Stahlhelm (plural, Stahlhelme) is German for "steel helmet". The Imperial German Army began to replace the traditional boiled-leather Pickelhaube (spiked combat helmet) with the Stahlhelm during World War I in 1916. The term Stahlhelm refers both to a generic steel helmet, and more specifically to the distinctive (and symbolic) German design.
The Stahlhelm, with its distinctive "coal scuttle" shape, was an instantly recognizable icon for military imagery and became a common element of military propaganda on both sides, just like the Pickelhaube before it.
Its name was also used by the Stahlhelm, a paramilitary nationalist organization established at the end of 1918.
Background
At the beginning of World War I, none of the combatants were issued with any form of protection for the head other than cloth and leather caps, designed at most to protect against saber cuts and the like. When
trench warfare began, the number of casualties on all sides suffering from severe head wounds (more often caused by
shrapnel than by gunfire) increased dramatically. The
French were the first to see a need for more protection—in late 1915 they began to issue
Adrian helmets to their troops. The
British and
Commonwealth troops followed with the
Brodie helmet, which was also later worn by US forces, and the Germans with the Stahlhelm.
Origin
The design of the Stahlhelm was carried out by Dr. Friedrich Schwerd of the Technical Institute of
Hanover. In early 1915, Schwerd had carried out a study of head wounds suffered during trench warfare and submitted a recommendation for steel helmets, shortly after which he was ordered to Berlin. Schwerd then undertook the task of designing and producing a suitable helmet broadly based on the
15th century
sallet, which provided good protection for the head and neck..
After lengthy development work, which included testing a selection of German and Allied headgear, the first Stahlhelms were tested in November 1915 at the Kummersdorf Proving Ground and then field tested by the 1st Assault Battalion. Thirty thousand examples were ordered, but it was not approved for general issue until New Year 1916, hence it is most usually referred to as the "Model 1916". In February 1916 it was distributed to troops at Verdun, following which the incidence of serious head injuries fell dramatically.
In contrast to the Hadfield steel used in the British Brodie helmet, the Germans used a harder martensitic silicon/nickel steel. As a result, and also due to the helmet's form, the Stahlhelm had to be formed in heated dies at a greater unit cost than the British helmet, which could be formed in one piece.
Models
The different Stahlhelm designs are named for their year of introduction. For example, the
Modell 1942 which was introduced in 1942 is commonly known as
M1942 or simply
M42. Here, they are referred to by their M19
XX names.
M1916 and M1917
pattern applied in the field.]]
The Stahlhelm was introduced into regular service during the
Verdun campaign in early 1916.
The M1916 design had side-mounted horn-like ventilator lugs which were intended to be support for an additional steel brow plate or Stirnpanzer, which only ever saw limited use by snipers and trench raiding parties, as it was too heavy for general use.
The shell came in different sizes, from 60 to 68, with some size 70s reported. The suspension, or liner, consisted of a headband with three segmented leather pouches, each holding padding materials, and leather or fabric cords could be adjusted to provide a comfortable fit. The one-piece leather chin strap was attached to the shell by M1891 chinstrap lugs, the same kind used in the Pickelhaube helmet.
The M1916 design provided excellent protection: Reserve Lieutenant Walter Schulze of 8th Company Reserve Infantry Regiment 76 described his combat introduction to the helmet on the Somme, 29 July 1916:
"... suddenly, with a great clanging thud, I was hit on the forehead and knocked flying onto the floor of the trench... a shrapnel bullet had hit my helmet with great violence, without piercing it, but sufficiently hard to dent it. If I had, as had been usual up until a few days previously, been wearing a cap, then the Regiment would have had one more man killed."
But the helmet was not without its flaws. The ventilator horns often let cold air in during the winter, requiring the wearer to block the vents with mud or fabric. The large, flared skirt tended to make it difficult for soldiers to hear, distorting surrounding sounds and creating an echo when the wearer spoke.
