Copper wallpiece made in the DDR with the image of Hans Beimler. Hans Beimler (1895-1936) was a trade unionist, Communist Party official, deputy in the 1933 Reichstag, an outspoken opponent of the Nazis and a volunteer in the international brigades fighting for the Spanish Republic. Beimler lived in Munich where he joined the Communist Party. In 1921 he was arrested for attempting to sabotage troop transports and was jailed for 2 years. A fervent Communist and anti-Nazi, he was elected as a KPD deputy to the Reichstag in the German federal election in July 1932. Hitler came to power in January 1933 and with the Reichstag Fire Decree for the Protection of People and State, one month later, began interning political rivals, including KPD and SPD members, in concentration camps. Beimler and his wife Centa were both arrested in April 1933 and never saw each other again. Already known as an outspoken and defiant anti-Nazi voice in the Reichstag, Beimler and his party colleagues were subjected to two weeks of beatings at the Munich police before being sent to Dachau concentration camp. After four weeks, however, in May 1933 Beimler managed to escape, possibly with the help of some renegade camp guards. He managed to cross into Czechoslovakia and on to the Soviet Union. After short periods in France and Switzerland, working for the International Red Aid (Rote Hilfe) organisation, Beimler arrived in Barcelona in August 1936 at the head of the first brigade of German anti-fascist volunteers, fighting alongside the Republican troops under the name “Thälmann’s Centurians”. He was subsequently appointed as commissar of all International Brigades supporting the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. In November 1936, while helping to defend Madrid from the Nationalists, he was shot and fatally wounded during the Battle of Madrid. Hans Beimler was granted national hero status in the German Democratic Republic, with military divisions, ships, factories, schools and streets named in his honour.
Wallpiece made in the DDR with the image and signature of Ernst Thalmann. Ernst Thalmann (1886-1944) was a German communist politician. He was leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. A committed Stalinist, Thalmann played a major role in the political instability of the Weimar Republic in its final years, when the KPD explicitly sought the overthrow of the liberal democracy of the republic. Under his leadership the KPD became intimately associated with the government of the Soviet Union and the policies of Joseph Stalin, and from 1928 the party was largely controlled and funded by Stalin’s government. The KPD under Thalmann’s leadership regarded the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as Social fascists. Thalmann viewed the Nazi Party as a lesser evil than the social democrats, and in 1931 his party cooperated with the Nazis in an attempt to bring down the social democrat state government. Thalmann believed that a Nazi dictatorship would fail due to flawed economic policies and lead to a revolutionary situation in which the communist party gained power. Thalmann was also leader of the paramilitary Roter Frontkampferbund, which was banned as extremist by the governing social democrats in 1929, and in 1932 he established Antifaschistische Aktion or Antifa, which concentrated its attacks on the social democrats. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years; Stalin did not seek his release when he entered into the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Germany, and Thalmann’s party rival Walter Ulbricht ignored requests to plead on his behalf. Many of Thalmann’s closest associates who had emigrated to the Soviet Union were executed during the Great Purge of the 1930s. Thalmann was shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler’s personal orders in 1944. In the First World War he was posted to the artillery on the western front, where he stayed till the end of the war, during the course of which he was wounded twice. He said that he fought in the following battles: Battle of Champagne (1915–1916), Battle of the Somme (1916), Second battle of the Aisne, Battle of Soissons, Battle of Cambrai (1917) and Battle of Arras (1917).
Beautiful wallpiece with the image of Karl Marx. Copper plate and with signature. Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German thinker and philosopher. He created the workers movement. His most important work is Das Kapital and the Communist Manifest. Bassicly he was the inventor of communism. His work and thoughts are called Marxism. Lenin was a strong believer of Marxism when he was turning Russia into the first communist state after the October Revolution in 1917. Friedrich Engels was his lifetime friend and was supporting Karl financially and publiced many of Karl Marx writings after the death of Karl.
