East German Specialized Catalogue "DDR Universalkatalog"

I know for the DDR the Michel Catalogue is typically the go to resource, but there is in fact a specialized catalogue.  The DDR-Universalkatalog was published in Berlin, DDR in 1986, and covers the country from 1945 to 1985.  I use an old version of Michel, so I cannot speak to any new version, but I do find the DDR-Universalkatalog to be more comprehensive and more detailed than Michel.  

This is my first posting with pictures, so forgive me if this is not up to TSF standards.  I will get better.




To my knowledge, this is the one an only version of the catalogue that was ever issued.  It is exclusively in the German language and does not have a German to English key to assist with philatelic terms, unlike Michel.

I thought it might be helpful to post the pictures of the pages here for anyone interested in the DDR, but was looking for a more comprehensive catalogue.  It does have its own numbering system. 



Here is the Index.  Only Chapter 21 is missing which covers Postal Rates from May, 1945 up until July, 1971.  East Germany, did not suffer the inflation of the late 1970's and 1980's that the west experienced (well not in the same way, anyway).




I don't understand the German language.  Nevertheless, being a lifetime collector, much of the catalogue is easy to understand in a foreign language, as I assume many of you have noticed.  That said, there are areas of specialized coverage where I need to use Google Translate pretty extensively.  Sometimes the outcomes are not understandable, but in many cases, I translate enough in order to get the general idea about what is being written about.  Sometimes I test it by putting English words in and translating to German.  Often with a different outcome from the German to English translation.  Here is illustrated some early POSTAGE PAID stamps (Barfreimachungsstempel und Vermerke) from May 1945 up to 1948 that were applied to covers that were not franked with a stamps as it did take a while for the Russian occupiers to get the postal system, and everything else up and running.



Above is a page from a chapter about the obliterators that covered the Hitler-headed stamps, broken down by the various towns.  Not really my area of specialty and now days fraught with forgeries.  Would recommend only collecting these on cover.



Above we see some coverage of early meter stamps.





There are a lot of useful and easy to understand charts.  This one detailing Russian Occupation stamps, these specifically issued for the greater area of Berlin and OPD Potsdam, which was the Province of Brandenburg.



Here is the page with the details on the rarest DDR area stamp.  It was issued on June 23, 1945 and was withdrawn on the same day.  Forgeries abound.  It was believed that having the Russian word "noyma" (Postal Service) on a German stamp would be too heavy a hammer for the Germans to accept as they were being liberated from western corruption and at the same time Holocaust guilt.


 

An example of the chart for the "Five Year Plan" stamps.



The above is covering the CTO Cancellations on the Reprinted Five-year Plan stamps.





Above, various printings of the Walter Ulbricht issue of 1961.





Above is a scan of a typical entry for stamps from the later period.  It also cover the Ersttagbriefumschlag.  The German version of a first day souvenir.






Some well drawn and helpful diagrams of the Official Stamps.  Perhaps Michel has improved since my last catalogue, but there do seem to be many more diagrams and charts for the DDR in this catalogue.  Everything is larger too!!





Also some coverage of Official Postal Cards.

I don't use this catalogue exclusively, but I do find it a helpful resource in conjunction with Michel, and even Scott.

I have seen good deals on this catalogue on Ebay and Abe Books.  
Hopefully some of you who have a nascent interest in the DDR, will find this helpful.

Cheers
Brad