DDR Police Namibia UN Patch 1989

[ehrentitle]

I've purchased a couple of unusual patches last year (see photo below) that had the DDR state symbol woven into them. No luck on identifying them until I recently got a copy of Wather's Uniformeffekten Band I covering MdI. It turned out to be number #864 worn on the uniform shirt of DDR civilan police who participated in the UN Mission to monitor elections in Namibia in 1989. I would never have guessed this.

[Thälmannpionier]

Wow,very unique and thanks for showing this interesting Patch,learned something new today
I don't think many of these floating around.
..and these were worn on a normal Police Shirt or a civil Shirt?
Regards
Andreas

[ehrentitle]

Andreas - I believe it was a special uniform shirt, I don't have Band I in front of me at the moment so I can't verify.

[ehrentitle]

Here is a bit more from the internet -

15 Aug 1989 - UNCIVPOL reaches its final strength of 1,500. Policemen of 25 countries take part in the peacekeeping effort. For the first time both Germanies participate with their police forces in this effort. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) tumbles over themselves to offer police contingents. UNTAG thinks the presence of their police, monitoring the South West African Police (SWAPOL), might be an interesting consciousness-raising exercise. Indeed the GDR police are enthusiastically ensuring Namibia’s free and fair elections the very moment on 09.11.1989 that, back home, their own excited citizens are ripping down the "Berlin Wall".

[ehrentitle]

It just gets better, Namibia was a former German Colony, South West Africa (S******252;d-West Afrika) up until WWI. The rebel group in Namibia, the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), was a Marxist group supported by the Soviet Union and East Germany in the 70s and 80s.

[torstenbel]

Andreas - I believe it was a special uniform shirt, I don't have Band I in front of me at the moment so I can't verify.

if there is a pic in the book of the uniform with the patch being worn...could you scan and post it here please? very interesting...and well done on identifying what this patch is... Cheers, Torsten.

[ehrentitle]

I don't have a hard copy, mine is on CD in Adobe Acrobat format which I'm not sure you can post here. There is no photo of the uniform, it's just in the description. Maybe someone else in the forum that has this book can scan the section.

[Garulfo]

I don't have a hard copy, mine is on CD in Adobe Acrobat format which I'm not sure you can post here. There is no photo of the uniform, it's just in the description. Maybe someone else in the forum that has this book can scan the section.

.

[Garulfo]

..

[ehrentitle]

Thanks much! It doesn't mention any special uniform shirt, so I assume it was worn on the upper left arm of the normal VOPO jackshirt with the blue UN patch. Kevin

[Mike G.]

Great stuff guys.

[SCHUPO]

Excellent information!

[torstenbel]

what a scarce patch this is then... I assume that these were actually worn in real life and surely, there must be photos of them being worn in existence somewhere....would be really nice if someone could post any such pics here.... Cheers, Torsten.

[Ralph P]

Kevin - Thanks for a very informative and educational thread so far...

[ehrentitle]

what a scarce patch this is then... I assume that these were actually worn in real life and surely, there must be photos of them being worn in existence somewhere....would be really nice if someone could post any such pics here.... Cheers, Torsten.

It's possible, but it is more likely you would find a photo in Germany than here in the US. I checked the UN site, they had photos of UN police in Namibia, but not East German. It also turns out that the West German federal police wore a special pocket fob in Namibia.

Also note that Angelina Jolie recently had her baby in Namibia. Tourism is bound to go up after that.