Is this coat original ?

[Hayley]

Hi all

Just found this great site after trying to figure out if this coat my husband has had for years is authentic or not. He purchased it about 25 years ago from a war memorabilia shop.

Has grenztruppen der ddr written across the left wrist which I google translates to 'East German Boarder Troops'. Very heavy. Not sure if it's a size but there is 'K44' printed on the tag.

Any insight would be great! Thanks

[Walkwolf]

Hi Hayley, welcome to the Forum. I can't see why it would
not be original - Though it's likely a surplus item from
the 70's/80's.

I moved your thread to 'Nationale Volksarmee'.........

[AZPhil]

Wiki is your friend

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border...ratic_Republic

So German border patrol


Semper Fi
Phil

[reneblacky]

never seen a black one! looks like it's been dyed

[Watchdog]

never seen a black one! looks like it's been dyed

Yes I agree. There was a "naval" version but the colour was much better than this and of course the main giveaway here is that the cufftitle is completely the wrong colour because whatever was done to the coat was done with the title attached.

This is not at all uncommon in the area of youth fashion such as "Grunge" "Punk" etc

and I often cringe when I see otherwise collectible camouflage items dyed yellow, blue, red, orange etc etc

The coat should a mid - light grey and the cuff title should be a fairly bright green often called "Border guard green" as this was the "Waffenfarbe" or arm of service colour used by the Grenzschutztruppen (Border Protection Troops) also known as the GST.

I think IIRC that the k44 mark is a size with the k standing for "kurz" or short in English.

Here is a quick snap of the grey and green colours we should be seeing here;



I hope this helps

Regards

Mark

[James C]

I have to agree with Rene' and Mark on the dark colouration ,nice grouping too Mark