Originally painted Feldgrau (field grey), the Stahlhelm was often camouflaged by troops in the field using mud, foliage, cloth covers, and paint. Official issue cloth covers in white and grey appeared in late 1916 and early 1917. Camouflage paint was not formally introduced until July 1918, when German Army Order II, No 91 366, signed by General Erich Ludendorff on 7 July 1918, outlined official standards for helmet camouflage. The order stipulated that helmets should be painted in several colors, separated by a finger-wide black line. The colors should be relevant to the season, such as using green, brown and ochre in summer., and it was claimed that it was to allow Turkish soldiers to touch their foreheads to the ground during prayer, without removing their helmets. However, this story has been disputed. The Turks rejected any more than the 5,400 delivered and an unknown number from the overrun were issued to German armed forces and were used by German Freikorps units after the war.
M1933
In 1932 the Army High Command ordered the testing of a new prototype helmet intended to replace the older models. It was made entirely from a composite plastic material called "
Vulkanfiber". The Model 1933 Vulkanfiber helmet kept the basic form of previous helmets but was much lighter. It was put into limited production following favourable field tests in early 1933 and small numbers were issued to
Reichswehr infantry, artillery and communications units. It was removed from service following the introduction of the M1935 helmet and most of the remaining stock were reissued to civil organizations such as fire brigades and police forces. Some examples were also retained for parade use by senior officers, who were not generally issued with the Stahlhelm.
M1935
Central officer Training Division wearing the M1935.]]
In 1934 tests began on an improved Stahlhelm, whose design was a development of the World War I models. The Eisenhüttenwerke company of
Thale carried out prototype design and testing, with Dr. Friedrich Schwerd once again taking a hand.
The new helmet was pressed from sheets of molybdenum steel in several stages. The size of the flared visor and skirt was reduced, and the large projecting lugs for the obsolete armour shield were eliminated. The ventilator holes were retained, but were set in smaller hollow rivets mounted to the helmet's shell. The edges of the shell were rolled over, creating a smooth edge along the helmet. Finally, a completely new leather suspension, or liner, was incorporated that greatly improved the helmet's safety, adjustability, and comfort for each wearer. These improvements made the new M1935 helmet lighter, more compact, and more comfortable to wear than the previous designs.
The Army's Supreme Command officially accepted the new helmet on June 25 1935 and it was intended to replace all other helmets in service. It came in three basic versions, Mod 1 or I/56, Mod 2 or I/57 and Mod 3 or I/71, and was widely sold (or given) to Third World armies.
Decals & insignia
helmet decals of the army.]]
After Stahlhelm shells were painted, the colours of which varied by organization, small identification or
insignia decals usually were affixed to one or both sides of the helmet. Almost every military, naval, and political organization had its own distinctive insignia, which was applied as decals to the sides of helmets.
The right side of early M35 helmets bore the tricolored
shield of black, white, and red stripes, the traditional national colors of
Imperial Germany (cf. the black, red, and gold of today's
Germany, harking back to the 1848 Revolt). The left side of the shell often received decal insignia denoting the branch of the armed forces, or
Wehrmacht, or an organization within the
Nazi Party.
The Wehrmacht consisted of the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy), and the Luftwaffe (air force). While not technically part of the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS ("Armed-SS") tactically operated as such and was considered part of Germany's armed forces during the war. The same was true of some Sturmabteilung (SA) units, along with other subsidiary organizations, which functioned as part of the armed forces particularly towards the end of the war. Wehrmacht branches typically displayed distinctive emblems in the form of decals on their helmets. The Heer, or army, displayed a black shield bearing the frontal view of a silver-colored German eagle holding a swastika in its talons (known as the Reichsadler), while the navy used the same eagle emblem in gold. Luftwaffe decals displayed the side view of an eagle in flight, also holding a swastika. The SS was both a paramilitary and a political organization, and its black runic initials on a silver-colored shield (normally applied to the right side of the shell) looked like twin lightning bolts. Other military, political, and civil or defense organizations used similar decal insignia to distinguish their helmets. Such visible identification devices were gradually abandoned as the war progressed, however, so that by war's end most Wehrmacht helmet insignia had been eliminated to reduce the wearer's visibility in combat.
