DDR Archives • Passport-collector.com

This passport is possibly the very last one issued by the GDR (DDR)

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 now on my desk […]

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 […]

History

East German Passport issued in 1989 with visa from 1995

6 August, 201817 June, 20193 Comments

East German Passport issued in 1989 with visa from 1995 The German Democratic Republic (GDR) is already history for 28 years but one still can find most interesting documents from […]

History

The Passport of East German Minister for Ore Mining

11 June, 2018

The Passport of East German Minister for Ore Mining I still collect East German (GDR) passports whenever I find them interesting and affordable but that you find passports of former […]

A East German Passport - Wolf Biermann - Singer-Songwriter-Dissident

History

An East German Passport – Wolf Biermann – Singer-Songwriter-Dissident

21 May, 201829 February, 2020

An East German Passport – Wolf Biermann – Singer-Songwriter-Dissident Karl Wolf Biermann (born 15 November 1936) is a German singer-songwriter and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for […]

History

One of the very last East German passports issued in July 1990

23 February, 20184 March, 2018

One of the very last East German passports issued in July 1990 The passport history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) is a brief one, but most interesting. While the […]

History

For the freedom one may even fake passports – escaping East Germany

6 February, 20184 March, 2018

For the freedom one may even fake passports – escaping East Germany By today, February 6, 2018 The Berlin Wall stood for 10,361 days, and 10,361 days ago today it fell. […]

History

Ministry of State Security (MfS) Memorial Museum

30 October, 201719 January, 2020

Special

East German Diplomatic Passport Of Schalck-Golodkowski

18 October, 20175 March, 20183 Comments

East German Diplomatic Passport Of Schalck-Golodkowski. Parts of the estate of the former GDR currency trader Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski’s estate were auctioned off in Hamburg for around EUR 70,000. We are […]

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)