Erich Mielke's Awards Auctioned.

[Christophe]

And today I don't think you will find in Germany any Museum seeking to buy them...

Ch.

[Nota Bene]

That's a shame. It's an important part of Germany's history.

Alexei

[Christophe]

I agree... and you don't need to exhibit them immediately. Time will make things go better, but with time passing, these pieces risk to be no more available.

Ch.

[charlet]

You're right Alexei and Christophe. This auction house split 2 huge collections, Wili Stoph first, then Erich Mielke. And those 2 guys were 2 enormous "stars" in former DDR...just behind Erich Honnecker. They 3 personnalized the old DDR.

We can see few problems: those collection were HUGE! Who would be able to pay such a amount at its real value?
Only the State could pay such a sum. And state prevalence on historical goods is not always well seen (but I think in countries were strong state is a custom wouldn't be upset, like France or Germany). Remember when I spoke about Souvorov 1st class belonging to a french marschal...some collectors here were upset such an award was taken at low price by government..

The preemption problem leads us towards another big problem: what would the german people, so its governement, do with the stuff belonging to a ashamed (?) hated character? Are all east germans ready to conserve precautionausly all the stuf of a kind of cold monster like Mielke?
(but I clearly admit the necessity of historical proofs for future generations!).

And finaly, 2 unpolitically correct points:
-the Mielke's familly greed...or they're disturbed with such an heritage??
-and we know that honest and perfectionnist enough collectors willing to protect all complete groups and history are not so numerous...(not here happily!). Collector greed to have one piece and neglecting the less prestigious part of a group...sad.

[Nota Bene]

Charlet,

I agree with you, sadly there are many collectors out there, who are only interested in separate pieces and don't care about the history behind those awards. You wouldn't believe how often I am asked to split certain groups and sell more expensive items separately. Honestly, I never could understand this.

Alexei

[charlet]

well we meet all kinds of philosophy in collecting...Collecting is a kind of greedy activity, isn't it? For me, I collect pieces of History, and as it, I howe some respect to the previous owners of the stuf I find. I really loved this formula from Dave: we're only new keepers (a museum conservator) of the award...

[Art]

I know this reply is somewhat late and off-topic, but I was looking around on the net this evening and found this great story of an East German defector. Mielke is also mentioned a few times. Many great photos..

http://www.myspystory.com/intro.html