rare passport of Transnistria This is an internal passport issued by the Transnistrian Moldavian Republic (or sometimes translated as Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, PMR) – the official name of the country Приднестровская Молдавская Республика (ПМР). rare passport of Transnistria Most people…

“No one intends to build a wall.” This sentence has gone down in history. It was uttered in 1961 by GDR head of state Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973). 56 years later, unique documents from the life of the “wall builder” were…

Not often we find books with solid content on passport history—the following book displaying such documents in crisp and large format. The topic is most fascinating as it brings us back to a time were passports made a difference in…

During research, I found this fantastic story of a GDR citizen on duty traveling to Japan. Her record is outstanding as it’s a first-hand experience when traveling with an East German passport just in between the fall of the wall…

Sweden’s first permanent embassies were established during the 1600s although diplomats with temporary assignments had been common long before this. The first permanent embassy was opened in The Hague under the reign of Gustav II Adolf. The reason behind choosing…

  Approximately 25 years ago, sacks-full of documents were discovered lying around Fort St Elmo, the paper content of which was being used to make paper-mâché for the construction of Carnival floats. Someone who recognized the value of these dumped…

Douglas MacArthur II was a member of the Yale College Class of 1932 and a member of Wolf’s Head Society. His long Foreign Service career included tours as ambassadors to four nations. The nephew and namesake of the famous five-star…

Hermann Günter von Berg (* March 29, 1933, in Mupperg; † March 21, 2019, was a secret diplomat of the GDR from 1962 to 1972 and at the same time an agent of the GDR State Security. GDR Diplomat Secret…

Werner Stiller (* August 24, 1947, in Weßmar; † December 20, 2016, in Budapest) was a German agent and defector. From 1972 to 1979 he was a full-time employee of the Ministry of State Security (MfS) of the GDR, last…