Original German WWII Late Pattern Metropolitan Police Shako by EREL Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice 1936 Officers pattern Tschako, with the late pattern police green wool body and black leather trim. It has a very fine quality police officer eagle wappen (front plate) with aluminum Feldzeichen cockade (often missing). The chinstrap is a period replacement made from brown leather, usually used for the rural police. A great Polizei helmet (shako) as used by the metropolitan police! Unlike some of the more common ones found trimmed in brown for rural police, this one is with black trim for the municipal police.

The interior is in good shape, but definitely does show wear and deterioration to the leather liner. It is now partly torn, and the leather is definitely in delicate condition. The top tie strap has cracked and broken in places as well. It is marked with the retailer and maker on the inner dome top:

ROBERT LUBSTEIN
(Logo)
EREL
BERLIN NO 55

The mesh vents are in very good condition, with the sliding closures still present on both sides. They do move but can stick at times. With both the Maker and Retailer located in Berlin, we can probably assume that this was issued to a Police Officer in the Berlin Metropolitan area.

Overall condition is very good with a lovely worn patina, though it definitely does show some deterioration due to age and storage. The trip on the top is in great shape, while the lower trim and visors do show some age-related degradation. There is also a glue repaired crack through the rear visor. The brown leather chin strap definitely shows a bit of age as well, and there is wear to the fuzzy “nap” of the wool covering the main body of the shako.

A very nice service used example from one of Germany’s best manufactures of the time! Ready to display!

History of the shako-
The word shako originated from the Hungarian name csákós süveg (“peaked cap”), which was a part of the uniform of the Hungarian hussar of the 18th century. Other spellings include chako, czako, schako and tschako.

From 1800 on the shako became a common military headdress, worn by the majority of regiments in the armies of Europe and the Americas. Replacing in most instances the light bicorne, the shako was initially considered an improvement. Made of heavy felt and leather, it retained its shape and provided some protection for the soldier’s skull, while its visor shaded his eyes. The shako retained this pre-eminence until the mid-19th century, when spiked helmets began to appear in the armies of the various German States, and the more practical kepi replaced it for all but parade wear in the French Army. The Imperial Russian Army substituted a spiked helmet for the shako in 1844-45 but returned to the latter headdress in 1855, before adopting a form of kepi in 1864. Following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, military fashions changed and cloth or leather helmets based on the German headdress began to supersede the shako in many armies.

Although the mid-nineteenth century shako was impressive in appearance and added to the height of the wearer, it was also heavy and by itself provided little protection against bad weather as most models were made of cloth or felt material over a leather body and peak. Many armies countered this by utilizing specially designed oilskin covers to protect the shako and the wearer from heavy rain while on campaign. The shako provided little protection from enemy action as the most it could offer was in giving partial shielding of the skull from enemy cavalry sabers.