I wouldn't mind visiting this store...

[Mõmmi]

Would you?



"What's the story behind this photograph?" you might ask.
Well, this is:

[Ralph P]

Interesting photo that has some history behind it to show what happend to the East German uniforms of those who fled to the west. At times, I thought the uniforms would have been kept by those who fled to the west.

[Mike G.]

Real eye-opener. I also was under the false impression the clothing was kept by the people that fled from the East to the West. I guess since it was military clothing, it was confiscated as part of the debriefing and interrogation that followed. Very interesting and very enlightening.

Thanks for posting this.

[ehrentitle]

Interesting, this is a newspaper wire photo that recently sold on US E-bay. Nice to see that it found a good home.

[Viktor]

Genossen,
What a great Image...... If you did a runner from the Workers Paradise I doubt you would want to have any thing to do with your pasted " Employer" anyway that could point you out.

The Uniform would likely be the only garments you had, swapping it for Money and a Suit would be your first action as a " free man".

All new garments..... what a treasure trove for the likes of us who are Progressively minded and seek only to recover State Property.

[JS1]

A really great photo !! I wonder what happened with the warehouse eventually ....

[Jan Klaassen]

If I would only be allowed to walk around there for half an hour ^^ Or half a minute would be enough too...

[SanderMan]

It looks like the place of dreams

[Kartofelpreußer]

I'm not surprised that the deserters weren't allowed to keep the uniforms, but I would have thought with the Cold War going on that the Western powers wouldn't have retained them for, ahem, "informational purposes".

[KevinH]

That explains where they got the uniforms for this 1961 comedy film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fowuazq-140

Thanks for solving this mystery for me.

[Viktor]

Genossen,
Simular methods are used regarding Genosse iannima's crimes against Dress Regulations....

[uscob]

I don't know who brought it in, but in the late 80's I bought a Dark Collar Tunic with Machine embroidered RD Officers Collars from the US Army Thrift Shop at Sargemünderstrasse next to AFN, oposite of Clay HQ.

[SanderMan]

That explains where they got the uniforms for this 1961 comedy film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fowuazq-140

Thanks for solving this mystery for me.

For a moment I thought that was Peter Cushing as the officer who stopped the phonograph