I’ve discovered a person selling a colossal East German ribbon bar and I’m curious as to who it could have belonged to?

[Oscar Szwec]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Grose-Interimsspange-eines-hochrangigen-Angehorigen-der-NVA-oder-des-MfS-der-DDR/193725264739?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D225078%26meid%3Ded47db4900a545dcac4485aa0f2fe15f%26pid%3D100667%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D8%26mehot%3Dnone%26sd%3D143812490080%26itm%3D193725264739%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2334524&_trksid=p2334524.c100667.m2042 

also I’m curious if the ribbon bar is 100% authentic too.

[laurentius]

Dear Oscar,

If it's currently on sale it won't be identified, we don't want the hard work of forum members to go into the pockets of ebaysellers.

Kind regards, Laurentius

[Daniel Krause]

Seller Ledom?

If yes, you have a good chance, that it is assembled after 1989.

 

Best,

Daniel 

[Gordon Craig]

Oscar Szwec,

A number of these bars with a large number of awards have appeared over the years and unless they come directly from a known source with proven provenance are of recent production.  I would tend to leave these alone.

Regards,

Gordon

 

[speedytop]

Hi,

this bar is dedicated ro Armeegeneral Mielke, but it differs from the original.

Uwe

[Ulsterman]

On 03/11/2020 at 09:24, speedytop said:

Hi,

this bar is dedicated ro Armeegeneral Mielke, but it differs from the original.

Uwe

The same guy in the Bernie Guenther novels? 

[Eric Stahlhut]

RIP Philip Kerr...

[Megan]

Given a jumble of Soviet and DDR awards, and apparent service in Army, Police, Customs, Border Guards AND State Security... not to mention Construction, Railways, and Agriculture... I'd guess this is a fantasy bar of whatever ribbons the vendor could get his paws on.

[speedytop]

Hi Megan,

"I'd guess this is a fantasy bar of whatever ribbons the vendor could get his paws on."

Please see my previous comment. This bar is based on a bar of Armeegeneral Mielke, but it is not the original.

The various organisations set great value on conferring their decorations on Mielke!

Uwe

[Megan]

Interesting, thank you for that thought SpeedyTop. That does make a kind of sense.

[speedytop]

Here it is for a direct comparison. Mielke loved to receive many decorations!

Please see here, nearly 200 decorations Mielke Auszeichnungen

Uwe

[Lukasz Gaszewski]

Mielke was probably the heaviest decorated figure of the former DDR, hence his awards are a grateful object of making replicas for sale. I have seen the replicas of his ribbon bar a few times, but always repeating similar errors. It seems that the manufacturer either did not recognize all ribbons or could not find the originals.

 

Still, real gems can be found, too. Two years ago on the Net I came across a uniform (made in China) that allegedly belonged to Gen. Heinz Hoffmann. It was made in such a perfect way that looking at the ribbon bars you could hardly say they were not original.