The M1916 Stahlhelm was a tremendous success. Overall the Stahlhelm M1916 was a tremendous success and would be used in one guise or another by the German armed forces for the next thirty years. These were intended to be used to attach a brow plate for extra protection, but in practice these were almost never used, except by German snipers and trench raiding parties. Perhaps the most distinctive features of the M1916 were two ventilator lugs on either side of the helmet. The M1916 was manufactured in a standard field grey colour, however it was generally customised by individual soldiers either with paint, mud or foliage to camouflage it into their surroundings. Made from a mixture of manganese, nickel, silicon and carbon steel, it was nearly a half an inch thick and was fitted with both a chin strap to secure it firmly and horsehair padding with a leather lining on the inside for comfort. The neck-guard flared out from the brim of the helmet and provided additional protection for the neck and ears. The visor at the front was 6½ inches and extended outwards to provide shade and to protect the soldier’s eyes from shrapnel and other debris which might rain down into the trenches from artillery bombardments or aerial bombings. The dome was the main part of the helmet, being cylindrical in shape and covering the skull. The Stahlhelm M1916 or M16 was comprised of three sections, the dome, the visor and the neck-guard. The Stahlhelm M range of helmets was to have a long history in the German military during the World Wars. Hence, the helmet bears the name Model 1916, M1916 or M16 owing to having been first widely used that year. It was finally approved for use in the German army in the first days of 1916 and entered widespread use in the early stages of the Verdun Campaign which commenced in late February 1916 and dragged on through to the following December. The new helmet showed significant potential and 30,000 copies of Schwerd’s headgear were commissioned.
The first Stahlhelm was eventually tested in November 1915 at the Kummersdorf Proving Ground, a German military facility south of Berlin. These were developed at the Technical Institute in Hanover in early 1915 by Dr Friedrich Schwerd who had conducted research into the head wounds suffered by German soldiers in the trenches. The result in Germany was the first Stahlhelm, meaning ‘steel helmet’.
By 1915 the French and British had developed their own. This was the result of debris raining down into the trenches, artillery shells exploding along the front lines and the basic fact that a soldier who wanted to peak out of a trench or climb out of it into No Man’s Land had to expose his head first. But in the opening months of the First World War in late 1914 and early 1915, as trench-warfare developed in northeast France, the heads of British, French and German soldiers became the vulnerable parts of their bodies. They offered little protection, other than from the weather. Previously soldiers in Europe’s armies had worn leather or cloth caps which were essentially markers of their rank. A war like no other needed a helmet like no other. But between 19 the great powers largely went underground, bunkering down in trenches across the Western Front in northeast France and elsewhere. For centuries European armies had fought each other in pitched battles lasting hours or a few days in the field. The First World War was a war like no other. The following examines the history of the Stahlhelm or ‘steel helmet’ worn by German soldiers during the First and Second World Wars and the various models of the Stahlhelm which were produced between 19. The same was true of the headdresses worn by members of the German army during the first half of the twentieth century. Each of these types of helmets served different purposes, most being manufactured to protect the wearer’s head, but some also being designed as a symbol of the status or rank of the individual wearing it.
In more modern times the Spanish conquistadors wore the curved Morion helmet in the sixteenth century, while the British cavalry officers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries sported ornately decorated Dragoon Helmets. The Roman Legionnaires wore the Galea to protect their heads as they built an empire across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. In Ancient Greece these included the Corinthian Helmet worn by the Spartans and others, while the Chalcidian Helmet was favoured by the Athenians and was still being worn by Greek hoplites by the time Alexander the Great made his conquests. Military headdresses have been worn by military personnel throughout the world for thousands of years.
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