Show Us Your First DDR Item(s)

[RedBaran11]

Genossen,
All of our collections started somewhere- So I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread to show the first DDR items that came into our possessions.

I know this may sound somehwat similar to the thread "What Got You Intersted in the DDR" but I think, although related, this is a different topic.


I'll start off with mine.
The first DDR items I ever got were a gray web service belt and an EM side cap. At first they were not specifically mine- they were gifts to my immediate family from my uncle when he returned from Germany in the early 90s. I first stumbled upon them in my parents room sometime around when I was second grade. I think that was probobly around 1996 or 1997. No one else in my family seemed to care about them so I have had them ever since.
And, well, we've all seen what has happend since then



Here is the first DDR item I actually purchased myself, what i suppose could be considered the piece that actually launched my collection.
It is an unissued mid-70s to early 80s EM parade uniform.
I bought it at the start of my freshman year of high school, specifically in October of 2003.

[Ralph P]

I think this may have been discussed before on the forum, but there is nothing wrong in starting a new thread since we have new members on the DDR forum...who are eager to show off there collection...especially their first items...

[Frank Soon]

My first was a pair of border guard LT shoulder boards, I was so excited about their resemblance with WWII ones.

It was the boards that got me addicted to the DDR.

[grenzflieger]

My very first item was a vopo officers visor that I bought on the streets of Berlin. A few years after that I started collecting Grenztruppen, Volksmarine and Luftstreitkräfte and my first real item was this offizierschüler tunic of the Grenztruppen (1983). Wrong setup in the picture!

In the meanwhile I've got some more valuable tunics but there's still nothing better than a nice offizierschüler tunic!!

[Knuckles930]

Mind as well join in here, before I'm off.

My first item was this blanc VoPo tunic, which I bought thinking it was a WWII
tunic, because it looked so much alike. Back than I was still in hi-school and was
very much interested in WW2 having a small militaria collection.


Bought this without the shoulderboards.

But the thing I consider my very first item that started the DDR collection would
be this Unterfeldwebel tunic, which I bought from a museum in Best, NL.


I was there for the 4th of May, when in the Netherlands we have a national day
of remembrance of the Death. Since my uncle is a KNIL veteran I've been going
there for quite some years now.
So while there we also visited some museums, and this was what I bought there.
Later I found a depot, from which I would get a lot of my collection. But in the
end this is still one of my favorite.

[81REDSTAR]

These items are the first wave i bought after i have raised my interest into DDR NVA which was triggered by one of my dream and the movie goodbye lenin.The pants are not shown in the pic

Nowadays,i only have the belt and the holster left from the pic with some other newly bought items.

[joseramon]

My first DDR item was a wall piece, my brother bring back, he was one who was with the pick and shovel, toppling the wall when he was studying in Cöln. A couple of years later, I was taking a walking in a flea market in Malaga, a helmet with a strichtarn cover took my atention, I bought a UTV uniform, field boots and the helmet . As the price was a bargain and I was bitten by the hobby, I revisited the shop every week, I think I had bought all the existences, this was the foundation of my collection.



JR

[stoupas]

I bought this KdA jacket at a vintage clothing store based purely on the look. I had no idea what it was, only that it looked pretty bad ass. Since then I've acquired a nice little collection and I'm still searching for more.

[Jeff Mack]

I purchased my first DDR collectible in Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR in 1978. After changing my $ to Marks, I had to spend it. One was not allowed to bring money out, altough I did end up with some pfennig. Anyway, as I recall it all went for a Vita Cola & a Wurst, a button which broke and was trashed, and this Fernsehturm pin..

DDRpin1.jpg

JM

[RedBaran11]

Genossen,
Thank you for the responses

It is truly interesting to see the different things that got us into this sweet sickness.

[Ralph P]

Hello all - Here is a link of my very first MfS grouping...

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=315906

[oldflagswanted]

My first DDR item, humm ???

Genossen,
All of our collections started somewhere- So I thought it might be a good idea
to start a thread to show the first DDR items that came into our possessions...

Hello RB11:
Had to think hard on that one, seem to recall it was a DDR fahnenspitze that I paid
around $200 USD for, that now sell for more like $50. Thus nothing special
these days, but at least it has DDR on it.
.................. ....................

[Dallasfan]

Hello

My first DDR item was a service belt that I bought at the
Antwerp militaria show in 1990 , at that time I was still collecting WWII
german paratrooper ( Fallshirmjäger ) material .
I wear this belt ever since the day I bought it .
[IMG][/IMG]

15 years after that show in Antwerp , I was beginning to collect DDR material
( june 2005 ) the first thing I bought was a street sign from the
Karl-Marx-Strasse


Regards , Johan

[Viktor]

Genosse,
This Command is on Record.

A Strichtarn Assault Pack and Yoke....( no Great Coat straps).
at a Leatherhead Street Market ( UKSSR) in late 1989......


I if knew then how this nonsense blighted my life, I would do it all over again twice over Genossen...

It is a very Sweet Sickness.

[Ingsoc75]

Ahhhh!

It was the fall of 1990 and I just started high school. A friend of mine who could drive, drove me and some other friends to the local army-navy surplus store Uncle Sams. When we walked in, instead of seeing the usual assortment of modern US BDU and other stuff it was ALL DDR CLOTHING! Seems like Sturm had found my neck of the woods.

Anyways, I bought a DDR Ushanka for a couple of bucks and silly me, who didn't want to mess up my hair at the time, didn't try it on and later found the size to be small for my head.