Pickelhaube

The Pickelhaube (German: [ˈpɪkl̩ˌhaʊ̯bə] ^ⓘ; pl. Pickelhauben [ˈpɪkl̩ˌhaʊ̯bn̩] ^ⓘ), also Pickelhelm, is a spiked leather or metal helmet that was worn in the 19th and 20th centuries by Prussian and German soldiers of all ranks as well as firefighters and police. Although it is typically associated with the Prussian Army, which adopted it in 1842–43, the helmet was widely imitated by other armies during that period. It is still worn today as part of ceremonial wear in the militaries of certain countries, such as Sweden, Chile, and Colombia.

The name Pickelhaube comes from from German Pickel, lit. 'point, pickaxe' and Haube, lit. 'bonnet', a general word for "headgear"

During the 1830s, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia decided to replace the shako infantry caps. For this, he commissioned General Lev Ivanovich Kiel [ru], a member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, to design the new headdress for the Russian infantry. The new headwear was inspired by the leather helmet worn by the Russian cuirassiers, with the plumed crest being replaced by a pointed ornament in the shape of a flaming grenade.

The origins of the Prussian helmet began with a visit to Russia by Prince Charles of Prussia in 1837. During the visit, the Tsar presented Charles with the new helmet, which was still in its project stage. The Prince liked the idea, and upon returning to Berlin he proposed it to his father, King Frederick William III of Prussia. The King, however, did not approve of the helmet, which he considered expensive and unnecessary. After his death in 1840, the new king, Frederick William IV, approved his younger brother's idea, and the Prussian army officially adopted the spiked helmet in 1842, ahead of the Russian project, which was still being worked on; Russia finally adopted the helmet in 1844.

Frederick William IV introduced the Pickelhaube for use by the majority of Prussian infantry on 23 October 1842 by a royal cabinet order. The use of the Pickelhaube spread rapidly to other German principalities. Oldenburg adopted it by 1849, Baden by 1870, and in 1887, the Kingdom of Bavaria was the last German state to adopt the Pickelhaube (since the Napoleonic Wars, they had had their own design of helmet called the Raupenhelm, a Tarleton helmet). Among other European armies, that of Sweden adopted the Prussian version of the spiked helmet in 1845, in Wallachia it was decided to adopt the helmet on 15 August 1845, possibly being influenced by the visit of Prince Albert of Prussia. However, its introduction to the troops took longer, while Moldavia adopted the Russian version of the spiked helmet in the same year, possibly under the influence of the Tsarist Army.

From the second half of the 19th century onwards, the armies of a number of nations, including Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Portugal, Norway, and Venezuela adopted the Pickelhaube or something very similar. The popularity of this headdress in Latin America arose from a period when military missions from Imperial Germany were widely employed to train and organize national armies. The Peruvian Army was the first of these, when some pickelhaubes were shipped to the country in the 1870s. During the War of the Pacific, the 6th Infantry Regiment "Chacabuco" became the first Chilean military unit to adopt this headdress, using captured Peruvian stocks.

The Russian version initially had a horsehair plume fitted to the end of the spike, but this was later discarded in some units. The Russian spike was topped with a grenade motif. At the beginning of the Crimean War, such helmets were common among infantry and grenadiers, but soon fell out of place in favour of the forage cap. After 1862 the spiked helmet ceased to be generally worn by the Russian Army, although it was retained until 1914 by the Cuirassier regiments of the Imperial Guard and the Gendarmerie. The Soviets prolonged the history of the pointed military headgear with their own cloth Budenovka adopted in 1919 by the Red Army.

In 1847, the Household Cavalry, along with British dragoons and Dragoon Guards, adopted a helmet which was a hybrid between the Pickelhaube and the traditional dragoon helmet which it replaced. This "Albert Pattern" helmet was named after Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha who took a keen interest in military uniforms, and featured a falling horsehair plume which could be removed when on campaign. It was adopted by other heavy cavalry regiments across the British Empire and remains in ceremonial use. The Pickelhaube also influenced the design of the British army Home Service helmet as well as the custodian helmet still worn by police in England and Wales. The linkage between Pickelhaube and Home Service helmet was, however, not a direct one, because the British headdress was higher, had only a small spike, and was made of stiffened cloth over a cork framework instead of leather. Both the United States Army and Marine Corps wore helmets of the British pattern for full dress between 1881 and 1902.