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FDGB Membership Pin (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund — Free German Trade Union Federation, East Germany)
Object/Artifact
A small rounded-square (squircle) lapel badge, slightly domed, with a gilt raised border. The field is red enamel. Across the upper two-thirds, "FDGB" appears in tall white block capitals with gilt outlines. Below, two clasped right hands (a handshake) are rendered in gilt relief, the cuffs squared off at left and right.
2025.2.25
Obtained in Cuba by Anna Veltfort and brought to New York City with her when she moved back to the US.
The FDGB was East Germany's single, SED-controlled trade-union federation, claiming nearly universal worker membership (about 9.6 million members, ~98% of the workforce, by 1986). The handshake was its standard device, signifying worker solidarity; red-enamel "FDGB + handshake" pins were issued as ordinary membership/lapel badges. As a foreign (GDR) object in a Cuban collection, it most plausibly arrived through the close socialist-internationalist ties between East Germany and Cuba — fraternal union exchanges, solidarity brigades, and delegation gifts between the FDGB and the Cuban CTC — or, more especifically, via a visit that Theodore Veltfort paid to the GDR while living in Cuba (tentative).
Anna Veltfort collection
2025.2
Anna Veltfort
Gift
1960s
G.D.R.
Central Europe
Europe
Maker/Attribution: Unmarked on the visible face; maker not identified (reverse not seen). German Democratic Republic. Date: GDR period, circa 1946–1990.
Inscription
FDGB
1.5 cm
1.2 cm
Single enamel-on-metal badge.
Metal
Stamped metal (brass/tombac) with red and white vitreous enamel and gilt detailing (border, letter outlines, handshake).
Fair
Anna Veltfort
Theodore Ernest Veltfort
owner
Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund
imagery
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
preservation, possibly acquisition
G.D.R.
Central Europe
Europe
possibly acquisition, production