east germany – The Big Hair Diaries

You all know me by now; I love collecting mementos from the Cold War era! Finding vintage items from the USSR isn’t hard at all; there are countless online sellers living in post-Soviet countries who have entire Etsy shops dedicated to such vintage goods. But finding vintage items from East Germany, however, is an entirely different story!

I’ve read many insightful books on East Germany, and yet it still seems like such a mysterious shadow of a former country. It only existed from 1949 to 1990, as did its other half, West Germany.

East Germany was a communist country though and didn’t have free trade (it was a satellite state of the Soviet Union and therefore, behind the Iron Curtain), and finding vintage items online from there is harder, 30+ years after Germany reunited. There are less online sellers who sell things from the former DDR….

…but I found this!!! And boy was I shocked to come across it on Etsy, from a seller in Berlin. It’s a 1970’s membership book of the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organization (it was for East German youth aged 6 to 14).

The photo of Erich Honecker is a real throwback; his portrait was everywhere in the East back then, as he was the leader of the country at the time.

I seriously can’t believe I have this. It’s a real thrill finding historical items from the Iron Curtain countries, and I’m thankful for the Internet, which enables me to further dive into my strange-fascination with fallen communist regimes! 😃

Funny side-note: while Google researching this pioneer organization, I found a vintage poster for it in Google images and the girl reminded me of myself as a kid…we even have the same TEETH, hahaaaa!!!