Stahlhelm

Stahlhelm
M35 on display at Museum Rotterdam
Type	Combat helmet
Place of origin	Germany
Service history
In service	1916–1992
Used by	See Users
Wars	World War I German Revolution Chinese Civil War Winter War World War II Korean War Vietnam War
Production history
Designer	Dr. Friedrich Schwerd (M1916)
Designed	1915
Produced	1916
Variants	See Variants

The Stahlhelm (German for "steel helmet") is a term used to refer to a series of German steel combat helmet designs intended to protect the wearer from common battlefield hazards such as shrapnel.

The armies of the great powers began to issue steel helmets during World War I as a result of combat experience and experimentation. The German Army began to replace the boiled leather Pickelhaube with the Stahlhelm in 1916. The Stahlhelm's distinctive coal scuttle shape, was instantly recognizable and became a common element of propaganda on both sides, like the Pickelhaube before it. The name was used by Der Stahlhelm, a German veterans' organization that existed from 1918 to 1935.

After World War II, both East and West German militaries adopted helmets unrelated to the archetypical German helmet designs from the world wars, but continued to refer to the new models as Stahlhelm. The WWII era Stahlhelm continued to be used by police and border guards in West Germany until the 1990s,^[1] when they were replaced by modern kevlar helmets.