(R.12.5.20)
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.
Wallpiece DDR
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.
(4.20)
Price: 8.00 euro
Size: 31x25cm./12×9.8inch.
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.
(4.20)
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.
(4.20)
Price: 8.00 euro
Size: 36x27cm./14.1×10.6inch.
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.
(4.20)
Price: 8.00 euro
Size: 30.5×27.5cm./12×10.8inch.
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.