did so voluntarily and the FDJ run a special comapaign to get as many members as possible to sign up for service in 1961 in response to the 'heightened thread from the imperialist western aggression' which ultimately resulted in the DDR building the anti-fashist defensive wall (antifaschistischer Schutzwall) on 13th August 1961. Cheers, Torsten.

very nice plaque. they would have been used for displays, etc. i do not actually recall seeing them in use in my army barracks at the time, but then, I would not have paid any close attention to that sort of thing at the time ... Cheers, Torsten.

Hi Jeff, like I told you elsewhere....that was a good book..but I am sure I'll have it again at some point in the future .... Cheers, Torsten.

Guys, the Politoffiziere went to study at the OHS just like all other officer students. After the 4 years at OHS they graduated as Politoffiziere with a particular army specialisation. They did go on to attend Wilhelm Pieck later on if they were destined for higher things, but they were Politoffiziere after the OHS. Of course other 'normal' officers could have always changed their carreer paths into becoming Politoffiziere later on .. but not many what have wanted to ... including me ... ;-) . Cheers, Torsten.

Hi Jeff, thanks for remembering me ... I am afraid my website is not the above .. it's www.GermanDotMilitaria.com. Cheers, Torsten.

I would just like to say thank you to Nick, The Chairman for upgrading my membership so that I can post larger pics and thank you also to the forum moderators that requested this...I owe you all a pint... Cheers, Torsten.

Hi Kevin, I did not know that you followed my auctions... yes, they did sell very well and most of them went to customers in Spain. I was also quite surprised to be honest, but then I do not come across them that often...lets see if I can find some more to add some pics to Ed's collection....Cheers, Torsten.

Hi Ed, a wonderful grouping...well done... (a thumbs up icon is missing for this forum....)...as you may remember from the WAF, I have had a fair number of Spanish Civil veteran badges, but I have sold them all now. ..whenever, I come across some others that you have not shown here as yet, I will try and remember to post some pics here for you...ok? Cheers, Torsten. (just really wanted to use this smilie .. ;-) .)

Hi Dan, would probably be easiest just to join the WAF for the free membership, if that was to mean to you can see the pics...there really is a ton of information there and a lot about the DDR has already been explained there (I am up to nearly 6000 posts now) and a lot of the WAF members are also members here and so, I would probably not want to repeat things that I have already said or shown there on this forum...Cheers, Torsten.

not 100% sure about this, but I think that the arm patches are for uniformed works police (subordinate to the MdI) and I think the cufftitle would have been worn more by civilian works security guards...although, I do not recall seeng the cufftitles being worn by anyone at the time?? Cheers, Torsten.

thank you everyone for making me welcome here and thank you Dan for posting the pic for me... hope you don;t mind, but maybe I could use this thread to ask questions about how to use this forum ...? and there are already many such questions....first up: I do not appear to be able to get back into my posts to edit them after about a day or so??...is there some option somewhere to tick to enable me to do so? I always make a lot of silly typos that I only notice afterwards and I need to be able to edit my posts later on...so that you guys can actually understand a little of what I am writing about... Cheers, Torsten.

I cannot see the pics either.... can anyone else see them or are they just not there?? Cheers, Torsten.

I agree...surely, the absolute rarest must be the Fliegerkosmonaut der DDR...that Siegmund Jaehn's double (the spare Kosmonaut (I can't remember his name..;-((...) not also get the title and medal?? Btw, apart from being given the Held der DDR with this award, you were also automatically given the Karl Marx Orden....Cheers, Torsten. Below is a pic of the actual medal Fliegerkosmonaut der DDR....

I do hope that I am allowed to post links to another forum here?...but it would really safe a lot of time and hassle, if you were to have a look at this thread on another forum, where I have shown a fairly large number of different Stasi Undercover Pins...Cheers, Torsten. http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/sho...ver+pin+torsten

Betriebsschutz is for the works security or works police...in industry...you know, the guys at the factory gate, etc. ... hope this explains? Cheers, Torsten.

Hi David, thank you very much...that clears up then...mmmhh...I sustpect then that I should just pay up to make some sense of this thread again... Cheers, Torsten.

Hi Ed, I did actually rename it when I resized it...I suspect then that my file limit as a new member (and unpaid member) is only very small, but I cannot find anywhere what that limitation in file size might be??...I suspect that this would probably change if I was to pay the minimum subscription fee for this forum?? Will probably do that later..Cheers, Torsten.

Hi Ed, just done that and still get the same error message: The total filespace required to upload all the attached files is greater than your per post or global limit. Please reduce the number of attachments or the size of the attachments. so don't know what to do now??? Cheers, Torsten.

Hi Michael, its a normal jpeg, 110kb and 750x525 pixels...is there a restriction on image sze for posting on this forum?? Cheers, Torsten.

Hi there, I am new to this forum and Hauptman (Dan) asked me to post this pic of myself...my name is Torsten and I live in the UK...I am originally East German and when you look at the pic below then you can probably work out for yourself what I did for a couple of years in East Germany...the pic was taken on 7th october 1989 in Berlin and I am the bloke in the first row on the far right...Cheers, Torsten. PS: I tried to upload a pic to this post and got the following forum message: The total filespace required to upload all the attached files is greater than your per post or global limit. Please reduce the number of attachments or the size of the attachments. maybe someone can help me??? Its just a normal quite small file

I am sure that there will be a pic of the man somewhere, but I would not know where to look right now...lets see what I can find...or maybe someone else can help?? Cheers, Torsten.

Hi Dan, I believe that Jon was referring to the person that sold you the 1955 certificate...i.e. ME... (some nice smilies on this forum... ) ... anyhow, I am glad that you have got the cert now and that you like it...keep checking my auctions...I am sure that I will have more in the future...anyhow, re your question about who signed the cert, that was Fritz Eikemeier, who was Polizeipresident of Berlin from 1953 to 1964 and lived from 1908 to 1985....hope this helps? Good luck with the rest of your collection... Cheers, Torsten.