NVA Veteran Men's T-Shirt with GDR Coat of Arms

Veteran shirt with the GDR coat of arms

At the centre sits a red disc bearing the state emblem of the GDR: hammer and compasses ringed by golden ears of corn. Around the edge, yellow capitals read DIESER MANN IST EIN VETERAN STOLZ GEDIENT ZU HABEN. A golden laurel wreath closes the design on the outside. At the front, a skull pushes into the picture wearing a grey-green peaked cap with cord and cockade.

What the German inscription means

The circling line translates roughly as: this man is a veteran, proud to have served. NVA stands for the Nationale Volksarmee, the army of East Germany, which was wound up in 1990.

For the men who served

The NVA is gone; its veterans are not. The shirt is for men who did their service in the east and see no reason to hide it, and for the family and friends who want to please them. Anyone fond of Ostalgie will find further designs in the menu under GDR and East Germany.

Shirt data

• launder at 30 degrees
• ring-spun cotton yarn, made up as jersey
• 185 g/m², fuller than the thin shirts kept for August
• tubular construction, with nothing joined at the flanks
• short sleeves, rib on the crew neck, tape over the shoulder seam

The scale ends at 5XL for black, navy and white, and at 3XL for brown and yellow.