Copper plate made in the DDr with the image of Friedrich Engels. Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) was a German philosopher, historian, communist, social scientist, sociologist, journalist and businessman. His father was an owner of large textile factories in England. Engels developed what is now known as Marxist theory together with Karl Marx and in 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research in English cities. In 1848, Engels co-authored The Communist Manifesto with Marx and also authored and co-authored (primarily with Marx) many other works. Later, Engels supported Marx financially, allowing him to do research and write Das Kapital. After Marx’s death, Engels edited the second and third volumes of Das Kapital. Additionally, Engels organised Marx’s notes on the Theories of Surplus Value, which were later published as the “fourth volume” of Das Kapital. In 1884, he published The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State on the basis of Marx’s ethnographic research.
Wallpiece made in the DDR. Wooden plate with thin copper plaque on it. The image on the copper is the Sachsenhausen memorial tower. The tower is 35-40 (114-131 feet) meters tall and in front is a scultpute by René Graetz, made in 1961. The triangular prisoner’s badge is the dominant symbol on this triangular pylon with slightly concave sides. Sachsenhausen was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until the defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945. It mainly held political prisoners throughout World War II. Prominent prisoners included Joseph Stalin’s oldest son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, Paul Reynaud, the penultimate Prime Minister of France, Francisco Largo Caballero, Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War, the wife and children of the Crown Prince of Bavaria, Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera, and several enemy soldiers and political dissidents. Sachsenhausen was a labor camp, outfitted with several subcamps, a gas chamber, and a medical experimentation area. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone. About 100.000 people were killed in the camp. Today, Sachsenhausen is open to the public as a memorial.
Wallplate made in the DDR, 1987. The text on the plate reads:”70 Years” and is refferig to the October Revolution in 1917. The text above the ship reads:”October Revolution”. The ship is the Aurora who fired the first shot in St. Petersburg.
Wallplate made in the DDR with the image of Ernst Thalmann. Ernst Thalmann (1886-1944) was a German communist politician. He was leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. A committed Stalinist, Thalmann played a major role in the political instability of the Weimar Republic in its final years, when the KPD explicitly sought the overthrow of the liberal democracy of the republic. Under his leadership the KPD became intimately associated with the government of the Soviet Union and the policies of Joseph Stalin, and from 1928 the party was largely controlled and funded by Stalin’s government. The KPD under Thalmann’s leadership regarded the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as Social fascists. Thalmann viewed the Nazi Party as a lesser evil than the social democrats, and in 1931 his party cooperated with the Nazis in an attempt to bring down the social democrat state government. Thalmann believed that a Nazi dictatorship would fail due to flawed economic policies and lead to a revolutionary situation in which the communist party gained power. Thalmann was also leader of the paramilitary Roter Frontkampferbund, which was banned as extremist by the governing social democrats in 1929, and in 1932 he established Antifaschistische Aktion or Antifa, which concentrated its attacks on the social democrats. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years; Stalin did not seek his release when he entered into the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Germany, and Thalmann’s party rival Walter Ulbricht ignored requests to plead on his behalf. Many of Thalmann’s closest associates who had emigrated to the Soviet Union were executed during the Great Purge of the 1930s. Thalmann was shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler’s personal orders in 1944. In the First World War he was posted to the artillery on the western front, where he stayed till the end of the war, during the course of which he was wounded twice. He said that he fought in the following battles: Battle of Champagne (1915–1916), Battle of the Somme (1916), Second battle of the Aisne, Battle of Soissons, Battle of Cambrai (1917) and Battle of Arras (1917).
Wallplate made in the DDR with the image of Karl Marx. Freiberger Porzellan.The image is the big bust of Karl in the city of Chemnitz and made by Kerbel. On the background there is the text:”Proletarians Of The World Unite!” in different languages. Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German thinker and philosopher. He created the workers movement. His most important work is Das Kapital and the Communist Manifest. Bassicly he was the inventor of communism. His work and thoughts are called Marxism. Lenin was a strong believer of Marxism when he was turning Russia into the first communist state after the October Revolution in 1917. Friedrich Engels was his lifetime friend and was supporting Karl financially and publiced many of Karl Marx writings after the death of Karl.
