Ersatz Pickelhaubes -- Infantry Spike Types

Joe Robinson and Amy Bellars.

30 September 2006

draft 8

 There is perhaps no more easily found pickelhaube than some sort of a wartime variant.  These variants are known collectively as Ersatz Pickelhaubes.  The old conventional thought was that the M 95 brass pickelhaubes were followed by M 15 steel gray pickelhaubes (as you ran out of brass) which were followed by Ersatz helmets (as you ran out of leather) and then eventually in came the steel helmets or stahlhelm.  That is the wrong idea.  However, it is ingrained in the collecting community despite the fact that it is well indicated in several references.  The conventional wisdom idea is that the word Ersatz means substitute. That as materials for the production of Pickelhaubes became scarce, things were substituted in their construction.  An Ersatz pickelhaube is a pickelhaube that has one or more parts of the helmet using a different material than the original prewar helmet in Ersatz or substitute.

 The right idea revolves around the timing of the issue.  In August of 1914.  When mobilization happened, the Germans issued out whatever stocks they had of pickelhaube.  This was not always a normal issue. You might get something other than what you had expected to get in the way of the helmet.  It might be older, or have a different helmet plate.  Look at the pictures below in the anomalies of leather issues. Not only does this unit have a combination of Baden, and Prussian helmet plates, but the old style Pearl rings on the soldiers helmets denote an older helmet.

 [i]

 By September of 1914 the demand for helmets started to outstrip the existing supply.  Making a leather helmet, took a long time with curing of the helmet and production facilities.  What was needed were quick helmets to be issued to reserve component soldiers as they moved towards the front.  Between September 1914 and March 1915, all sorts of Ersatz methods were used to equip millions of German soldiers.  In June of 1915, the M15 type helmet was introduced and demand had been sated in the production of leather helmets.  Ersatz models were only used for reservists back home after that.  The steel Frankenstein helmet was introduced in 1916, in a slow process, where reservists back home still could use pickelhauben.  Given this timeline, identifying time of production of an Ersatz Pickelhaube is indeed ideal.

 Filzhelme

 Things got really bad pretty quick.  The Bekleidungsamt for each Corps could not keep up with the demand.  Manufacturers could not make leather helmets as the production time was long.  As early as the fourth of October, 360,000 Filtz helmets were ordered by the KBA (Kriegs Bekleidungsamt).[ii]  On the sixth of October Württemberg issued a decree that you could go into action without a helmet plate and without a back spine.[iii]  To fill in for the shortages of brass tombak or new silver was used with the idea that a helmet cover would be worn at all times and therefore you wouldn't see the bad or wrong colors.  There were obviously other examples with 20,000 Filz helmets ordered by the Bavarians on the 29th of October and 15,000 Filz helmets ordered by the Saxons on 26 October. There were other vendors involved and other numbers of helmets in the tens of thousands, as a result, there was not a lot of standardization in the Filz arena. The idea was to capitalize on an existing hat industry and the ability to make these helmets quickly out of a single piece of felt. These pictures shows filzhelmes with and without a metal visor trim.

[iv] 

The felt itself was primarily made up of rabbit fur and in some cases, mixed with wool.  There were apparently, one piece, two piece and four piece helmet body constructions.  Apparently the procurement cycle was entirely short-circuited to make this happen very quickly.[v]

[vi]

In November 1914, an order for 50,000 black lacquer Filz helmets was placed.  They looked remarkably like a standard M 95 helmet.  We believe this picture to be one such filzhelme as there is no visor trim.

[vii]

[viii]

It seems as if one consistent thing was that a new depot mark showed up in Ersatz helmets, which was the letter F. We know it stands for repaired and cleared for issue but the exact word is unclear.  Clearly not all filzhelme's or Ersatz helmets have these markings.  However, we have not found them on any helmet that was not wartime or regularly associated with a BJA..

[ix]

Not all Filz were created equal.  This example shows the felt to be red in color, but is lacquered on the outside to look like an M 95 helmet.

[x]

 Filzhelmes were also made at the end of this process with leather front and rear visors.  There is significant evidence that early leather visors were part of a repair effort.  A filzhelme turned in for repair could have a leather visor or rear visor attached.  This is reinforced by the depot mark of the Bekleidings Instandsetung BJA.

[xi]

[xii]

And additional point of interest, is that not all repairs were made with a leather visor.  This helmet has the repair mark, and the familiar letter F.   There is however no leather visor.

[xiii]

The metal equipment on helmets also changed for Filz.  As much as possible, they were a mirror for the M95 helmet.  However, by January 1915, gray fittings started to appear.  This was often a mix and match set up with some brass or silver, and some gray like the helmet shown above.  This picture shows a platoon with a mix of helmets.  There are two different kinds of Filz helmets, M95 helmets, and one guy with gray fittings just above the seated man on the right.

[xiv]

Two other points differ in many Filz helmets. MOST of the chinstraps were undyed brown. Some helmets had a reinforcement around the M91 post called an Ohrenleder. These were made of felt or leather. Most helmets didn't have them but some did as per the manufacturer.

(Prictor Collection)

Other reinforcing methods were used. The Prussian Pioneer helmet below has a leather reinforcing back spine and a feldgrau cover to the spine on the outside.(from the Loree collection)

By the spring of 1915, the leather shortage was fixed and the M15 helmet was able to become the primary headgear.  Procurement of large numbers of filzhelmes stopped.  From that time onward, they were supposedly only used inside the homeland.  Filz was also used for shakos and Uhlan Czapskas.  However it is beyond the scope of this article to get into those variants.

