Post-War M35 German Helmet
by Bruno Murgia

I guess that all of us, sooner or later, in facing a post-war M35 German helmet (for real or on a photograph) have been quite shocked in finding out that the notorious "nazi" stahlhelm was still in use in some West German (BDR) military units until recently. Always curious about militaria, but only recently become a combat helmet collector, I've decided to embark on a not-too-serious web search, which, to be truthful, has not been very fruitful due to the non-existing literature on this topic. The results are hereafter summarized.

What just about everyone knows is that this piece of headgear has been re-invented in the early 1950's for a West German Police unit with specific military duties: the Bundesgrenzschutz, Federal Border Security, more simply known as the BGS.

There is little to argue about the strategic importance of this unit at that time of the Cold War. And so the fearsome stahlhelm made a comeback on the European field, this time at the service of democracy.

Not to cast shadows of the past, the Bundeswehr, the Federal Army, much more conspicuous than the BGS, adopted the US M1 helmet (and the following clones), while the DDR concluded the development of the Model B/II helmet, begun during the war and then rejected in 1944 by the nazi top ranks: a big "pan" nowadays in every European junk shop, the M56 "VoPo".

But going back to the BGS, founded in 1951 and celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, it was issued in 1953 with a helmet almost identical, externally, to the wartime models M35 and M40, whose design, still "in fashion" today (see PASGT-like helmets adopted all over the world) was then surely up-to-date, whereas, just to make one example, Thailand in 1950 sent an expeditionary corps to Korea equipped with the surely elegant, but in that contest rather old fashioned and shabby Adrian helmet.

So at the beginning the BGS wore an almost identical copy of the M35 helmet (also produced for export, as 50.000 helmets produced by Roemer for Finland prove, see pic.) which was later modified.

This new headpiece is different from the M35/M40 mainly because of the lack of the two lateral air vents and for the different suspension system, attached to the top of the dome by some sort of nut.

However the liner is very similar to the old model: light and rather thin leather with nine flaps, each with five holes plus one on the tip, reinforced on the back, for the white cotton adjusting string (again similar to the old one) to go through.

At the front, the leather has four rows of small holes to ease perspiration. The top-dome nut, indeed potentially quite dangerous, has a thick rubber ring around it and from here five green olive flexible strips, possibly made of aluminum, descend. They are welded lower down to the shell and to the the aluminum flexible headband, separated from the liner leather by a thin layer of rubber foam and attached to it by twelve rivets. At the back, this band has a simple adjusting system (two of the liner flaps are overlapping), allowing for fitting of sizes 53/57 and 57/61. Accordingly, two shell sizes of 64 and 66 cm relate to these two sets of liner sizes.

Now the liner is missing the chinstrap attachments, which are instead welded onto the shell. The chinstrap is completely identical to the one on the M35/40/42, down to the smallest detail; it's possible to detach it because it does not have rivets, but buttons and eyelets; it's made of two sides, the right one being very long and having thirteen holes; the outside is black and rough, while the part in contact with the wearer's skin is natural coloured and smooth; on the left side, very short, a prong buckle is attached with a rivet and this too seems to be unchanged.

The adoption of the Mod. 53 liner causes also the suppression of the three rivets typical of the wartime models, hence the shell is externally totally smooth.

The rim is folded on the inside, in perfect M35 style; on the back inner apron there is a code stamped which sometimes refers to the size (i.e. 64, 66), sometimes apparently the year of production (i.e. 71) and sometimes a seemingly inexplicable number (i.e. 49).

The hemet does not normally have decals and it's usually of a gray colour, with a bluish finish to it, which we could perhaps dare to call "blaugrau", reminiscing the Luftwaffe's. There are also green painted ones, with and without air-vents.

Actually the BGS has worn blue-gray uniforms of unmistakable teutonic tailoring, even with Prussian-style frogs, while the current uniform is Polizei-green.

Judging by the state of the helmets observed, it looks like green has been the first colour adopted, later substituted by gray.

A very kind BGS member, luckily encountered on the web, has told me he has worn the gray helmet during training in 1973. Furthermore, according to him, the steel helmet has been superseded in 1990 by anti-riot plastic material helmets, once the unit had engaged in more police-like duties. Also, a helpful German helmet collector has confirmed to me that at a later stage of its service life the M35/53, possibly because considered uncomfortable to be worn for long periods, has re-acquired the air-vents and then the old type liner, thus reverting to a "Finnish" style M35. Of this model we can find specimens belonging to the Federal Police.

The M35/53 BGS helmet clearly has a much lower historical (and commercial) value than its "rich cousin" wartime M35. Nonetheless, considering that the Cold War, of which it has been luckily just a passive witness, has been over for over a decade now it too has its own market price. Re enactors, for example, use it when they don't want to pay for an original wartime helmet, just putting a post-war camo cover on it (which, incidentally, resembles its wartime predecessor quite closely). Besides this accessory there was also a camo net with hooks, similar to the one used by the VoPos on their M56.

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(B.M. and M.T. wish to thank Marc Barrie, Roger V. Lucy and Dave Powers for the kind help provided)