Nazi Lyra & Dresden Museum Visit May 2008

[Dallasfan]

Hello

A few weeks ago Gordon , Mario and me went to the former DDR , visiting a small museum near Berlin .
The owner of that museum was the organiser of the Ehren paraden ( a former oberst ) he let me sit in the famous parade car , the Tschaika that was used by general Kessler .
I bought from him a very nice nazi lyra that is dated 1938 .
After the war it was used by the DDR , they removed the nazi eagle and put an aluminum strip on it where you can put the lyra top on , I placed the lyra top from the DTSB on the lyra and it looks fantastic .
When we were in Leipzig I discovered an original wall painting from DDR times , showing music corps players , including one with the DTSB lyra .


Regards , Johan

The lyra


The makers name and date


The aluminum strip


The DTSB lyra top ( on the right my RAD tambour major baton from 1939 )


The eagle head


The wall painting in Leipzig ( Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse )


The second wall painting ( Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse )


The parade car from general Kessler


Me in the car


Another one



The uniform from general-oberst Horst Stechbarth

[Guardian 5]

Johan - Very interesting thread.

Thanks for taking the time to share your information and pictures.

TJ

[Mike G.]

Johan,

Your band pieces are continuing to grow and grow. Soon you will have an entire orchestra.

It sounds like you and your fellow collegues had a very interesting trip. Thank you for posting pictures of it.

Getting an opportunity to sit in a historic automobile such as the one used by Gen. KESSLER in parades is awesome. I cannot imagine what it must have felt like to have been able to sit behind the wheel of this automobile. Very neat.

Cheers,

[Dallasfan]

Hi Michael

Indeed it was a fantastic trip , its a pitty that there was so little
responce to join us
The Armee museum in Dresden was fantastic , I made hundreds of photos there ! if there is interest I can place some on the forum.
The fleamarket in Leipzig was a big disapointment for me , I only found a FDJ trumpet banner there .
About the parade car , it was for me very emotional to sit in that car behind the wheel , I 've been watching the dvd from the ehren parade from '89 more than 100 times .
I think its the most beautifull car there is , I'm going to buy such a car in the future ( a closed one ) .
About my musical instruments , I have several things but now I'm looking for an DDR tambour major baton .


Regards , Johan

A few more photos from the Stechbarth uniform , the oberst is a personal friend of Stechbarth .

[Dallasfan]

A few nice schields outside of the small museum.













Regards , Johan

[Gordon Craig]

I'd like to echo Johan's comments that we had a great time. He and Mario were great travelling partners. For part of the weekend we were joined by Conrad from Berlin and we definitely benefitted from his presence. I envied Johan the purchase of his Lyra but at least I was there when he bought it!
Johan,
It looks great with the DTSM insignia on the top. I am going to add a closer view of the painting with the DTSB insinia in it. Too bad we can not protect/restore the painting some how. It will be too faint to see in a few years or possibly even painted over.

Regards,

Gordon

[Dallasfan]

In the Armee museum in Dresden














The uniform from Willi Stoph



Regards , Johan

[tony james]

hi johan.
i really envy you.do you have any information as to how many blucher orders were made in 1968 and 1984? does the museum have any blank urkunde's or any information as to if they ever printed any ? and could you post any more pictures of black collar generals uiniform's?
thanks
tony

[Gordon Craig]

Tony,

When Johan and I took pictures of the cabinet I don't remember seeing any Urkunde in it. Michael Gallagher has posted numbers on these medals in the past but I don't remember them at the moment. Perhaps he will do so again.

Regards,

Gordon

[tony james]

hi gordon
one would think of all the urkundes printed up for lesser awards in the history of the DDR (both military and civillian) that they would have had one made up for a award as important as this one.on the number of awards produced i remember a article in the segmc that was taken from a german magazine that stated that the number of blucther orders were 30 in gold 170 in silver and 180 in bronze and 2500 of gold ,silver,bronze medals.i was interested in knowing if this was the total combined numbers from 1968/84 production runs.by the way hans worbes has still has some orders and medals for sale on his site.

tony

[Gordon Craig]

Tony,

I don't know if the SEGMC numbers were the total for both years production and I think those were the numbers Michael reported. I've been looking at the ones Hans hasd had on his site for some time but just can not part with that much money. He had a complete set some years ago but by the time I had made up my mind to buy them they were gone. As for documents, I have never heard or seen any reference to them being printed. Logic would dictate that if you go to all of the trouble to produce this many medals that you would at least produce some award documents. Perhaps some day some will turn up.

Regards,

Gordon

[Kartofelpreußer]

On the other hand, since the DDR apparently had no impending plans to issue these medals, and paper documents are much easier to whip up in a hurry than a medal, even the often nonsensical planners of the DDR might have had the common sense to hold off on these until they were actually needed.

[Mike G.]

I agree.

I suspect somewhere there must have been a "Muster" or proposed example of what the Orders and lesser Medals Certificates would have looked like, but these may have been inadvertantly destroyed. I think though that the prenting of actual Certificates most likely were pending the occurrence of an actual campaign wherein the Orders and Medals would have been issued. My thinking on this is that on the Certificate, they probably would have included some reference to the specific campaign for which these Orders and Medals would then have been awarded.

[Mike G.]

Johan,

If you get a chance and time permits, it woud be very welcomed of you to start a separate thread about your visit to the Dresden Museum, and pictures would be very much appreciated.

[Soviet]

That is a very interesting post. Thanks for sharing your trip with the public Johan!