[xv]

Several sources allude to filzhelme being used on the Serbian front.  These allegedly had removable spikes and numbers on a scroll instead of a normal wappen.  Trichters were never used and cockades were not there.  There are supposedly shields for mountain machine-gun Abteilung 211 -- 250.  There are also references to an R 116 scroll and an R 22 scroll.  The author has a picture of two IR31 soldiers wearing these helmets. These helmets were supposedly not used with a bayonet spike attached and some had a Foreign Legion type neck guard.  I have no problem with the existence of these helmets.[xvii]  However, there does seem to be a problem with their use on the Serbian front.  I do not understand how IR22 or IR31was supposed to be in Serbia .  Nor reserve Regiment number 22.  There is one source that talks about these number plates going to reserve infantry regiments and Ersatz infantry regiments. Unfortunately there is a lot of talk about reproductions and these helmets.  Recently there was one that was listed in the Kube auction.  So I do not think that they're all reproductions.

[xviii]

In addition there were some Filz helmets used in Macedonia in 1916 and 1917. there is little documented on these helmets however there is no question of Saxon involvement on that front. This is from the Prictor Collection.

 Filz helmets were directed to be no longer in front line use by 1917.  The biggest problem apparently was that they were not waterproof. [xix]

Metallhelme

 Metallhelme were considered to be a sure bet in replacing the leather helmets quickly and more exactly. They may have looked good to the hierarchy.  However, metal helmets were not popular with the troops. They were heavier than the filzhelme.  The soldiers preferred the lighter weight.  Soldiers also complained a whole lot that the helmet did not fit your head and you could not conform the shape to your head. Also the helmet caused dangerous head injuries as shrapnel tended to pierce the sheet metal and imbed part of the sheet metal into the wearer's head.  There are some funny stories that exist about how toy manufacturers and the producers of kitchen bowls were pressed into service to make these helmets.  The steel helmets were pressed out of one piece of steel plate and were quite sturdy.

[xx]

 There were a lot fewer metal helmets than there were filzhelmes. Bavarian records show the highest number of used helmets.

[xxi] [xxii]

In addition to steel a thin steel (called tin but not tin) plate metalhelmet was produced. Very shiny, these came in three piece construction with the liner, front and rear visors added to the body with a special prong system. Examples existed in Baden and Prussia. The spike was placed on with faux split brads and the wappen attached with a single tube connection. There was a change ordered by Army Corps VII.  This change or improvement, lowered the weight of the helmet to 75 -- 100 g, made the helmet profile lower and the material more durable. This introduced the thinner, "tin" helmet.  This still didn't satisfy everyone, and the kingdoms began ordering no more metal helmets were to be procured as early as November 1914.  The Bavarians were the biggest users of "tin" helmets.  They could look remarkably like an M 95 helmet.  The Bavarians continued to use black painted steel and "tin" helmets until June of 1915, when the M15 leather helmet took over.[xxiii]    

Korkhelme

In October 1914 20,000 Korkhelmes were ordered from a firm in Bremen .  Generally the war ministry did not look kindly upon Korkhelme because they were considered to be nondurable.  These are considered quite rare, and the covering is considered to be cotton.  The visors were supposedly black and did not have a trim on the visor or on the back spine.

[xxiv]

The picture below appears to have a cloth cover.  These covers were made out of cotton.

[xxv]

 There were also Korkhelmes with black accoutrements and some with brass like the example below.

[xxvi]

This particular Korkhelme is marked to Saxon infantry Regiment 100.  It is significantly different.  I have no record of Korkhelme being made for Saxony .  Infantry Regiment, 190, which is another possibility for the mark, did not come into existence until 1917.  As part of the 220th infantry division.  So we think Regiment 100 is more likely.

[xxvii]

[xxviii]

[xxix]

further examination of examples from the Trawnik collection puts the doubt many theories about Korkhelmes.perhaps a better division is cloth covered helmets. There were cloth covered helmets that were made of cork, cloth covered cork, fiber, papier-mâché and felt. there is some thought that cork covered helmets had cloth both inside and out. While this is true in the example below, it is far from true universally. The second picture from the Trawnik collection shows a cloth over Korkhelme that has a trim and a rear spine. Generalizations in cloth covered helmets are very difficult to make.

Papier-mache

Papier-mache helmets also existed stuffed with newspaper hardened and they were eliminated by March of 1915.  This might be a paper helmet.  In the photo look at the visor and how it is bent.  They helmet below is definitely papier-mache.

[xxx]

  The Mysterious Black Spike and Phony Studs

 Change in headgear came very quickly.  Helmet covers with red letters were found to be unacceptable within a month.  The Spike itself tended to be a problem of identification.  Prior to removing spikes using a bayonet type fixture much of the helmet furniture was painted black.  This was really a wash.  It seems however that a lot of spikes were painted black.  I have no documentation as to why this was besides some tactical information about painting spikes to hide them from the enemy.  I have yet to see a spike painted that was not and Ersatz helmet.  However I have seen quite a few Ersatz helmets that had a black spike.  Removable spikes started to appear in 1915.  Gray metal nonremovable spikes existed prior to that.  I do not know the exact number.

[xxxi]

 This last helmet has not only a black spike and black colored furniture.  But the dome studs on the spike base are phony.   In addition, the wappen is attached with a single rolled hole in the middle.  These phony dome studs and strange attaching method were used both in tin and Filz helmets.

[xxxii]

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