When Germany declared war, the infantrymen were wearing the Pickelhaube, a spiked helmet that was first worn by Prussian soldiers in 1842. Shown here is an M1895 Ersatz Pickehaube, made of felt due to the need to produce helmets quickly for the mobilized army. The standard leather body took a long time to form by specialized labor, but the felt bodies could be made quickly by the companies that made felt hats in peace time. Ersatz helmets were made from a variety of materials, including felt, Vulcan fiber (an early plastic), cardboard and sheet metal.
The brass fittings on the helmet were bright and a cloth cover (Überzeug) was provided to make it less visible. The covers are often found with the regimental numbers sewn to the front of the cover.
The M1895 Pickelhaube was soon replaced with the M1915, this example has the standard leather body, but with steel fittings that have been painted gray. The reason for the change was not because of the visibility of the brass fittings, but because Germany had a shortage of tin to make brass, the brass they did have was needed for munitions manufacture.
While the Germans were not the first to adopt a standard issue steel helmet, they were the first to adopt a steel helmet that provided excellent protection from shrapnel as well as a provision to make the helmet capable of stopping small arms projectiles. The Stahlhelm was designed by Dr. Schwerd after studying the types of head wounds experienced in the trenches. The helmet was made of silicon nickle steel that was far better protection against penetrating shrapnel, but it required a more expensive manufacturing process that required 12 steps to form the shell of the helmet. The photo shows the progressive stampings of the helmet as it was formed. Thirty thousand helmets were produced to test their effectiveness in the field and the results were very good. The first batch of helmets are referred to as “square dip” in the collecting community due to the sharper angle forming the front of the skirt. This caused a weakness in the edge that could lead to splitting. Subsequent productions had a change in the radius of the curve to strengthen the helmet and they were officially adopted in 1916. These helmets are referred to as M1916 helmets and they have a leather liner band with three leather sections that had pockets to insert horse hair pads. The helmets were made in 10 different sizes. Later the leather liner band was replaced with a steel band and the same liner pads, this type of helmet is referred to as the M1917.
This is the liner and chin strap of the M1917 Stahlhelm. All helmets to this point used the same chin strap as the Pickelhaube, it was fastened to the helmet with two M1891 posts riveted to the skirt of the helmet just below the liner band. This helped reduce the materials needed to produce the helmets as they were able to use the chinstraps from the spiked helmets that were not worn in the front lines after the steel helmets became available. In 1918, the chin strap mounting changed by putting a bail on the steel liner band and the strap was sewn or riveted directly to the helmet on one side and had a spring clip to attach the other side. This model is commonly called the M1918.
Several methods of camouflage were experimented with, including covering the helmet with mud, cloth covers, and then painted patterns. Cloth covers were tried by many of the belligerents and nearly all found that the cloth harbored filth and germs that could be carried into head wounds. The photo shows an example of a cloth Überzeug (helmet cover) with its distinctive leather reinforcements for the lugs.
A number of painted camouflage patterns were tried, the black bordered tortoise shell pattern was one of the most common.
All helmets had distinctive lugs on the sides, they were designed to attached an armor plate to the front of the helmet. The Stirnpanzer (frontal armor) shown in the fourth photo, is heavy, weighing just over 2 kg (about 5 lbs) and was attached to the lugs with a leather strap around the back of the helmet. Only about 50 thousand were made as they were found to be uncomfortable to wear for any length of time. Compared to the number of helmets made (approximately 7 million) these are not often encountered. Collectors often say that you can tell the original Stirnpanzers from the many fakes that are on the market by striking them with a hard object and they will ring like a bell. You can tap them with a knuckle and get the ring, the fakes just give a dull thud. The photo shows an example of the Stirnpanzer mounted on an M1917 Stahlhelm.
When the first design was introduced in 1916, it was found that it was difficult to fire a rifle while wearing the Grabenpanzer, so in 1918 other patterns were made. One that had a cutout on the right shoulder and another with a sheet metal angle that was checkered to provide grip. The pattern also had belt hooks and a leather strap at the lower corners of the top segment to secure the armor to the soldier. This is usually referred to as the second pattern. A few of the first pattern Grabenpanzers have been observed with the waist strap. This is an example of the first pattern (M1916) Grabenpanzer.
The photo shows one of the most common images of a German sentry standing guard at the entrance to a dug out. The Grabenpanzer was designed to be worn as frontal armor, but a number of period photographs have shown that some soldiers would wear the armor on their back. This would offer good protection from shrapnel from bursts behind as the soldier was leaning against the parapet. A great photo of two infantrymen wearing them on their back can be seen in the book “German Amateur Photographers in the First World War” by Sebastian Remus, on page 64.