# Pointy Prussian Helmets **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 25, 2000, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744 "2000-08-25T17:22:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/1 "2000-08-25T17:22:33Z")
What was the point of the spike on Great War era German helmets? Practical, or ornamental? ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/2 "2000-08-25T17:27:53Z")
They’re for heating bratwurst over an open fire. Sua ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/3 "2000-08-25T17:34:31Z")
It was purely practical. When the German soldier was cornered, out of bullets and his bayonet lost, he would put his head down and charge his enemies like a rhino. When not in face-to-face combat, the spike could be used to hang his lunch pail off, thus keeping it out of the mud and filth in the trenches. Now a lot of people are going to come along and give you the old myth about it being purely ornamental: _don’t believe them_. This myth is so widespread that even this site: [The German Pickelhaube, 1914-1916](http://www.worldwar1.com/sfgph.htm), which purports to be a scholarly article on the helmet, recounts it as fact. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/4 "2000-08-25T18:22:03Z")
You’re bivouacked, with nothing but rainwater and dirty socks to make soup out of. Do you really want to compound your suffering by having to _hold_ your helmet (a.k.a. cookpot) in the fire? No, you want a handy way of shoving it down in the embers and having it stick there without wobbling about. Those crafty Huns don’t sit around complaining about stuff: they invent solutions. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/5 "2000-08-25T19:37:51Z")
i’ve always wanted one of those… i wonder where i could get one? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/6 "2000-08-25T19:44:23Z")
> [@](#): > > i’ve always wanted one of those… i wonder where i could get one? Try eBay. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/7 "2000-08-25T19:45:24Z")
I though this was one of those trying-to-explain-to-the nurse-at-the-hospital threads. You have to think they must have had some curious cases in the Deutschland MASH. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/8 "2000-08-25T19:56:41Z")
Back when those pointy helmets were first introduced, rude strangers with long handled hammers and axes were prone to try to bring their hammers down on your head. The part of your helmet that was least able to deflect that type of blow was the very top. Put a spike on the top and you reduce that area to the minimum possible. Sharpen and polish it up and folks start making up horror stories about head butting Prussian Rhinos, which can’t hurt. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Danielinthewolvesden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Danielinthewolvesden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danielinthewolvesden)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/9 "2000-08-25T20:05:39Z")
Of course, Knead is joking, as he knows that the early helmet with the large spike were made of leather. The spike was ornamental, but a remnant of a protective feature, as tris said. The french had a crest. You know folks, in GQ is is usually better to post the RIGHT/ helpful answers 1st, THEN the jokes. ---
**Author:** ![theuglytruth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@theuglytruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theuglytruth)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/10 "2000-08-25T20:31:31Z")
You are all wrong. The WWI Germans were all members of the Hell’s Angels. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/11 "2000-08-25T21:30:06Z")
At Verdun, German soldiers were instructed to unscrew the spikes from their helmets in order to avoid hanging up in barbed wire. This action turned out to have an amazing, unintended effect. After the Germans overran the first French line, they rushed the second. French machine gunners held their fire, on the assumption that the approaching Germans were retreating French. It seems that the spike was the best way to distinguish between muddy soldiers in the field. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/12 "2000-08-26T01:45:50Z")
**Sofa** is this the part where you are still giving info or making a joke? What makes you think the spikes unscrewed? They didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/13 "2000-08-26T02:49:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samclem \* > \*\ ***Sofa** is this the part where you are still giving info or making a joke? > > What makes you think the spikes unscrewed? They didn’t. \*\* Everything is on the internet, including [The German Pickelhaube](http://www.worldwar1.com/sfgph.htm) > [@](#): > > “By 1915 the detachable spike attachment had been developed so that soldiers in the trenches could remove the spike, as the spike was incompatible for service in the trenches and they made excellent targets for British and French snipers.” Tris ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/14 "2000-08-26T05:52:51Z")
I cite Alistair Horne’s {i]The Price of Glory\*, although I’m not prepared to name the exact page or quote just yet. I do, however, have my roommate, the unregistered PoopOnYou, who upon finding me frantically paging through the aforementioned book suggested, “why don’t you ask that guy to look at a _real_ German helmet instead of those piece-of-shit biker helmets that those f\*cking Harley riders wear?” PoopOnYou rides a Honda, and a Shoei helmet, in case you are wondering. One of the partially successful demonstrations of a similar helmet worn by him was prominently displayed here for awhile, after a long skid along the pavement at Deal’s Gap. Perhaps I will convince him to register. Meet him at the BBQ, should he elect to sign up. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/15 "2000-08-26T05:57:51Z")
BTW, that superprior post was not intended as a French joke. ---
**Author:** ![Danielinthewolvesden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Danielinthewolvesden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danielinthewolvesden)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/16 "2000-08-26T06:42:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sofa King \* > \*\*BTW, that superprior post was not intended as a French joke. \*\* Nor did we think it was funny, even in French. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2000, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointy-prussian-helmets/30744/17 "2000-08-28T01:54:55Z")
**Tris** Thanks for correcting me. My exposure to spiked helmets had been limited to pre-war ones. And I _know_ they didn’t unscrew. You would think I would investigate before making such a statement.