Stahlhelm use in other countries
crew of the
Polish 10th Brigade]]
officer wearing a
stahlhelm in 1939]]
Germany exported versions of the M1935 helmet to various countries. Versions of the M1935 Stahlhelm were sent to Nationalist
China in 1935 and 1936.
Spain also received shipments of the helmet. During the inter-war years several military missions were sent to South America under the command of Hans Kundt and the Bolivian army used to wear the helmet up until recently. The exported M1935 helmets were similar to the German issue, except for a different liner. Hungary produced its own 35M helmet, it was a modified German M1935 helmet. Hungary used a variation of the M1942 helmet, that had a metal belt loop on the back of the shell. Some countries manufactured their own helmets using the M1935 design, and this basic design was in use in various nations as late as the 1970s.
After the end of World War I Poland seized large quantities of M1918 helmets. Most of those were later sold to various countries, including Spain. However, at the end of the 1930s it was discovered that the standard Polish wz. 31 helmet was unsuitable for tank troops and motorized units; while offering decent protection, it was too large and heavy. As a stop-gap measure before a new helmet was developed, the General Staff decided to issue M1918 helmets to the 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade, which used them during the Polish Defensive War.
During the inter-war years, the Irish Defence Forces equipped its troops with a copy of the M1918 helmet manufactured by Vickers. At the outbreak of World War Two, Ireland remained neutral, but in 1940 replaced it with the German-style uniforms with British-style helmets.
Other countries that used Stahlhelm-type helmets included
:
Firefighters Corps of
Paraná State
: M1935
Republic of China Army 1935–1950s?
Switzerland used a helmet that was roughly similar to the M1916, but had a shallower, more rounded crown and skirt.
Postwar
in March 2009]]
After the Second World War, West Germany abandoned the distinctive Stahlhelm, which had become a symbol of German military aggression, for a variant of the more "harmless-looking" United States Army "GI pot" helmet. The Bundesgrenzschutz border guards and some West German police units kept the Stahlhelm in their inventories, though it was seldom worn (although police units can be seen wearing them during footage of the Black September hostage crisis in 1972), and the Fallschirmjäger variant was used for some time by the GSG 9. German firefighters today still use Stahlhelm-shaped helmets in a fluorescent color. After the U.S. Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops helmet had politically rehabilitated the German WWII helmet shape, the German Army adopted a Kevlar helmet (Gefechtshelm) in the 1990s, which sported the distinct form once more.
East Germany's M-56 helmet was modelled on an unused 1942 German design with a more conical shape.
The U.S. Army's 1980s and 90s era kevlar Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops Helmet was sometimes called the "Fritz helmet" for its resemblance to the Stahlhelm The U.S. Army and Marines have continued to use a design akin to the PASGT helmet with the MICH TC-2000 Combat Helmet and Lightweight Helmet, respectively.
See also
Combat helmet, includes list of helmets worn by various countries.
Notes
References
Jack Sheldon, "The German Army on the Somme 1914-1916". Barnsley UK: Pen & Sword Military, 2007. ISBN 978 1 84415 513 2
External links
German Helmet Decals and other Decals
A brief history of the German Stahlhelm 1916-1945
The German Stahlhelm, M1916
German version of plastic Stahlhelm
Online guide to the Stahlhelm 1933-1945
A guide to German helmet decals of WWII
Restoring a German WW2 Paratrooper Helmet
Category:Combat helmets
Category:Military equipment of Germany
Category:German military uniforms
Category:World War II military equipment of Germany
Category:World War II military equipment of China
Category:German words and phrases
Category:World War I military equipment of Germany
