Uniforms and Equipment of the Old Army - Cavalry - Cuirassiers - The Officers' Helmet

The helmet of the officers of most line cuirassier regiments was made of bright-polished steel. The scale chains and their rosettes were gilded.

Since 22.02.1843 the cuirassiers fundamentally wore helmets of bright-polished iron with brass fittings and curved scale chains.

However, the Regiment der Gardes du Corps — like the Guard Cuirassier Regiment and Cuirassier Regiment No. 6 — wore helmets and scale chains of tombak with fittings of nickel silver.

The helmet of the aforementioned units nevertheless also followed the general development of the cuirassier helmet itself.

The fittings on the iron helmets were of brass, on the tombak helmets of nickel silver.

The officers' helmet differed from that of the other ranks by several special features.

Thus the base of the spike neck was in four parts. The rivets did not have a star shape.

The spike itself was always made from the metal of the helmet bowl. On officers it was fluted six times.

There were ventilation holes in the spike neck. On officers these were in the shape of a cross.

The rosettes holding the scale chains had a cross shape (with clover leaves) on officers.

The helmet ornament for the Prussian (line) cuirassiers was the eagle, as with the infantry.

Regarding the helmet ornament there were, however, peculiarities in some line regiments, such as the Leib Cuirassier Regiment Großer Kurfürst (Silesian) No. 1.

This regiment wore helmets of white iron with yellow scale chains and a helmet ornament of brass. Initially the unit bore the heraldic eagle.

Later (1902) it received the Frederician eagle with the motto ribbon: PRO GLORIA ET PATRIA.

In this regiment, moreover, the scale chains on the helmet were flat with ridges at the sides.

The Cuirassier Regiment Königin (Pomeranian) No. 2 wore from 1861 a special helmet band which was intended to commemorate the Battle of Hohenfriedberg (see the Crown Prince photo above).

The Battle of Hohenfriedberg or Battle of Striegau took place on 4 June 1745 during the Second Silesian War.

The originally rather high helmet became progressively lower over time. Thus the helmet, for example, was made lighter in 1867.

In 1889 a new helmet model was introduced. Now the front brim was only bent once. In addition the helmet lost the ridge running along the back.

For officers, however, this ridge was retained, and the front brim remained square and twice ridged or double-curved.

The front brim of the officers' helmets was initially lacquered green; from about 1870 it was lined with green leather.

The rear brim was covered with black velvet.