East German helmet

[peter2010]

According to various sources, the East German helmet used during the Cold War was based on design carried out in the late stages of World War Two. Were there any concrete plans to introduce it into the Wehrmacht and other units if the war had continued much longer? Asking because it seems a somewhat inferior design, both in terms of area of head that it protects, and honestly also aesthetically. But perhaps it was cheaper to produce?

[Mark in Cleveland, Tn.]

Hmm, there seems to be several opinions on the actual origin of the helmet,both the yes and NO sides. If indeed was research, as most likely, the bottom missue during that last stage in war was money and raw material ..It;s like all those so called prototype designs for various German fighrer planes, lots of drawings, and yeah, a very few one off actual mock ups, but that was a sfar as I think the helmet design went.There are a couple well knewon pics of such a lid in battle uese but..IMO those photoas are shown out of scale or is an illusion IOW the light plays tricks on the image

[von thoma]

Discussed in an old thread: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=90454&hilit=East+German+helmet

[Hans1906]

The M45 is the topic... (The few photos from that time are known...)

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/M45_(Stahlhelm)

Reproduction here: http://helm-fabrik.eu/produkt/m45-helm- ... au-unikat/

Originals are not known, what appears on the market, are fakes.

Anyone who paid a lot of money for this junk is on the bad side of the calculation...

I have never seen one of these original helmets, not even from far away...


Hans

[Michael Kenny]

The helmet appears in a German newsreel so some were issued

[Hans1906]

Screenshot, was the M45.

How did you call this, a "Last Ditch Helmet", whatever, you will not find it, never!

I don't know of any German collector, who owns an original.

The last helmet of the Wehrmacht is practically non-existent, put up with it...


Hans

[Ivan Ž.]

The 1944 Wochenschau screenshot shows a common German 1930s/1940s helmet with a cover. You can see it more clearly in better quality copies of the footage.

Cheers,
Ivan

[hambubger]

Dr. Mark Felton covered this very briefly about a month ago in this clip below (along with several other post-Cold War designs and uses). Felton mentioned the East German variation specifically as having excellent ballistic characteristics, despite the aesthetic design of it. One of the reasons why they went with the design was also because it was the closest German design at the time to the standard Soviet helmet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12EZz7GT_oE