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Pickelhaube
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prussian police leather Pickelhaube
The Pickelhaube (plural Pickelhauben; from the German Pickel = "point" or "pickaxe", and Haube = "bonnet", a general word for headgear) was a Prussian spiked helmet worn in the 19th century by the German military, firefighters, and police.
The Pickelhaube was originally designed in 1842 by King Frederick William IV of Prussia, and its use slowly spread to other German principalities. In 1887, the Kingdom of Bavaria was the last German state to adopt the Pickelhaube. During the late nineteenth century, the armies of a number of nations (including Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Norway, Russia, and Sweden) adopted the Pickelhaube or at least something very similar. The Pickelhaube has also influenced the design of the pith helmet, as well as the "bobby" helmet worn by policemen in England to this day.
The basic Pickelhaube was made of hardened (boiled) leather, given a glossy-black finish, and reinforced with metal trim (usually plated with gold or silver for officers) that included a detachable metal spike. Some versions of the Pickelhaube worn by artillery units, however, employed a ball-shaped finial rather than the pointed spike. Military Pickelhauben also mounted two round, colored cockades behind the chinstraps attached to the sides of the helmet. The right cockade, the national cockade, was red, black and white. The left cockade was used to denote the province of the soldier (Prussia-black and white; Bavaria-white and blue; etc). Aside from the spike finial, perhaps the most recognizable feature of the Pickelhaube was the ornamental front plate, which also denoted the regiment's province or state. The most common plate design consisted of a large, spread-winged eagle, the emblem used by Prussia. Other plate designs were used by Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, and Hessia, to name some of the most common.
Otto von Bismarck wearing a cuirassier officers' metal Pickelhaube
All-metal versions of the Pickelhaube were worn mainly by cuirassiers, and often appear in portraits of high-ranking military and political figures (such as Otto von Bismarck, pictured on this page). These helmets were sometimes referred to as lobstertail helmets by allied forces due to their distinctive curved neck guard.
In 1892 a cloth helmet cover became standard issue with all pickelhaube's. This was to protect the helmet from dirt and to reduce it's combat visibility. The regimental numbers were sewn on to the front of the cover.
All helmets produced for the infantry before and during 1914 were made of leather. As the war progressed, however, Germany's leather stockpiles dwindled. After extensive imports from South America, particularly Argentina, the German government began producing ersatz Pickelhauben made of other materials. In 1915, some Pickelhauben began to be made from thin sheet steel. However, the German high command needed to produce an even greater number of helmets, leading to the usage of pressurized felt and even paper to construct Pickelhauben.
The Pickelhaube was often used in propaganda against the Germans
During World War I, it was soon discovered that the Pickelhaube did not measure up to the demanding conditions of trench warfare. The leather helmets offered no protection against common head wounds caused by exploding shells and shrapnel. Another dangerous and even humiliating inadequacy of the helmet was the fact the spike on the top of it often extended over the trench making the spike not only a target for snipers but also an indicator as to the location of helmet-wearing soldier inside the trench. Beginning in 1916, the Pickelhaube was slowly replaced by a new German steel helmet (Stahlhelm), intended to offer greater head protection from shell fragments. After the adoption of the Stahlhelm, the Pickelhaube was reduced to ceremonial wear. With the collapse of the German Empire in 1918, the Pickelhaube was abolished, and even the police adopted shakos. In modified forms the new Stahlhelm design would continue to be worn by German troops into World War II.
The spiked helmet continues to be part of a clichéd mental picture of Imperial Germany, especially in the United Kingdom. This is possibly because of the extensive use of the Pickelhaube in British propaganda during World War I. This clichéd image also appears in Hogan's Heroes, a television series about World War II; the opening credits portray a World War I German Pickelhaube with a World War II US Army Air Corps cap hung on its spike.
The Pickelhaube is still part of the dress uniform of the Swedish Royal Guard; the Military Academies of Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador; the Army Band of Chile; and the Presidential Guard Battalion of Colombia. Traffic police in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan also use a form of the Pickelhaube.
Ceremonial Pickelhaube of a Swedish Royal Guard soldier
In the lead-up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, a moulded plastic version of the Pickelhaube was available as a fanware article. The common model was coloured in the black-red-gold of the German flag, with a variety of other colours also available. This was not particularly successful, arguably because of the negative connotations that the Pickelhaube still evokes with many German people.
External links
- Colonel J's Pickelhaube Musings
- On-line guide to the different patterns of Imperial German Pickelhaube
- Evolution of the Pickelhaube
- Evolution of the Stahlhelm
Categories: Helmets | German loanwords | Military uniforms | Military history of Germany
