Snapshot:
the Gaede helmet

Harrie Strijbosch briefly describes a recent and prized addition to his helmet collection.

The Gaede helmet is called after his inventor commander Gaede who was leading an armee group fighting in the "Vogesen" in 1915. Struck by heavy casualties due to head wounds, he ordered the Artillerie factory in "Mühlhausen", to produce his invention as quick as possible.

1500 were made, but after the M1916 helmet was introduced, most of the surviving examples were melted down. For this reason it’s an extremely rare helmet.

The Gaede helmet in my collection (there are a few different variants) is made of very thick (about 6 mm) steel, secured to a canvas covered leather skull-cap by means of 4 rivets.

At the back it is adjustable to fit to more than one head-size by means of a small leather strap. Its total weight is about 2600 grams.