Original German Pre-WWII M34 Square Dip Early First Pattern Fire Protection Police Helmet with Double Decals Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice genuine steel construction M34 “Square Dip” Third Reich helmet, outfitted for German WWII Fire protection police (Feuerschutzpolizei) issue, as they were issued very early during NSDAP rule in Germany. Features genuine double decals of of a Swas (hook cross) on the right, and a tilted national colors decal on the left. Comes with complete leather liner with all all three hollow rivets still intact, with very good exterior paint.

The exterior of this German helmet retains about 90% of the original paint, showing small dents, chips, and scratches consistent with service. The Swas decal is retained at about 90% complete, and the National Colors is about 95% complete, with a bit of flaking. Both have a nice mellowed brownish tinge to the enamel top layer, giving them a great worn look. Over the right ear is a partial maker logo over D.R.P.ang., a known marking on early M34 Civic Square Dip helmets, which we unfortunately have not been able to identify.

The leather liner is in very good condition, and still has all 8 fingers, though the top tie string is missing. It has a felt padded fiber band, and has cork around the entire outside, with extra cork padding around the three attachment rivets. The chin strap is present and intact, showing wear as expected for a helmet of this age. The liner still retains the five leather “tabs” that would allow attachment of the rear skirt.

This particular helmet has some very interesting early issue features, most notable of which are the perforated vents on each side of the helmet. These vents are inserts, which were only seen on the very earliest issue helmets. Later the vents were just punched out of the helmet shell directly. This helmet also has separate rivets just for the chin strap in addition to the three holding in the liner. A very interesting early version of this helmet.

This helmet also does have the three holes on the top for mounting of a comb, but they are filled with large oval split pins, definitely showing it is a fire helmet, that was issued without the comb.

Overall a great opportunity to get great example of a very early WWII Civic Fire Police helmet. Ready to display!

Prior to 1929 many fire-fighting units used leather helmets in various styles with most appearing similar to the leather spiked helmet (Pickelhaube) of World War I. These helmets bore a stamped metal crest on the front depicting the province or township to which the fire-fighting unit belonged.

In 1929 a light-weight plastic fiber (Vulkanfiber) helmet was prototyped for general use by all fire-fighting units. The first models were issued in 1932 and proved unworthy of further consideration. As a result a second prototype was explored using light-weight steel alloy known as “Edelstahl.” During this time leather fire-fighting helmets were slowly replaced with a combination of surplus World War I model steel helmets and privately manufactured versions in the “Austrian” pattern shell. These early helmets were generally painted black although some were left in their original field-gray World War I color.

In 1934 the light-weight steel alloy prototype helmet was approved for general use by all fire-fighting units. This helmet is designated the “M1934” by modern collectors because of the year of its introduction. Several different versions of the M1934 helmet exist with many variations resulting from subtle differences in the air vents or visors. The M1934 helmet was painted semi-gloss black inside and out with two insignia placed one on each side.

Fire Protection Police helmets were manufactured with and without an aluminum metal comb. In some cases the metal comb was also painted black. As a result of a large surplus, M1934 helmets without combs were issued in 1940 for general wear by all fire-fighting personnel. The helmets used typical civilian style liner systems and chinstraps. The liners were made so that they could accommodate a removable black leather neck shield.