
|
Price: $49.99
We are currently offering this nostalgic set of East German mementos for the people who don’t want to forget that a wall once divided the two Germany’s, two states with radically different experiences of the Cold War. You will find included in this set one authentic GDR Fensterfahne, or window-flag, one larger piece of the Berlin Wall with the proper certificate of authenticity, and a six page, six-coin folio containing currency from the old German Democratic Republic, a series of overviews of the time of the Wall’s existence and collapse, as well as a smaller piece of the Wall in its own jewel case. The authentic GDR Fensterfahne, or window-flag, was a typical East German patriotic accessory, whether a citizen chose to hang it from their window or whether the choice was made for them. The piece of the Berlin Wall is authentic and still has the graffiti on its face, the graffiti that no amount of East or West policing was ever able to prevent being tagged on that vanished Cold War monolith. The handsome six page commemorative folio dedicated to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 contains 6 German Democratic Republic (GDR) issued coins dating to the years before the wall fell and a 3/4" long piece of the infamous wall with the graffiti that once taunted the East German Government's physical assertion that the two Germany's, East and West, would forever remain divided and their people separated. The piece of the Berlin Wall is housed in a window case on the first leaf of the folio, the window allowing a view of the walled off Brandenburg Gate depicted on the 3rd page with its 6 denominations of East German coinage, a 1 pfennig coin, 5 pfennig coin, 10 pfennig coin, 20 pfennig coin, 50 pfennig coin, and a 1 Mark coin. The fact that the former GDR refused to allow their currency to cross the border or the wall makes the combination of coinage and the wall artifact a fitting testimonial to the failure of the political arrogance that tried for so long to insulate their repressive state from the basic yearnings of people for freedom. The second page of the folio includes a long view of the graffiti covered wall. The fourth page allows a view of the reverse sides of the six coin set and a stunning image of the eastern perspective of Brandenburg Gate, fully renovated, and an unimpeded view of Unter den Linden, the broad avenue that the Gate straddles, stretching into the west. The 5th page of the folio depicts Checkpoint Charlie from the cold war era. The back page of the folio shows a section of the wall from the eastern perspective with the chiseled hole that allowed East and West Berliners to freely cross in 1989 for the first time since the wall's construction in 1961.
|