GDR ribbon bars

[Daniel Krause]

Hi,

here I want to show You some East German medal and ribbon bars.
Normally, the wear of decorations was limited in the GDR:
- Evening dress: 4 full size medals
- Parade dress: 8 full size medals
- Service Dress: Ribbon bar with max. 16 decorations
The Defense Minister could allow "a limited circle of people" to wear more. But mostly, if somebody had more, he wore it.

In the early years of the GDR ribbon bars made from normal ribbons were used. Usual were 2 types:
- metal backing with a needle
- sewn on- style
Later the cheap paper style was invented. Printed sheets of paper were put on a metal backing and covered with plastic.

First a "real-ribbon"bar from my collection, belonging to a former General. Metal backing and the ribbons covered with plastic to save the ribbons from dirt. The attachments are glued at the plastic cover:

[Daniel Krause]

2nd:

the later cheap style with paper ribbons:

[Daniel Krause]

the reverse:

The metal backings were available from 1 to 4 ribbons in a row. If more rows were needed, more rows were connected.

[Daniel Krause]

3rd

sewn-on style

This bar belonged to the former Defense Minister Army General Heinz Kessler. (unfortunately not in my collection. I gathered this pic from a friends stock.)

[Daniel Krause]

Same like Soviet Ribbon bars, the East German ones are heavily faked today. Plenty of remaining stocks and the easy way to put it together makes it very simple to construct a fake.

So if You want to buy something, take care!

Medal bars are also very simple constructed.
The medals are attrached with 2 pins on a bar.
Here is a 4 place medal bar belonging to a former full-Colonel:

[Daniel Krause]

and the reverse:

[Mike Dunn]

Damn-- faking DDR ribbon bars now. WHY?? Mike

[Daniel Krause]

Same like with the Soviet stuff. Although plenty of stuff is remaining, it is partly not enough for the market. The simple medals are extremely cheap but high and rare decorations are even 12 years after the breakdown quite expensive, so there is a market for faked ribbon bars.

An example:
a real ribbon bar like my first posted one costs easily 200-250 Euros. Plenty of real parts are still existing, so it is easy to put that together and increas the price instead of selling the REAL single ribbon bars.

Here I post a fake, this was at German ebay some time ago. Order of precedence is wrong, combination is wrong and the row are too much divided. A typical construction made in the early 90ies

[Rick Research]

Ah-- thanks for all the great information Daniel!

[Daniel Krause]

The GDR had a quite unusual Ordr of precedence:

- GDR ORders
- Foreign Orders
- GDR Honorary Titles
- GDR Medals for Merit
- Foreign Medals for Merit
- GDR Commemorative and long service awards
- Foreign Commemorative and other medals.
If somebody is interested, I have the whole OoP somewhere, can post it later.

But You can also find bars out of this OoP. Even the Defense Minister has worn his plenty of awards like he wants.

Here is a Pic of former Defense Minister Army General Heinz Hoffmann (double Hero of the GDR.....You see, they copied from the big brother USSR)

[Eric Gaumann]

Here's an image of another nice DDR bar. I swiped it (the image) from : http://www.stephan.de

[Daniel Krause]

Yes, nice, but see the description:

"für Filmaufnahmen", so it is made for a movie.

A style similar like this was also existing for some years, real ribbons in the metal backings for paper ribbons.

He has some nice examples of sewn-on ribbon bars, but I think, most of them are made after 1989. I had the chance to see plenty of GDR ribbon bars in the military historical museum in Dresden. This bars look a bit different than this ones at stephan....

Best regards

Daniel

[McCulloh]

sehr nett!

Cool...
OK Now I am interested. Can anybody point me to any good DDR reference books (and where I can find them?). Also, do medal groups and paperwork ever surface? The last extensive group I saw on ebay.de, to a primary school teacher,was over a year ago.
Ta,
JeMc

[Ken Jasper]

Wonderful thread, very informative. Thanks to all who posted. It makes me wish I hadn't sold all of my East Geman items,. The highest award I owned was a cased Fatherland Merit Order in bronze with the award document. I sold it to a GI in Germany last year. Jeff, did, or does, OMSA have a monograph on East German medals? The only reference book I have that covers them is Guido Rosignoli's "Ribbons of Orders, Decorations and Medals from Arco.

[Daniel Krause]

Hi Guys,

there are good books and catalogues from Frank Bartel around, but only in German. I know Frank very well, if You need something, let me know.

Jeff,

whole groups, medal bars, ribbon bars and also paper stuff is on the market. Old and high-end items are quite expensive, but the usual and medium-class stuff is still affordable.

Best regards

Daniel