DDR DDR Passports

[order_of_victory]

Here are a couple of DDR passports that I accuired recently

First up a late soft backed passport

Order of Victory

[order_of_victory]

Inside

Order of Victory

[order_of_victory]

Here are some of the stamps

Order of Victory

[order_of_victory]

Here are some more of the stamps

Order of Victory

[order_of_victory]

Here an earlier hard backed passport

Order of Victory

[order_of_victory]

Inside

Order of Victory

[order_of_victory]

Here are some of the stamps in the passport

Order of Victory

[order_of_victory]

Here are some more of the stamps in the passport

Order of Victory

[Knarf]

Hallo ,

the last Passport shows how times changed. In 1987 the visum was valid for 10 Days and could be used only one time. In 1990 you could leave the country when ever you wanted.

Regards

Frank

[Paul R]

This is the first DDR passports I have seen. What happened to most of them when the DDR fell? Were they turned in for the new German documents or were they simply kept by the owners?

[Knarf]

Normally the people were very happy to turn them into the new passports. (they had the opinion that life would be better in future, which not always happened) Some weeks ago I found lots of brandnew passports in a cellar. Normally they all were destroyed. Only a few people kept their old ones. When you wanted to have a new passport you had to hand back the old one.

Regards

Frank

[Paul R]

Thanks for the explanation, Frank. Then I can view these as very rare documents.

[order_of_victory]

Thanks for the explanation, Frank. Then I can view these as very rare documents.

Glad you like tham Paul

It intresting that both these passports were extened to to 1993 and 1994

Frank when you say beand new passports do you mean blank DDR passports or Blank unified Germany passports

Order of Victory

[Knarf]

I mean blank GDR Passports. Blank ones from Unif. Germany would be illegal.

It is very difficult to say that these Passports are rare.

Compared with the number of people in GDR the are rare.

Compared with the number of collectors they are not.

Regards

Frank

[order_of_victory]

I mean blank GDR Passports. Blank ones from Unif. Germany would be illegal.

It is very difficult to say that these Passports are rare.

Compared with the number of people in GDR the are rare.

Compared with the number of collectors they are not.

Regards

Frank

Wow I would love to get hold of a blank one

Order of Victory

[ehrentitle]

Most of the DDR Passports I've seen are for retirees. I believe after retirement they were authorized an annual trip to West Germany. I have such a hardback passport for a woman born in 1910 who made annual trips to West Berlin of between 14 and 30 days from 1974 to 1982. I've also heard that the reason why the DDR encouraged these visits was the desire for a percentage of these retirees to say in the West, thus reducing their requirement to pay retirement benefits. Kevin