← Back to the front page

This is What Life was Like in Communist East Germany

Tim Flight December 18, 2019 25 min

Berlin Wall - Checkpoint Charlie — A man peers over the newly-built Berlin Wall in August 1961. The Guardian

21. Stamp collecting was one of the most popular hobbies

An East German stamp celebrating Ernst Thalman’s 70th birthday, 1956. Wikimedia Commons

Philatelism – that’s stamp collecting to you and me – was all the rage in the GDR. The National Philatelist Association boasted 70,000 members: its replacement today has 60,000 throughout the whole country. Perhaps collecting stamps from around the world provided a rare window into places outside the GDR. The SED assumed everyone else loved stamps, and so printed 3,400 different designs before Germany reunified. These attractive stamps promoted East German achievements and key events, with an eye to stamp collectors outside the GDR. Some had deliberately limited runs to make them widely coveted by philatelists across the globe.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk