October 5, 20196 yr #1 Gents, This is a standard DDR Army Officer dagger. These chromed daggers were identical to the Navy daggers except those daggers had gilt metal fittings and a yellow grip whereas the Land and Air Forces dagger had white fittings and a white plastic grip. The chrome plated blades were all made in typical German Naval style with a narrow dirk shape having two narrow fullers on both sides. The dagger has a push button latch to secure it inside the metal scabbard. The scabbard is suspended from a typical German style dagger hanger consisting of two aluminum faced straps with white metal fittings. This is an early East German dagger and it has a maker logo and low serial number on the blade and three buckle adjustment holes in the straps. This dagger dates to the 1960s.
October 6, 20196 yr Author #2 When first authorized the dagger was only worn by male Nationale Volks Armee (NVA) Officers. As time went by it was decided that only allowing male officers to wear the dagger was antithetical to socialist values so the rules were changed to allow female officers to wear the dagger as well. Below is a photo of the half dozen top academy honor graduates of the Air Forces Officers of both sexes receiving daggers from a General Officer. The highest scoring graduates of the military academies were presented with daggers upon graduation while other officers had to purchase their own daggers. The second photo shows Army Officers receiving daggers upon graduation.
October 6, 20196 yr #3 If memory serves right, officers could also receive miniature daggers after 25 years of service.
October 7, 20196 yr Author #4 If memory serves right, officers could also receive miniature daggers after 25 years of service. I did not know that. I have never run into a miniature DDR dagger before but now I have something else to keep an eye out for. I have seen the miniature swords stuck in Lucite desk top awards though. Daggers could be worn from the brocade belt, not the leather one, as shown in the Army Officers photograph above. It could also be worn without a belt by clipping the top hanger snap to a D ring found inside the tunic pocket when wearing the "Gala" Social Uniform as seen in the photo of the female Air Force Officers receiving daggers. Here is a photo of a Grenzer Officer Gala Jacke showing the dagger in wear without a belt by threading the hanger through a slit in the left hip pocket attaching the hanger to a D ring that is in turn attached to an internal cloth strap that supports the dagger in wear. Only military (NVA) officers wore the dagger while officers of the Ministry of the Interior (MdI) did not and MdI Gala jackets do not have internal dagger hangers or pocket slits.
October 15, 20196 yr #10 Accompanied by a General's Repraesentationsschnur called "Affenschaukel" (monkey swing).
October 17, 20196 yr Author #11 I don't mind at all. I have a cased example so let me pull it out and I will show mine on a separate thread.
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