DDR ERA: VINTAGE ENAMEL STREET SIGN “MARTIN-ANDERSEN-NEXÖ-STRASSE” – 65 X 25 CM

75,00 €

Product no. 13-1636

1 in stock

1 in stock

Category: Civilian Items 1933–1945 / Non-Market Items
14-day return policy

Smooth reversal

A vintage enamel street sign bearing the name “Martin-Andersen-Nexö-Straße”. Martin Andersen Nexø (1869–1954) was a prominent Danish author, best known for his working-class masterpiece novels “Pelle the Conqueror” (Pelle Erobreren) and “Ditte, Child of Man” (Ditte Menneskebarn). Following his arrest in 1941 due to his communist membership during the occupation of Denmark, he escaped from an internment camp in 1943 and fled to neutral Sweden. He later moved to the Soviet Union and eventually permanently relocated to East Germany in 1951, where he lived as a highly celebrated writer until his death. His literary focus on social realism made his works iconic in East Germany, leading to numerous streets being named in his honor during the post-WWII and DDR era.

  • Format: Landscape format orientation (Querformat).
  • Text: Stenciled white typography over two lines against a cobalt blue enameled background with a thin white border.
  • Period: DDR / Post-WWII era.
  • Dimensions: 65 cm x 25 cm.
  • Mounting: Fabricated with pre-punched corner holes for secure wall mounting.

Enamel street signs are vitreous-enamelled sheet-steel nameplates that German municipalities used to mark streets. They were normally fixed to building walls or posts through pre-punched holes in the corners. A steel blank is coated with glass-based enamel and fired at high temperature, which makes a hard, glossy surface that resists weather. Lettering is applied in a contrasting enamel layer and can sit very slightly raised. Signs from the 1930s and 1940s are often gently curved (bow-fronted) and usually have a border. Flatter plates became common later, and enamel signs stayed in use in East Germany. Streets were renamed after 1945, so a name honouring a figure of the socialist state points to the DDR period, not the Third Reich. Martin Andersen Nexø (1869–1954) was a Danish novelist who spent his last years in Dresden. Several East German towns named streets after him, and Dresden's street was named in 1981, so naming dates vary by town. Collectors tell signs apart by lettering style, profile, enamel build-up, maker or size stamps on the reverse, and the historical background of the street name.

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