Pickelhaube

German soldiers at the Battle of the Marne (1914) with pickelhaubes

The pickelhaube was a helmet used by the German army from the 19th century until the First World War (1914-1918). It was a helmet made of hardened leather, which had a characteristic metal spike on its top, which is believed to be merely decorative. The pickelhaube was designed in 1842 by King Frederick William IV of Prussia and its use slowly spread to other German states. In the First World War it was replaced by a steel helmet called Stahlhelm (German: "steel helmet"), which was used until the Second World War, since the pickelhaube, being made of hardened leather, did not offer protection to the head of a soldier against artillery shrapnel, for example.

Pickelhaube Media

Bavarian Officer Pickelhaube c. 1900
Prussian police leather Pickelhaube
Staff captain, Russian artillery, wearing a Pickelhaube, c. 1858
Russian Pickelhauben of the 1849 version, with detachable plumes, 1853
Prussian infantry Pickelhaube in 1845 (right)
U.S. Marine Corps, helmet worn from 1892–1904
1892 Überzug on an 1895 Pickelhaube
Cadets of the General Bernardo O'Higgins Military School of the Chilean Army wearing plumed pickelhauben marching through O'Higgins Park in Santiago at the 2014 Chilean Army Day parade.
Kaiser Wilhelm II, August von Mackensen and others wearing Pickelhauben with cloth covers in 1915