DDR Archives • Passport-collector.com

East German Deprivation of Citizenship Sometimes, the story behind a document turns out to be most unusual and surprising. This story is such an example. The paper is not a […]

History

Stasi and RAF: French Passport of Ulrike Meinhof

10 July, 20195 July, 2019

Stasi RAF Ulrike Meinhof The Red Army Faction (RAF) was a left-wing terrorist group in the Federal Republic of Germany. The State Security (Stasi) first collected information about the terrorists, […]

History

STASI ID of Putin found in East German archives

1 July, 201929 June, 2019

STASI ID of Putin found in East German archives Researchers in Germany have chanced upon a STASI ID card that was issued to Vladimir Putin during his time as a […]

Burma and Congo visa in East German passport from 1956

History

Burma and Congo visa in East German passport 1956

26 June, 201927 June, 2019

Burma and Congo visa in East German passport from 1956 Very happy to find this early East German (GDR) passport. Issued in Berlin 1956 and with several exciting visas and […]

History

ALLIED MILITARY TRAVEL PERMITS FOR GERMANY 1947-1951

11 June, 201913 May, 20202 Comments

ALLIED MILITARY TRAVEL PERMITS FOR GERMANY 1947-1951 Theo J.F. Schalke – adapted from the text of the award-winning single frame exhibit (16 pages) of Joe Ross, Cal – Revenuers Chapter […]

History

Is this the last passport issued by East Germany?

26 April, 201920 April, 2020

last passport East Germany Almost thirty years after the wall came down on 9 November 1989 and twenty-nine years after the German reunification on 3 October 1990, this passport is […]

History

East German couple traveling 1974 from Schoenefeld airport to Cuba

22 April, 201924 April, 20196 Comments

In the planned economy, travel was organized and subsidized by the state. The largest travel providers in the GDR were the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB), the youth organizations […]

History

A German Democratic Republic Passport 1980 With a Twist

26 March, 201924 April, 2019

A German Democratic Republic Passport 1980 With a Twist This thirty-nine years old travel document is at the first look nothing special. It’s in great shape and has 48 pages […]

Portugal Service Vice Consul Warsaw 1975 GDR

History

Passport of the Vice Consul at the Portuguese Embassy in Warsaw

22 March, 201924 April, 2019

Passport of the Vice Consul at the Portuguese Embassy in Warsaw Usually, I would not collect such a document as it is “too young” for my collection focus. But then […]

One Of The Last Visa Issued At The French Embassy In East Berlin 1990

History

Last Visa Of The French Embassy In East Berlin

14 February, 201917 November, 20192 Comments

Last Visa French Embassy East-Berlin This document is an East German passport with one of the last visas of the French Embassy in East-Berlin. This visa was issued in April […]

Book review

DETAILED BOOK REVIEW HERE

Your book is awesome! I love it! (GvK, Belgium)

Your book is extremely good (R.P., USA)

I love your book (R.V., NL)

Tom, actually I wanted to ask you when we can expect “Part II”? I like it very much, especially the stories behind the passports! Great job my friend and keep writing. (R.S., SG)

Your book definitely tells a lot about the history of passports and I applaud you for the effort that you put into writing the book. (Benjamin Durham, CH)

Tom, I received LET PASS OR DIE today. I’m pleased you invested in good printing, as the images are excellent. I’m looking forward to reading it and passing on purchase details to ex-colleagues from the UK Immigration National Document Fraud Unit. (S.A., UK)

I’ve got the book yesterday and it improved my knowledge about passports history immensely. (Jenwit, TH)

When I started to read the book, I understood how less I know about passports when an expert talks about them with passion. At the first glace, passports, which we see every day become even more interesting. (Pavel, BR)

I am reading the first chapters of the book and I love the theme and how it is addressed. Without a doubt it is a very interesting book. (Marcos, AG)

I am not a passport collector but I saw someone reading your book in the train during my business trip and it caught my attention. So I bought it.
(Przemek, PL)

Your book arrived and what a thing of beauty it is.
(Dave, USA)

Your book is fantastic! (Ross, USA)

Sehr interessante Geschichten. Das Buch ist sehr vielfältig und hoch interessant! (Norbert, GER)

The book is fantastic! Really enjoying it. It will definitely be in our reading list for the online collection. (Karin, USA)

Your book is awesome, I can learn a lot about passport collecting! (Robert, USA)

I have begun my delighted perusing of your book. The stories of Lou Gehrig, the Confederate Brigadier General, Thomas, the bogus passport of Freud plus the Titanic survivor, Edith Brown Haussmann – all fascinating! (Susan, USA)

The story of how Israel issued me a passport with a Colander on my head has been published in a book about the history of passports, titled “Let Pass or Die”, by Tom Topol, a passport history expert. May the Flying Spaghetti Monster bless his sauces. (Michael Afanasyev, @DocSpaghetti)