Pickelhaube
Today, a puzzling headpiece. The University of Houston presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
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I have this old German helmet from WW-I. Given to my mother by an American lieutenant, back from the war. Olive drab with a spike rising from the top. But look more closely. We realize that it’s just olive-drab felt covering a light metal frame. I’m sure I could drive an icepick through it. Certainly no protection from a bullet.
My mother’s Pickelhaube and the donor soldier’s signature.
It turns out it has a name. It’s called a Pickelhaube – literally a spike-bonnet. That’s a funny sounding name, even in German. And the Prussians had begun using this sort of helmet way back in 1842. And its popularity continued right through the first year of WW-I.
The Leather version of the Pickelhaube used by the Germans through the first year of WW-I (Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)
But: No WW-I soldier had, at first, been given metal protective helmets. Then the British introduced their so-called Brodie Helmet – kind of an inverted soup bowl with a broad rim. It persisted all the way through WW-II. And American troops also used it in WW-I.
The Germans had, at first, issued a leather version of that Pickelhaube with its spike. And we might wonder if it didn’t alert the enemy that there was a soldier below it in a trench! Well, after that first year, they introduced their so-called “Stahlhelm” or “steel helmet” – the one that covered the head and reached down over the ears.
Late 19th C Pickelhaube, two views of the German Stahlhelm, and the British Brodie helmet. (Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)
But that strange Pickelhaube had lasted seventy-three years. It’d gone through countless variations. Why? My souvenir helmet offers a clue. It was clearly made, not for battle, but for ceremony. That design had been enormously popular and it took many forms. Other countries adopted it. It somehow captured a romantic idea of war.
Enter now, the great German poet, Heinrich Heine. Maybe you’ve heard his poems set to music by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, or Franz – or heard his once popular song, Die Lorelei. Just one year after the Pickelhaube first appeared, Heine wrote a long poem, Germany: A Winter’s Tale. And he devoted part of it to ridiculing that helmet. Here’s my translation of some of it.
This spiffy new cavalry dress
How a rider should look, I confess
That Pickelhaube helmet I love
A steel spike seeks the skies up above.
Medieval, romantic, just perfect
Its romantic— nostalgic effect
Knights, ladies, and so forth – the lot;
Fouque, Uhland – Tieck and whatnot.
But one thing about it is scary
Come donner und blitzen – be wary.
Beware of that steel point inviting
Heav’n's new fashion … its lightning.
But the Pickelhaube was not called upon to protect heads in a cavalry charge – Heine’s lightning threats aside. It took the horrors of the trenches to show how useless it was against the modern weapons of war.
I’m John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we’re interested in the way inventive minds work.
(Theme music)
Some Sources:
Here is the section of poem, Germany: A Winter’s Tale, or Deutschland. Ein Wintermarchen, in which Heinrich Heine spoofs the Pickelhaube. I have translated only the first, second, and sixth stanzas of the full section below. And click here to read an English translation of the complete poem.
This Episode first aired on September 14, 2026.