The Pickelhaube (plural Pickelhauben; from the German Pickel = "point" or "pickaxe", and Haube = "bonnet", a general word for headgear) was a spiked helmet worn in the 19th and 20th century by German military, firefighters, and police. It is most closely associated with the Prussian military.
The Pickelhaube was originally designed in 1842 by King Frederick William IV of Prussia, maybe as a copy of similar helmets that were adopted at the same time by the Russian military. It is not clear whether this was a case of imitation, or parallel evolution. The early Russian models had used the spike as a holder for a horsehair plume, but German models were unornamented from the start.
Frederick William IV introduced the Pickelhaube for use by the majority of Prussian infantry on October 23, 1842 by a royal cabinet order. The use of the Pickelhaube spread rapidly to other German principalities. Oldenburg adopted it by 1849, Baden by 1870 and in 1887, the Kingdom of Bavaria was the last German state to adopt the Pickelhaube. During the second half of the nineteenth century, the armies of a number of nations besides Russia (including Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Norway, and Sweden) adopted the Pickelhaube or at least something very similar. The Pickelhaube has also influenced the design of the British army Home Service helmet, pith helmet, as well as the custodian helmet worn by police 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 metal spike at the crown. Early versions had a high crown, but the height gradually was reduced and the helmet became more fitted in form.
Some versions of the Pickelhaube worn by German artillery units employed a ball-shaped finial rather than the pointed spike. The Russian version initially had a horsehair plume fitted to the end of the spike, but this was later discarded in some units. The Russian spike was topped with a small ball, with the spike emerging from it.
Aside from the spike finial, perhaps the most recognizable feature of the Pickelhaube was the ornamental front plate, which denoted the regiment's province or state. The most common plate design consisted of a large, spread-winged eagle, the emblem used by Prussia. Different plate designs were used by Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, and the other German states. The Russians used the traditional Romanov double-headed eagle.
German 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).
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 lobster-tail helmets by allied forces due to their distinctive curved neck guard. The design of these is based on the cavalry helmets in common use since the 16th century, but with some features taken from the leather helmets.
In 1892, a cloth helmet cover became standard issue with all Pickelhauben. This accessory was intended to protect the helmet from dirt and reduce its combat visibility. Regimental numbers were sewn or stencilled onto 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.
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 virtually no protection against head wounds caused by shell fragments and shrapnel that were common during that conflict. 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. This may have been one reason why a version with detachable spike fitted was introduced in 1915. 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 Portuguese National Republican 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.
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.