Wallplate made in the DDR, 1979, VEB Colditzer Porzellanwerk. The text on the plate reads:”30 Years German Democratic Republic 1949-1979″. The DDR was a state that existed from 1949 to 1990, when the eastern portion of Germany was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Commonly described as a communist state, it described itself as a socialist workers and peasants’ state. After WWII the Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin but did not include it; as a result, West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the DDR. Soviet forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989. The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the Wall was commenced by the DDR on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area (later known as the “death strip”) that contained anti-vehicle trenches, “fakir beds” and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the “will of the people” in building a socialist state in East Germany.
Wallplate made in the DDR, 1977 by Meissen. Beautiful plate picturing the storming of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg during the 1917 October Revolution. The October Revolution was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin. It followed and capitalized on the February Revolution of the same year, which overthrew the Tsarist autocracy and resulted in a provisional government. As the October Revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War (1917–22) and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. The Bolsheviks would become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Stalin was one of the militairy leaders of the Bolsheviks and took control over the Soviet Union after Lenin’s death in 1924.
Wallplate made in the DDR, 1977. The text on the plate reads:”60 years of Soviet power”. On the plate is a red star, hammer and sickle and the ship Aurora who fired the first shot in St. Petersburg signalling the start of the revolution.
Wallplate made in the DDR, 1982. The text on the plate reads:”65 Years of red Oktober”. The Russian text reads:”October Revolution”. The ship is the Aurora who fired the first shot in St. Petersburg signalling the start of the revolution. The October Revolution was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin. It followed and capitalized on the February Revolution of the same year, which overthrew the Tsarist autocracy and resulted in a provisional government. As the October Revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War (1917–22) and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. The Bolsheviks would become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Stalin was one of the militairy leaders of the Bolsheviks and took control over the Soviet Union after Lenin’s death in 1924.
Wallplate made in the DDR, 1974. The text on the plate reads:”25 Years German Democratic Republic”. The DDR was a state that existed from 1949 to 1990, when the eastern portion of Germany was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Commonly described as a communist state, it described itself as a socialist workers and peasants’ state. After WWII the Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin but did not include it; as a result, West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the DDR. Soviet forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989. The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the Wall was commenced by the DDR on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area (later known as the “death strip”) that contained anti-vehicle trenches, “fakir beds” and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the “will of the people” in building a socialist state in East Germany.
Wall plate made in the DDR, 1966. The text on the plate reads:”20 years of raw iron in VEB Maxhütte Unterwellenborn and in the DDR”. The Maxhütte in Unterwellenborn, Thuringia, was a steel and rolling mill that was built in the second half of the 19th century. After several name and ownership changes, the company closed in 1992.
Wall plate made in the DDR, 1983. The text on the plate reads:”20 years of economic and scientific-technical cooperation”. And on the back of the plate:”Office for Economic Affairs of the Republic of Cuba in the DDR”.
Wallplate made in the DDR, 1974. The text on the plate reads:”25 Years German Democratic Republic”. The DDR was a state that existed from 1949 to 1990, when the eastern portion of Germany was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Commonly described as a communist state, it described itself as a socialist workers and peasants’ state. After WWII the Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin but did not include it; as a result, West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the DDR. Soviet forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989. The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the Wall was commenced by the DDR on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area (later known as the “death strip”) that contained anti-vehicle trenches, “fakir beds” and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the “will of the people” in building a socialist state in East Germany.
Wallplate made in the DDR, 1974. The text on the plate reads:”25 Years Of DDR”. The DDR was a state that existed from 1949 to 1990, when the eastern portion of Germany was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Commonly described as a communist state, it described itself as a socialist workers and peasants’ state. After WWII the Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin but did not include it; as a result, West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the DDR. Soviet forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989. The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the Wall was commenced by the DDR on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area (later known as the “death strip”) that contained anti-vehicle trenches, “fakir beds” and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the “will of the people” in building a socialist state in East Germany.
Wallplate made in the DDR, 1978. The text on the plate reads:”25 Years Combat Groups Of The Working Class”. The rifle with the red flag is the symbol of the KDA. The Combat Groups of the Working Class (German: Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse, KDA) was a paramilitary organization in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1953 to 1989. The KDA served for the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany composed of party members and politically reliable working people, based on dictatorship of the proletariat principles, to be deployed locally to fight civil unrest or invasion. The KDA was a civil reserve force tied to the GDR’s Ministry of the Interior and the Volkspolizei, reaching 211,000 personnel at its peak in 1980. The KDA was disbanded after the opening of the Berlin Wall in late 1989.
