When my grandmother passed away in 1981, my mother and aunt split up a number of the items they liked. My mother got a number of Hummell figurines. The Boot Boy is the only one that survived being damaged over the years. This one in particular is unique in the set that I inherited when my parents’ estate was divided up (my mother and father bought a number of pieces on the trips to Europe). In addition to the Hummell logo and the engraved number, this one is stamped W. Germany — It’s original purchase was made in the post World War 2 era when Germany had been divided between the United States, Great Britain, France (grouped as West Germany or the Federal Republic of Germany) and the USSR (East Germany or the German Democratic Republic). The two were reunified in 1990.

I never understood why East Germany’s official name was the German Democratic Republic because it was a far from Democracy as any totalitarian state at the time.