NAZI M34 DOUBLE DECAL FEUERSCHUTZPOLIZEI HELMET

The stamped, sheet steel construction, civic M34 helmet retains most of its original black satin finish paint . The left side of the helmet has a silver bordered, black based, police decal with the second pattern, silver, wreathed police eagle as introduced on July 28TH 1936. The decal is retained about 95%. The right side of the helmet has a party shield decal which is retained about 98%. The helmet has two separate, groups of seven, "salt & pepper" ventilation holes positioned on each side of the crown. All four of the flat headed liner retaining rivets are intact. Complete liner and chinstrap system. Size marked 56. Super nice helmet. The first "modern" steel helmets were introduced by the French army in early 1915 and were shortly followed by the British army later that year. With plans on the drawing board, experimental helmets in the field, ("Gaede" helmet), and some captured French and British helmets the German army began tests for their own steel helmet at the Kummersdorf Proving Grounds in November, and in the field in December 1915. An acceptable pattern was developed and approved and production began at Eisen-und Hüttenwerke, AG Thale/Harz, in the spring of 1916. These first modern M16 helmets evolved into the M18 helmets by the end of WWI. The M16 and M18 helmets remained in usage through-out the Weimar Reichswehr era and on into the early years of the Third Reich until the development of the smaller, lighter M35 style helmet in June 1935. In an effort to reduced construction time and labor costs minor modifications were introduced in March 1940 resulting in the M40 helmet. Further construction modifications were undertaken in August 1942 resulting in the M42 helmet. Beside the basic army style helmets the Germans also produced a wide variety of civic style helmets with no fewer then nine assorted variants of the model M34. These civic style helmets were utilized by assorted civilian and para-military organizations including the police. Shortly after Hitler ascension to power in January 1933 regulations indicated that police helmets were to have a canted white swastika applied to the right side and the Prussian state color shield applied to the left side until further regulations of April 23RD 1934 altered the Prussian state shield to the national tri-color shield. On June 17TH 1936, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler was appointed to the newly created position of Chef der Deutschen Polizei im Reichsministerium des Innern, (Chief of the German Police in the National Ministry of the Interior), effectively giving him full control of all police agencies within Germany. As a result of this appointment and the restructuring of all the separate German state police into a single national police force new regulations were instituted to bring about uniformity in dress for all police through-out the country including the Feuerschutzpolizei, (Fire Protection Police). The new dress regulations included an attempt to standardize the helmets of the police. On July 28TH 1936 regulations once again altered the insignia on the police helmets with the new wreathed police eagle emblem to be applied to the left side of the helmet and the NSDAP party shield applied to the right side. The July 1936 police helmet insignia was utilized for the duration of the war.