Fake or Real

[graywolf]

Would a camera have "Made in German USSR Zone" hand engraved, and not by an expert engraver, on it from the factory? Or would that be someone's idea of trying to make a collectable from a sow's ear, so to speak? I doubt the camera in question was made before 1950.

[konicaman]

Sounds like a fake. Do you have a picture of it?

[sevo]

"German USSR occupied zone" was the proper term - "German Democratic Republic" was not accepted in official Western use until the GDR became a United Nations member.

It seems to have been required by the US customs office deep into the fifties or even sixties - cameras not marked with a declaration of their evil red origin were seized and destroyed. The GDR itself resented that discriminatory treatment and generally did not apply these inscriptions, so they had to be applied by the importer in some shack on the international side of the importing harbour, or en passage in some neutral county - hence the often shoddy engravings or rubber stamps.

[graywolf]

Thank you, sevo.