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Concept
Stahlhelm
Summary
The Stahlhelm ('steel helmet') is a German military steel combat helmet intended to provide protection against shrapnels and fragments or shards of grenades. The term Stahlhelm refers both to a generic steel helmet and more specifically to the distinctive German military design.
The armies of major European powers introduced helmets of this type during World War I. The German Army began to replace the traditional boiled leather Pickelhaube ('spiked helmet') with the Stahlhelm in 1916. The Stahlhelm, with its distinctive "coal scuttle" shape, was instantly recognizable and became a common element of propaganda on both sides, just like the Pickelhaube before it. The name was also used by Der Stahlhelm, a post–World War I organization for German ex-servicemen that existed from 1918 to 1935. After World War II, the German Bundeswehr (Federal Armed Forces) and Nationale Volksarmee (National People's Army) continued to call their standard helmets Stahlhelm, but in Bundeswehr the design was based on the American M1 helmet, while the National Volksarmee's M56 helmet was modelled on an unused 1942-1943 German design. The Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Service), however, continued to use the original German design, until both troops switched to the new M92 Aramid helmet.
At the beginning of World War I, none of the combatants were issued with any form of protection for the head other than cloth and leather caps, designed at most to protect against sabre cuts. When trench warfare began, the number of casualties on all sides suffering from severe head wounds (more often caused by shrapnel bullets or shell fragments than by gunfire) increased dramatically, since the head was typically the most exposed part of the body when in a trench. The French were the first to see a need for more protection—in mid-1915 they began to issue Adrian helmets to their troops. The British and Commonwealth troops followed with the Brodie helmet (a development of which was also later worn by US forces) and the Germans with the Stahlhelm.
Official source
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