SEGMC and NVANE

[willie777]

Two questions:
1. What ever became of the SEGMC (Society of East German Militaria Collectors)?
2. There appears to be a reenacting DDR group caled Nationalen Volksarmee of New England. However, its website appears to not give much info on it and most of it is plagiarized from Gowen's site. Anybody know anything about this group? I doubt the group is defunct, since the site was updated little over 3 months ago.

[Mike G.]

The founder of SEGMEC lost interest in DDR related topics and changed over to Wehrmacht. He still retains the rights to SEGMEC and therefore at this time, it cannot be brought back to life. I don't know if he would be willing to sell the rights or if willing, what the asking price would be.

Michael

[Gordon Craig]

The last newsletter mailed to all of the SEGMC members when the announcement was made that the author was going to suspend the operation of the SEGMC said that he wanted to devote his time to writing a book on the NVA. I didn't know he had turned to "The Dark Side"! Seems to be just the opposite of what most of us DDR collectors did.

Regards,

Gordon

[Mike G.]

Gordan,

I have more information on this but it will have to wait until my return home from Berlin.

Awhile back I actually communicated with the former founder (his name escapes me at the moment) regarding whether or not he had any more copies of the SEGMC magazines. He in fact did, just barely and I was able to complete the set I had with all but one publication. In communicating with him, I was given information to another web link where pictures of the former SEGMC founder could be viewed with him actually participating in re-enactment scenarios that were wehrmacht specific.

I think he already had an interest and collection in this particular field, and got bored with the DDR stuff and returned to his former interest.

Michael

[willie777]

Gordan,

I have more information on this but it will have to wait until my return home from Berlin.

Awhile back I actually communicated with the former founder (his name escapes me at the moment) regarding whether or not he had any more copies of the SEGMC magazines. He in fact did, just barely and I was able to complete the set I had with all but one publication. In communicating with him, I was given information to another web link where pictures of the former SEGMC founder could be viewed with him actually participating in re-enactment scenarios that were wehrmacht specific.

I think he already had an interest and collection in this particular field, and got bored with the DDR stuff and returned to his former interest.

Michael

How many magazines are there? I have issues 9 through 24 and 27-28. I was never a member but would also like to complete my set. Is his name Lee Stewart?

[ehrentitle]

Yes the editor was Lee Stewart and later he had a co-editor John Romelton. The "magazine" was called Die Nationale Volksarmee; The Journal for the NVA Hobbyist and Historian. To my knowledge there were 28 Issues published for 7 years from the Fall 1993 and ending the Summer 2000. The first 8 issues were printed on 8 1/2" X 14" paper and stapled together. Starting with issue #9 they were put together in an 8 1/2" X 11" magazine style.

In issue #28 Lee cited competing work priorities and family that made putting the publication out very stressful. I believe part of the demise of Die Nationale Volksarmee near the end were lack of article contributions by members as the issues kept getting slimmer and slimmer and most of the articles were written by the editors. Part of the problem is that only a few members had a good enough command of German to translate original material.

In the pre and early internet years this publication was invaluable in keeping the East German collecting community informed. These publications still are invaluable references, especially the issues that concentrate on particular branches of the NVA, But as Michael has cautioned here in the past there are some mistakes in some of the material.

I was a member for only about two years (97-98) and Michael was kind enough to photocopy some of the missing issues. Like Michael I e-mailed Lee a few years back and purchased several missing issues directly from him. I have all but the elusive Issue #10, thanks to Michael, Lee and a Canadian collector who's name I at the moment escapes me.

[DaveM]

Canadian collector

Canadian collector....
Quite possibly the ever gracious Gordon Graig...

these old SEGMC issues are handy

[Guardian 5]

Genossen - The official patch and "Bester Badge" of the SEGMC.

It was a great organization; many fond memories.

TJ

[Gordon Craig]

TJ,

Nice to see the badge again. I'm sorry that I never bought one.

Regards,

Gordon

[willie777]

So as of now, there isn't any "official" DDR collector society? (Other than forums)

[Gordon Craig]

Willie777,
As far as I know there are just the forums now. They are much better than the SEGMC was because you can exchange information, learn new things etc. on a daily basis. With SEGMC you had to wait for a monthly newsletter. Nothing was in colour, except for some inserts in a couple of newsletter and that was a major short coming.
The annual get togethers that we have held the last three years prove that the Forums draw collectors closer together than the previous groups did.

Regards,

Gordon

[usmedalman]

I too was a SEGMC member from the beginning until 1998 and now that I have fallen off the wagon and am addicted again, I wish they were still around. This forum is good, but finding information is difficult because it isn't organized by topic the way the TR portion is. I would like to see a DDR only website where articles and pictures could be posted as well as a for sale and trade section.

[Mike G.]

You can find most subjects of interest on this forum simply by typing in key words and using the search engine. Its not perfect but it does a pretty decent job most of the time of pulling up the related threads, after which one can simply scroll through them gleening the sought after information.

I would recommend opening folders and naming them for specific topics of interest, and then when time permits, use the search engine on the forum to find the related topics of interest and copy the information into the folders. Then, next time you need the information for what ever reason, it will be at your finger tips.

[Klaus1989]

This thread seems to have become just about SEGMC but I too have wondered about NVANE. They look sound like large NVA reenactment group but have no photos of themselves on their website.

regards
Klaus