Wallplate made in the DDR, 1977. The text on the plate reads:”Great Socialist October Revolution 1917-1977″. The ship on the plate is the Aurora who fired the first shot in the revolution. On the back on the plate it reads:”Ministry of State Security”. Most of these plate do not have that text on the back.
Wallplate made in the DDR, 1976. The plate was made in association with the 9th. Party Congress in 1976. The text on the plate reads:”Battlecourse. 9th. Partyday”, and below that:”As a class struggle, keep the military masters ready for battle at all times”.
Wallplate made in the DDR, 1975. The text on the top of the plate reads:”Friendship”, and below that:”3rd. Festival Of Friendship, Halle, 1975″. VEB Chemiekombinat are state owned company’s, in this case chemical company’s. On the plate is the logo of the Soviet Komosol youth movement and the East German FDJ wich was a similair DDR youth movement. Both movements organised all sorts of activities for youth and also political education.
Memorial plate made in the DDR, 1977, Henneberg Porzellan. The text on the plate reads:”Anniversary of the Great Socialist October Revolution 1917-1977″. With Lenin and the Aurora. A famous ship wich fired the first shot in the 1917 revolution. There are some variations of this plate in existence.
Different version with extra textDifferent version with a golden ringVersion with 2 golden rings
Wooden wallplate made in the DDR. In the center there is the logo of the KDA with the text:”25 years of combat groups of the working class 1953-1978″. The Combat Groups of the Working Class (German: Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse, KDA) was a paramilitary organization in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1953 to 1989. The KDA served for the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany composed of party members and politically reliable working people, based on dictatorship of the proletariat principles, to be deployed locally to fight civil unrest or invasion. The KDA was a civil reserve force tied to the GDR’s Ministry of the Interior and the Volkspolizei, reaching 211,000 personnel at its peak in 1980. The KDA was disbanded after the opening of the Berlin Wall in late 1989.
Price: 12.50 euro Size: 14×8.5cm./5.2×3.3inch. Weight: 100gr./3.5oz. Year: 1977 For sale at http://www.propagandaworld.org
Wallpiece made in the DDR. This plate was arwarded to a company in 1977. VEB is “Volkseigener Betrieb” wich means Publicly Owned Enterprise. Many company had the title VEB. The text on the plate reads:” VEB Altentreptow (cityname). Labor banner. On the occasion of the award of our company with the medal Labor Banner”.
Wallpiece made in the DDR, from the “Schutzpolizei” wich means:”Police Force”. On the copper plate there is the police emblem and the TV tower from Berlin.
Price: 30.00 euro Size: 38.5x23cm./15.1x9inch. Weight: 978gr./34.4oz. Year: 1985 For sale at http://www.propagandaworld.org
Wallpiece made in the DDR, 1985. Made of wood with a copper plate. The text on the plate reads:”40 Years Of Secure Peace. 8-5-1985. District Management of the SED Leuna”. The SED (The Socialist Unity Party of Germany) was the governing Marxist–Leninist political party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from the country’s foundation in October 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. The party was established in April 1946. The GDR was a one-party state but other institutional popular front parties were permitted to exist in alliance with the SED, these parties being the Christian Democratic Union, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Farmers’ Party, and the National Democratic Party. The SED made the teaching of Marxism-Leninism and the Russian language compulsory in schools. In the 1980s, the SED rejected the liberalisation policies of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, such as perestroika and glasnost, which would lead to the GDR’s isolation from the restructuring USSR and the party’s downfall in the autumn of 1989. Leuna was an industrial area in the DDR.
Wallpiece made in the DDR, made of copper. The text on the plate reads:”On the occasion of the 10 annual day of the NVA from the Genenral Anton-Saefkow barracks”.
