Wearing Russian and DDR University Graduation Badges

[Gordon Craig]

While I was on holidays in Italy last month, I promised someone I would post a picture showing how officers university graduation for the DDR and the Soviet Union were worn together. I can not find that thread now that I am home so decided to start a new one. Period pictures indicate that officers wore their graduation badges in different ways. Phots show senior officers wearing just one badge and it could be either the DDR university badge or the USSR badge. Photos also show two badges worn together and in this case the Russian badge takes precedence over the German badge and is therefore worn next the the lapel/buttons on the tunic. To the right of that will be the German badge. This seems to have been standard practice in at least most of the WP countries. Since the easiest picture for me to post right now is that of a Hungarian General that is what the picture below shows. Keubke's book seems to indicate that DDR officers only wore one type of Soviet Akademy badge. If you study period photographs you will see that this is not correct. There were a number of different schools that a DDR officer could attend. For instance, a major would attend an academy which taught courses related to his arm of service while a DDR General officer would probably have a attended the Voroshilov Military Akademy. I have never seen a photo of two Soviet akademy badges in wear, at the same time, by a DDR General but to have reached this rank it is almost certain that he would have attended a lower akademy and once he attained the rank of full colonel of generalmajor would have attended the Voroshilov Akademy. I can only assume that the senior of the two akademy badges was worn.
The badges shown in the picture below are those of the Soviet Voroshilov Akademy and the Hungarain Zriny Miklos Akademy, the senior officer akademy of the Hungarian Armed Forces.

Regards,

Gordon

[McCulloh]

Interesting GC.

Do you know if the academies published yearbooks at all (Torsten??). That would be a goldmine of photographic information.

[Gordon Craig]

McCulloh,

I have never seen any reference to Akademy year books. They would be nice to have if they exist.

Regards,

Gordon

[Kartofelpreußer]

McCulloh,

I have never seen any reference to Akademy year books. They would be nice to have if they exist.

Regards,

Gordon

I imagine that if they existed, they would have been turning up by now.

[torstenbel]

Interesting GC.

Do you know if the academies published yearbooks at all (Torsten??). That would be a goldmine of photographic information.

Hi mate, there were no official yearbooks for the officer colleges, but some units put together unofficial graduation newspapers. Cheers, Torsten.

[Drugo]

Hi Gordon!
I hope you enjoyed your stay here in Italy.
THANK YOU so much, this was exactly the type of information I was looking for... Very interesting!!!

Regards,
Filip

P.S. You could not find the old thread because it was on another forum...

[Gordon Craig]

Drugo,

Glad that you found the info and that it was useful. We had a great time in Italy. Not my first time there but it was for my wife and daughter. No time to look for collectables though. Haven't added anything to my Italian collection for some time.

Regards,

Gordon

[Kozlov]

Gordon,

You are correct, a NSWP officer could be seen quite often with Soviet accademy badges, but on the senior officer one (white with silver edges) or the general staff one (white with gold edges).

Very unlikely you'd ever see the junior officer school one (blue with silver edges).

Of course not every NSWP officer got the chance to study in the Motherland!

[Slobo]

Old thread I know, but.....

I recall old period photos of NVA officers with ribbons but without academy badges on service dress jackets, though I cannot imagine any would NOT have attended an academy. Were there some orders of uniform, or ocassions, where an officer would have attended an academy but may not wear the badge on a particular uniform?

[Venturefan260]

Old thread I know, but.....

I recall old period photos of NVA officers with ribbons but without academy badges on service dress jackets, though I cannot imagine any would NOT have attended an academy. Were there some orders of uniform, or ocassions, where an officer would have attended an academy but may not wear the badge on a particular uniform?

Perhaps they were among the first officers of the NVA, who were ex-Wehrmacht officers, and therefore never went to any academy after the war?

[Slobo]

Perhaps they were among the first officers of the NVA, who were ex-Wehrmacht officers, and therefore never went to any academy after the war?

I thought that might have been the case too, but as I recall these were officers in the mid-1970s to late-80s, some apparently company grade officers and still fairly young as Capt.'s and Lt.'s.

I hunted for the photos yesterday and alas cannot locate.