Original German M34 Helmet?

[chbingle]

I picked up this German M34 Police Helmet at an antique shop a few months ago. The decals look old and are stuck to the helmet very well, the leather is dry and worn, the inside of the helmet appears to be stamped "Edelstahl", and the helmet appears old as well, but I just wanted to see if anyone else could help me determine if it's indeed genuine or not. The liner may not be original to the helmet, and I know nothing about the "Edelstahl" stamp, so any advice or info would be appreicated, Thanks!




(I have no idea why my pictures are always flipped, sorry!)

 

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[namxat]

Ummh, well yes, no, maybe all at the same time!

The black helmets with ventilation holes were issued to the fire brigades in the third reich.

The fire brigade was at this time part of the police force ("Feuerschutzpolizei"), so if it is a period piece the claim that it is a police helmet would be technically true.

The helmets were produced quite a while after the war and were often (with covered holes or not) covered with nazi decals and sold often as original pieces.

"Edelstahl" means stainless steel. This makes me a little wary since at least for combat purposes steel helmets were never produced in stainless steel. Putting any metllurgical things to the side, the alloy metals needed for stainless steel were inshort supply during the war and I personally doubt that they would have been wasted on fire department helmets.

Nevertheless maybe some Stahlhelm experts will have better answers.

Greeetings

Namxat

 

[AlienLifeForm]

Liner might be authentic, but my repro-o-meter is pinging on the shell itself.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Looks like a perfectly good original to me. The fire and police helmets are fairly common, I think a lot of post war occupation troops sent them home thinking they were SS because they were black and had the swastika on them. Still a very nice find!

The paint and decals look good, the liner is original period, and it has a nice color to it, check the split rivets that hold it to the shell, if they are nice and tight and don't appear to be messed with that is a good indication that the liner has been there the whole time. Also on the liner band there are leather tabs that are to attach a leather neck shield, which ID's it as a fire fighters helmet. The only issues I see with it are the broken chin strap (what is it repaired with) and it's missing the cord in the tongues of the liner, neither of which are a really big deal. I can see an ink stamp in there as well, what does it say?

 

[chbingle]

Looks like a perfectly good original to me. The fire and police helmets are fairly common, I think a lot of post war occupation troops sent them home thinking they were SS because they were black and had the swastika on them. Still a very nice find!

The paint and decals look good, the liner is original period, and it has a nice color to it, check the split rivets that hold it to the shell, if they are nice and tight and don't appear to be messed with that is a good indication that the liner has been there the whole time. Also on the liner band there are leather tabs that are to attach a leather neck shield, which ID's it as a fire fighters helmet. I can see an ink stamp in there as well, what does it say?

View attachment 1434638

Awesome! The stamp on the liner says "Feuer-Luftschutz Lüning Galaenkircen". It's a little worn so I could have a typo in there, any idea what it means? I thought "Luftschutz" meant air-defense?

 

[diggummup]

I liked it but didn't know enough about helmets to chime in. Glad to hear it's a good one.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

"Feuer-Luftschutz" Is basically Civil Defense Fire Brigade, Gelsenkirchen is a city in Germany, and "Lüning" will be the name of the company that manufactured the helmet, but I couldn't find any info on it and the list of known makers has question marks by this one...

RL2-38/28 Paul Diener, Dresden
RL2-38/29 Eisenhüttenwerk Thale, Thale (Harz)
RL2-38/30 H. Becker & Co., Berlin
RL2-38/31 Maury & Co., Offenbach
RL2-38/42 unbekannt
RL2-39/1 A. Wunderlich Nachfahre, Berlin-Neu Kölln
RL2-39/2 Bath & Wagara, Dresden
RL2-39/4 unbekannt
RL2-39/10 Rafflenbeul & Sohn, Hückeswagen (Rhld.)
RL2-39/11 Carl Busse, Mainz
RL2-39/12 Robert Lubstein, Berlin
RL2-39/14 Hans Römer, Neu Ulm
RL2-39/20 Albert Diedrich Domeyer, Bremen
RL2-39/21 F.W. Quist, Esslingen
RL2-39/24 Westfälische Aluminiumindustrie Jürger & Co.,
Lüdenscheid
RL2-39/25 Eisenhüttenwerk Thale, Thale (Harz)
RL2-39/26 H. Becker & Co., Berlin
RL2-39/30 Carl Busse, Mainz
RL2-39/38 Maury & Co., Offenbach
RL2-39/40 unbekannt
RL2-39/42 Gustav Rudolph Stanz-, Preß- und Ziehwerk,
Bernsbach / Erzgeb.
RL2-40/1 Sächsische Emaillier- und Stanzwerke, Lauter
RL2-40/2 Lüning (?), Gelsenkirchen (?) <----------------------****
RL2-40/12 Alfred Landmann, Dresden
RL2-40/13 Hans Römer, Neu-Ulm
RL2-40/14 E. Martin Scheithauer KG, Zwönitz / Sachsen
RL2-40/16 Maury & Co., Offenbach
RL2-40/21 unbekannt

It's a nice helmet, I wish I could find them around here, my M-42 looks kind of lonely sitting on a shelf with just a gas mask to keep it company....

 

[NOLA_Ken]

"Edelstahl" means stainless steel.
Namxat

In this case "Edelstahl" translates to "Improved steel" No German combat or civil helmets have ever been made of stainless as there would be absolutely no difference in strength but quite a lot higher cost. The "Edelstahl" helmets are just made with a light weight steel, and are 100% authentic. If you EVER see that mark on a helmet that claims to be anything other than a civil helmet, be VERY WARY of it, it is almost certainly a fake paint job. BUT.... there's always a but.... Some civil helmets were repainted during the war and given to the Volkssturm, none of these will have Wehrmacht decals, and especially not SS decals, and you'll need to have someone who is an expert in period paint look them over, the ones I've seen the paint was done with a brush, and it was obvious, some you can still see the police or Luftshutz decals as well.....

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