Just visually, when you picture German soldiers from the First World War, you probably first
conjure up images of those spiked helmets, but there was more to their uniforms than
that, and that’s what I’m going to look at today; German uniforms.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode about German uniforms of the
First World War.
The German army was formed after the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership in 1871
and – spoiler alert – was dissolved in 1919 after the defeat of the German Empire
in this war. The name Deutsches Heer was the name given to the combined land and air forces.
That term is also used for the modern German army, the land component of the Bundeswehr.
By the Constitution of April 16, 1871, every male citizen was liable for military service
between his 17th and 45th birthday. This would really begin with your “class” of the
year of your 20th birthday. 17-20 year olds were classified for volunteer purposes, home
defense, and to even see active duty in time of war, but in peacetime were only required
to register, so in peacetime obligatory service didn’t start until age 20. Thing is, since
the recruit class was comprised of all men in the country age 20 of that year, and that
was a huge number of men, the army was very selective in nature, and most men were passed
over or “put back” one or two years. If you had, for some reason, not been accepted
into service by age 22, you were automatically put in the reserves till you were 45. In 1914,
Germany could mobilize about 4.9 million men from a population of 67 million.
Enormous numbers of volunteers came forward in 1914 from all ages as the war began, but
after 1915, only about 5% of eligible males volunteered. And now, let’s look at what
they wore. Well, just the infantry today because of time constraints.
What the infantry wore from 1871 to 1914 was a quartermaster’s nightmare. First off,
you had the military tradition of dressing different regiments in colors so that commanders
could spot them from a distance on the battlefield, but also- until 1910 each German state had
its own uniform color, belt buckle motto, badges, armbands, helmets, and more. There
were even difference within regiments, but in 1910 the entire German army adopted the
field grey, feldgrau, uniforms while maintaining state and regimental variations. The pre-1910
uniforms were still kept for parades, guard duty, and social affairs.
I can imagine some of you are impatient to get to the spiky helmets, so I’ll talk about
them now.
The Pickelhaube – that’s what they were called – had canvas covers, and they weren’t
really actual helmets. Pre-war their covers had the regimental number on them in bright
red. In 1914, the color was changed to dark green, and then left off altogether in 1915.
The leather used in them was imported from Argentina, but the British blockade caused
the first shortage of the war, leather for Pickelhaube. Felt, fiberboard, tin , and sheet
metal were used as substitutes, which doesn’t sound very comfortable. The Pickelhaube were
produced until the spring of 1916 when steel helmets were introduced, but really, they
were unsuitable for trench warfare. They were not durable enough, were expensive to produce,
and didn’t provide real combat protection, hence the Stahlhelm M1916 steel helmet. Developed
by Professor Friedrich Schwerd , these helmets had the distinctive 8mm “horns” on the
sides for air circulation (insert helmet image).
The basic helmet was formed from one steel disk. The rivets at the lower part are for
fastening old M1891 pickelhaube side posts and chinstraps. The helmet liner was held
in place with three rivets and was designed to keep the helmet one finger width away from
the head at the sides and two at the top. This was to prevent head injuries if the helmet
were dented.
In addition to ventilation, the horns could also support a heavy armored plate, called
a Stirnpanzer. There was also a set of sectional chest armor, known as lobster armor by collectors
that weighed 16 kilos- 35 pounds. This was supposed to protect troops like sentries that
were more exposed, but in general, the soldiers threw it away since it was of seriously dubious
value in the trenches. As a result, both the plates and the lobster armor are quite rare.
For the tunics, the Brandenburg and Swedish cuffs of 1910s design had been simplified
into simple turn back cuffs in a transitional tunic design. These were great because any
passes or small documents could be stowed away in the fold, but still, till the end
of the war the 1910, the transitional, and the 1915 tunics all continued to be produced.
Here’s just one specific uniform example, okay? A Bavarian soldier in 1917 would wear
the 1915 wool tunic. The cuffs turn back like in the transitional, but the brass buttons
of the 1910 and transitional have been replaced with a front that concealed buttons of horn,
though later in the war the buttons would be made of wood, bakelite, or whatever you
could find. The only visible buttons on the tunic were four zinc buttons- two at the shoulders
and two on the pockets.
The soldier would wear the German enlisted man’s field cap, the Feldmütze, which was
visorless. NCOs wore the same style hat, but with a visor. The hats were field grey wool
with colored bands at the bottom- red for infantry, grey for light infantry, black for
artillery and combat engineers. The caps have two colored buttons; the top one had black,
white, and red for Germany, and the bottom would have white, blue, and white, the state
colors of Bavaria, or the colors of whatever state the soldier served. Prussia had white
and black for example.
The belt buckles were iron, but painted black. Actually, an order from the Kaiser in 1915
changed the traditional brown finish of boots, belts, and other leather gear to black. This
was in accordance with the new 1915 uniform. By 1917, ankle boots and puttees were in common
use because of the continuing leather shortage.
Now, this was a very brief look at only one type of German uniform. We’ll cover more
uniform designs from other warring nations in future, and as always, I encourage you
to look this up for yourselves to get a better idea. Also, as always, I’ll leave you with
something to hopefully drive home that while this may be interesting, there is nothing
cool about it or the war. Something not uniform related.
This is from Corporal Karl Fritz, from the trenches at Verdun to his family.
“…..For three days, we were in the shell holes, seeing death in the eyes, every moment
expecting it. Besides, not a drop of water and the horrible stench of corpses. One shell
burying the dead, the other pulls him out again. If you want to dig in, you get straight
to the dead. I had a group, but every man has prayed for himself. The worst part is
relief, the in and out. The constant barrage.
All is full, full of wounded here and heavy smell of dead…..
Furthermore, it is also constantly under fire. We had about 40 people dead and wounded … This
was little for a company, so I have heard. They all looked pale and consumed. I will
not tell you more misery. It may be enough. Sincere greetings and kisses and God speed
by your thankful son and brother, Karl.”
That was actually our 2nd special about the
uniforms of the armies in World War 1. If you want to learn more about the French uniforms,
click right here.
For more pictures of German uniforms, follow us on Instagram and if you see a German uniform
in a museum, tell everyone around you about our show.