NVA Officers dagger

[Reibert]

...

That's a very nice "non-collection"

Regards

Mark

LOL

But, You are right, Mark, over all the yrs. of collecting Militaria something like this is the result ...

I´m a Militaria collecting pack rat actually ...

Cheers,
R.

[Pauls1970]

Fantastic daggers thanks for sharing guys !
Regards
Paul

[Watchdog]

I´m a Militaria collecting pack rat actually ...

Ich auch, ich bin eine Elster!

Me too, I'm a Magpie

Regards

Mark

[Reibert]

Merry X-mas, mates !

Meanwhile, I received some more NVA Officer´s dagger´s, ( Ehrendolch ) , actually ...
I´m afraid, an increasing evidence of an addictive behavior for sure ...

Among them this, really nice, dagger with matching box and matching Garantieurkunde, (guaranty certificate).
Gerätenummer : 80822

This, particular, dagger was approved in the mid/late 60´s.

[Reibert]

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[attach=config]1553781]

[Reibert]

I received the dagger together with an early brocade:

[Reibert]

Hello,

I received some more NVA daggers.

The Gerätenummer ("serial number", which, strictly speaking, is not one) is in each case:
62099 with Mühlhausen logo, 3-hole hanger, rounded sheath;
77208 with Mühlhausen logo, 1-hole hanger, rounded sheath;
83299 with Mühlhausen logo, 1-hole hanger, rather "edged" scabbard on the side;
52869 with Mühlhausen logo, 3-hole hanger, rather "edged" scabbard on the side.

Each individual Offiziersdolch / Ehrendolch features a "marbled" hilt.
This characteristic points, as a rule, to "early" daggers.

Do the daggers with the characteristic scabbards and corresponding Gerätenummer belong together with the hangers or were the parts arbitrarily put together after the collapse of the GDR and the dissolution of the NVA in the decades that followed ?

Can any of you use the Gerätenummer to assign the production period of the daggers ?

Thanks in advance,
R.

[baerchen]

@reibert you have a new addiction I see ... nice daggers.

[Eschborn]

Hello,
I was interested in the dates of manufacture by doing a lot of readings and comparisons, it is not scientific, but trends appear.
First, we can determine that there are 2 series:
The first with 5 digits and often with the logo, but not always...
The second with 6 digits, always preceded by 0 xxxxx and apparently appeared in the 1980s, mid?
Then the numbers seem to be mostly increasing, a few examples in the list I've compiled:

05/64: 22536
06/73: 34064
07/74: 40725
02/77: 42762...(your dagger 42754 would be fine as you were told from 1977.)

05/86: 073712
03/88: 079411
02/89: 081521
01/90: 083413

These are examples from a list of daggers with a warranty certificate. However, if we take into account the dates on the certificates and most of which do not include the number of the dagger, there are many numbers which do not respect the ascending order and which are inserted between dates which should not match them.
For what ? One of the reasons must be that blank certificates were found and maybe they were placed in boxes arbitrarily after the end of the DDR... but is this the only reason, mystery...
I also heard that there were 2 types of handle, the first are one-piece and the most recent 2 welded parts.
I cannot verify this statement because I only have a few daggers of the first model. Can you check your very nice collection?

[baerchen]

I can share what I know and others can correct me maybe

There are 4 different generations of NVA/GT officer honour daggers

Generation 1 from start to mid 70s Numbers 50000 to 84000
Generation 2 Beginning of 70s to Mid 70s Numbers 30000 to 50000
Generation 3 Mid 70s to Beginning of 80s Numbers 50000 to 060000
Generation 4 Beginning 80s to 1990 Numbers 06000 to 085000

List for Volksmarine, GBK These daggers have a brass look (earlier models gold-treated, newer ones not)

Generation 1 from start to mid 70s Numbers 20000 to 24000
Generation 2 Beginning of 70s to Mid 70s Numbers 25000 to 27000
Generation 3 Mid 70s to Beginning of 80s Numbers 27000 to 28000
Generation 4 Beginning 80s to 1990 Numbers 28000 to 030990

There are exceptions to these lists. It was possible to have a dagger for NVA Landstreitkräfte officers with a number from the Volksmarine range.

Please also note that a possible leading Zero was not marked on the dagger itself, but only on the box. Numbers were in general 5 digits. There are examples with 4 digits but it is unclear what they were issued for , when and to whom.

Like with many things in the DDR armed forces ( like uniforms for example), the older something is, the better the manufacturing and material quality is.

The different generations of daggers show this too (examples that are easily visible):

Generation 1 handle has the so called marbled colour texture. Blade has a blacksmith marking on the tang, maker mark is present, locking mechanism is fixed with a screw. First daggers issued to Volksmarine were gold/treated. The sheath feels round or only slightly edged.
Generation 2 this generation and following ones have no marbled look on the handle anymore. Maker mark is present still
Generation 3 Maker mark is still present, the sheath is visibly edged on the sides, locking mechanism fixed with a rivet, lower quality around the acorns.
Generation 4 Low quality around the guard and acorns, number is only slightly marked on the blade, no maker mark present, locking mechanism with rivet etc

One should always be aware that it was and is easily possibly to disassemble the daggers and mix parts together that actually do not belong together as they are from different periods..

From your list I would assume you have at least 1 dagger from Volksmarine. You will be able to easily distinguish Volksmarine from 'normal' NVA daggers by the colour.

The warranty certificate should be filled out and stamped with a date. The blank ones could indicate that the dagger was assembled after 1990, this happened as remaining stock was assembled and sold to the public. It could also be it was awarded, this is inconclusive actually.

Hope this helps to catalogue your daggers better