Shag Pipes?

Bruyère is French for briar, I imagine that's what's stamped. DDR is an acronym for East Germany, I don't recall reading of any pipes being manufactured there before reunification but I suppose there must have been some.

Having visited the old DDR I can confirm they did make pipes. Well I suppose the best way to describe the East German pipes would be Brylon on steroids as the briar ones were pretty grim and the bowls were small as pipe tobacco was not overly plentiful. People tended to use Russian hand rolling tobacco in their pipes and it was called Mahorka and smelled like cr*p. In those days people would approach you to try and buy your pipe tobacco off you. My feeling was to give the stuff to them as there was nothing you could buy with the Ost Marks they were offering to pay you with! I would always bring two three 1 oz Green cubes of Condor with me in my over coat pocket to give away.

Interesting history on these little nine dollar briars. Condor, good of you to provide some 'baccy

to the East Germans. Sounds like a grim and austere life for them.

That's a great story Condor.

East Germany was the 'economic wonder' of the old Soviet block. It was very dull and grey. If you were one of the 'party members' then you lived very well and had access to western consumer durables whilst the rest of the rubes had to make do with shoddy goods and poor quality food. You have to remember there was a waiting list for the famous East German car known as a 'Trabbie' which had a 2 stroke engine, the oil and petrol was mixed by rocking the car back and forth and the body was made from a type of plasticised cardboard. The trains and rolling stock of the old DRB were clapped out with carriages with wooden seats that were not dissimilar to ones seen in the movie 'The Great Escape' and the roads were sort of OK if they had not recently been trashed by a Warsaw Pact tank passing along. I remember crossing over to the west at the old Check Point Charlie and telling the East German boarder guard that I had Ost Marks with me and instead of handing them in I would be returning to the east the following Thursday. The poor fellow looked at me in disbelief and asked me 'Why?' so it was plainly apparent to even me that the agents of oppression even acknowledged that their system just didnt work.