Price: 35.00 euro Size: 29x22cm./11.4×8.6inch. Weight: 750gr./26.4oz. Year: 1983 For sale at http://www.propagandaworld.org
Wallpiece from the DDR from the school of officers. The text on the piece reads:”20 Years Officer School of the ground forces “Ernst Thalmann” section 1963-1983″.
Wallpiece from the DDR, Border Troops. The text on the plate reads:”For remembering the bordertroops of the DDR, Rudolcity”. Beautiful piece with watchtower.
Wallpiece with the image of Ernst Thalmann. The base is wood and Thalmann’s head is made of bronze or copper. Very heavy. The text on the plate reads:”Presented by VEB Shaft Construction Nordhausen”. VEB is “Volkseigener Betrieb” wich means Publicly Owned Enterprise. Many company had the title VEB. In this case it was a construction company. Ernst Thalmann (1886-1944) was a German communist politician. He was leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. A committed Stalinist, Thalmann played a major role in the political instability of the Weimar Republic in its final years, when the KPD explicitly sought the overthrow of the liberal democracy of the republic. Under his leadership the KPD became intimately associated with the government of the Soviet Union and the policies of Joseph Stalin, and from 1928 the party was largely controlled and funded by Stalin’s government. The KPD under Thalmann’s leadership regarded the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as Social fascists. Thalmann viewed the Nazi Party as a lesser evil than the social democrats, and in 1931 his party cooperated with the Nazis in an attempt to bring down the social democrat state government. Thalmann believed that a Nazi dictatorship would fail due to flawed economic policies and lead to a revolutionary situation in which the communist party gained power. Thalmann was also leader of the paramilitary Roter Frontkampferbund, which was banned as extremist by the governing social democrats in 1929, and in 1932 he established Antifaschistische Aktion or Antifa, which concentrated its attacks on the social democrats. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years; Stalin did not seek his release when he entered into the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Germany, and Thalmann’s party rival Walter Ulbricht ignored requests to plead on his behalf. Many of Thalmann’s closest associates who had emigrated to the Soviet Union were executed during the Great Purge of the 1930s. Thalmann was shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler’s personal orders in 1944. In the First World War he was posted to the artillery on the western front, where he stayed till the end of the war, during the course of which he was wounded twice. He said that he fought in the following battles: Battle of Champagne (1915–1916), Battle of the Somme (1916), Second battle of the Aisne, Battle of Soissons, Battle of Cambrai (1917) and Battle of Arras (1917).
Wallpiece with the image of Karl Marx. Very heavy. The base is made of wood and Karl’s head is made of aluminiun. In good condition. Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German thinker and philosopher. He created the workers movement. His most important work is Das Kapital and the Communist Manifest. Bassicly he was the inventor of communism. His work and thoughts are called Marxism. Lenin was a strong believer of Marxism when he was turning Russia into the first communist state after the October Revolution in 1917. Friedrich Engels was his lifetime friend and was supporting Karl financially and publiced many of Karl Marx writings after the death of Karl.
Scene of tin figures with Lenin giving a speech at top of the armoured car during at Finland railway station in St. Petersburg (Leningrad). The text on the back of the frame reads:”Arrival At The Finnish Railway Station”. A 3 dimensional painting with a very high finish. The figures are made of zinc and painted so beautifully, presumably with a 3-hair brush. If you look closely you can see the craftsmanship. On the back, presumably after the departure of the Russians, the stamp was taped, which later fell off. It says here; Cultural-historical Zinnfiguren (Cultural and historical tin figures) It was made for or by the Pos Erich Weinert Enzianschule. Frame is made of oak Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin had been living in exile in Switzerland during the First World War. After the February Revolution he was permitted by the German authorities to travel via sealed train across German territory, take a ferry to Helsinki and thence a train to Petrograd, as Saint Petersburg was then known. Arriving at the city’s Finland Station he was met by a crowd of Bolshevik sympathisers and climbed onto the turret of an armoured car. He rode the car to the Bolshevik headquarters at the Kshesinskaya Palace and delivered a speech in favour of Bolshevism and denouncing the moderate Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionary Party. After the Russian Civil War, Lenin led the communist Soviet Union, but died of a stroke on 21 January 1924.
