Painted Feuerwehr boards

[Blitzvogel]

An interesting pair of DDR Feuerwehr Major's shoulder boards I picked up recently.

It looks like originally the cords were silver/black wire, but were painted with silver paint to make them wholly silver. You can still see the silver/black cord on the backside and a bit on the sides.

I theorize that this was done due to new rank insignia regulations that came in around 1980 for DDR police forces and fire services. So instead of getting a new pair of boards, the owner simply painted over them to cover the black stripes. Shows how the East Germans tried to save resources and money in every way possible!