The
Pickelhaube (plural
Pickelhauben; from the old
German Pickel = "point" or "pickaxe", and
Haube = "bonnet", a general word for headgear) was a spiked
helmet worn in the 19th and 20th centuries by
German military,
firefighters, and
police. It is most closely associated with the
Prussian army.
The Pickelhaube was originally designed in 1842 by King Frederick William IV of Prussia,[1] maybe as a copy of similar helmets that were adopted at the same time by the Russian military.[2] It is not clear whether this was a case of imitation, or parallel invention. The early Russian Pickelhaube had used the spike as a holder for a horsehair plume in full dress, a practice also followed with some Prussian models (see below).
Frederick William IV introduced the Pickelhaube for use by the majority of Prussian infantry on October 23, 1842 by a royal cabinet order.[3] 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 19th century, the armies of a number of nations besides Russia (including Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Norway, and Sweden) adopted the Pickelhaube or something very similar. The Pickelhaube also influenced the design of the British army Home Service 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. In 1867 an attempt at weight reduction by removing part of the front and rear peaks did not prove successful.