Price: 15.00 euro Size: 18.8cm./7.4inch. Weight: 500gr./17.6oz.
Wall sign DDR. Made oftThick and heavy copper. The text along the edge reads:”Berlin Capital of the DDR, Downtown”. The iconic transmission tower can be seen in the center. Equipped with an eye on the back to hang it up.
Price: 6.00 euro
Size: 15cm./5.9inch.
Weight: 77gr./3oz.
Wallpiece wooden plate with the Coat of Arms of the (former DDR) city of Finsterwalde with 16.000 inhabitants. Finsterwalde is know for the Soviet Militairy cementary with 230 Soviet soldiers who died at the end of WWII.
Cardboard Sign from the FDGB organisation. On the back there is a hanging device. Such signs were used in parades and gatherings.
The Free German Trade Union Federation (German: Freier Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund or FDGB), was the sole national trade union centre of the DDR which existed from 1946 and 1990. As a mass organisation of the DDR, nominally representing all workers in the country, the FDGB was a constituent member of the National Front. The leaders of the FDGB were also senior members of the ruling Socialist Unity Party.
Officially, membership in the FDGB was voluntary, but unofficially it was hardly possible to develop a career without joining. In 1986, 98% of all workers and employees were organized in the FDGB, which had 9.6 million members. This meant that it was nominally one of the world’s largest trade unions.
Price: 8.00 euro
Size: 36.5×29.5cm./14.3×11.6inch.
Cardboard SED logo. Used for parades, gatherings and meetings. Hanging mechanism still on the back.
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing Marxist–Leninist political party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from the country’s foundation in October 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. The party was established in April 1946.
The GDR was a one-party state but other institutional popular front parties were permitted to exist in alliance with the SED, these parties being the Christian Democratic Union, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Farmers’ Party, and the National Democratic Party. The SED made the teaching of Marxism-Leninism and the Russian language compulsory in schools. In the 1980s, the SED rejected the liberalisation policies of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, such as perestroika and glasnost, which would lead to the GDR’s isolation from the restructuring USSR and the party’s downfall in the autumn of 1989.
Cardboard sign with the FDJ logo. These signs were used in parades or to hang on a wall when a FDJ meeting happend.
The Free German Youth, also known as the FDJ (in German Freie Deutsche Jugend), is a youth movement in Germany. Formerly it was the official youth movement of the DDR and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The color blue was their primary colour.
The organization was meant for young people, both male and female, between the ages of 14 and 25. In 1981 it had 2.3 million members. After being a member of the Thalmann Pioneers, which was for schoolchildren ages 6 to 14, East German youths would usually join the FDJ. Those who did not join lost access to organized holidays, and found it difficult to be admitted to universities, pursue chosen careers etc. The majority of youths who refused to join did so for religious reasons.
While the movement was intended to promote Marxist–Leninist ideology among East Germany’s young people, it also arranged thousands of holidays for young people through its Jugendtourist agency, and ran discos and open air rock concerts.
Big cardboard emblem of the FDJ. A freindship organisation with the Soviet Union.
The Society for German–Soviet Friendship (in German, Gesellschaft für Deutsch-Sowjetische Freundschaft/DSF) was an East German organization set up to encourage closer co-operation between the German Democratic Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
It was founded as the Society for the Studies of Soviet Culture to teach about Russian culture to Germans unfamiliar with it. It quickly turned into a propaganda tool and eventually changed its name.
Due to the immense popularity of Mikhail Gorbachev with ordinary East Germans disillusioned with their own hardline Communist leaders, the DSF’s membership grew massively in the last years of the regime which many interpret as a sign of support of Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika. In 1989 there were 6.3 million members.
Original cardboard piece with the coat of arms of the DDR printed on it. Mayby used in parades or for government buildings or schools, company’s and such.
Price: 55.00 euro
Size box: 29cm./11.4inch.
Size plate: 27.5cm/10.8inch.
Weight: 760gr./26.8oz.
For sale at http://www.propagandaworld.org
Copper DDR plate to commemorate Soviet and DDR friendship. The plate says: “Entered in the honorary book of the central board of the society for German Soviet friendship“