Information about a German helmet

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#1

Hello. I am a private investigator, and my current client is trying to discover the origin of some of his German WWII military items.

I am particularly struggling with the helmet he has given me. If anyone knows anything about it, or leads they can give me, so that I may help find the owner or at least the origin of this helmet. Here is as much detail as I could observe from it:

It is a classic German WWII helmet, called a stahlhelm. On one side is the black white and red shield, and on the other side is the Luftwaffe eagle (the eagle slanted forward) holding a swastika. It is a relatively small helmet: I am a female, and it does not fit my head. Of course the leather inside is aged. There is a name on the inner back side of the helmet, in white paint, that says JOOP. There is also a serial number, or a stamped number. It is N105. That is about all we have. It is in not the best condition, so obviously it was worn during the war.

If there is anything that anyone could tell me, that would help me a lot. Thank you!

#2

As I recall, you stated that you were an Au Pair,shirt tail relative of Manfred Von Richtofen, who wasn’t living in Texas. (even though your IP still insists that you are) changing your name by adding a hyphen isnt much of a distraction.

#3

GRRRRR. This website makes me very very angry.
I AM A GERMAN AU PAIR THAT LIVES IN COLORADO if you were wondering. I am a relative of Manfred von Richthofen. I love investigation shows, and have helped people in the past discover their relatives. so, I decided to be a small private investigetor in colorado because here we dont need a lisence. And somebody is paying me to find this information. I use this site because, on a previous investigation case, this website helped me very much. the reason i used a hyphen is because i don’t remember the password for my other account. Why is EVERYBODY on this website a complete jerk that has little interest in helping people.
And why do I have to justify myself to you? I was asking QUESTIONS. And you have done nothing to help me but question my origins which, for your infomation, is none of your business. IF you’re not going to help me, please don’t comment on this. you are wasting my time

BESIDES TANKGEEZER who has no interest in helping me, does anybody else have any information about the helmet??

#4

Screen shot 2012-01-11 at 7.22.29 PM.png

I live in Denver Colorado, dumbass. Look at the IP address info above. Its an attached file -_-

#5

IP 72.37.249.172 which is the one you used when signing up this time, and is oddly enough, nowhere within the range shown in your screen shot, and is listed as origintating in Texas.(as was the other one you used) I know this because I am a staff member, which makes everything posted on these boards my business. When people who have been troublsome in the past reappear, it tends to get our attention.
While you stridently cry foul, one cannot help but question your sincerity.
Now to your question, if the helmet does not fit an adult head, it is most probably one made for the Hitler youth. They were identified by a diamond shaped emblem on one side, red, and white with the swastika at the center.

#6

There are a lot of useful books on the subject if you are going to be an investigator, the few I have are listed below. These are not to mention the many dozens of books about uniforms and insignia. I will often help people out voluntarily for their personal use, helping someone who wishes to personally and commercially profit by someone elses efforts (and my outlay and costs in books and time) is a little galling. Taken all together all the books I have on German Uniform Items alone runs into several hundreds if not thousands of pounds.

German Helmets of the Second World War by Branislav Radovic, Vol 1 and 2
SS Helmets a collectors guide by Kelly Hicks
The History of the german Steel Helmet 1916 to 1945 by Ludwig Baer
Wehrmacht Combat Helmets 1933 to 1945 (Osprey) by Brian Bell

As a little example you say it is a typical German WW2 Helmet called a Stahlhelm well there are at least 55 variants used in WW2 (Stahlhelm means Steel Helmet).

#7

Tangeezer,
I AM NOT FROM TEXAS. And by the way you are no help to me. It’s not a Hitler youth helmet. I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO TEXAS. Do you want me to stand outside and take a picture of myself IN FRONT OF THE COLORADO ROCKY MOUNTAINS to prove it to you? And I was never troublesome in the past. You insisted on badgering me, because obviously you have nothing better to do than to annoy people. On my last account, I only asked for information regarding a picture (WHICH IS WHAT THIS WEBSITE IS ABOUT), and commented on a red baron forum topic, offering mine and my family’s opinion on the subject. I DON’T CARE IF YOU BELIEVE ME OR NOT. PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE. Last time, I wrote an angry letter to the owner of this website, and I described how displeased I was with how I was terribly treated on this website. I feel like doing it again. Thank you for nothing.

Dear leccy,
Thank you very much for not being a jerk and getting back to me professionally. I will look into those books. I have researched another helmet for a ‘client’ before, and I actually got as far as identifying whom it belonged to. Granted, there was more information attached with the helmet, but I sort of have high hopes in doing it again. I doubt, however, that with only a serial number, insignia, and name, I could find the owner. I realize that there are many variations of the stahlhelm, but this one is as generic as it gets. I will research those books for a more accurate description, but the one I have is simply the classic German ‘nazi’ helmet. The one we see in the movies all the time. So thank you once again for your help.

#8

Well Red, you got the Staff’s attention, and you may expect scrutiny because of it. I am unconcerned if you like it or not.

#9

The German steel helmet was produced in five sizes and four intermediate sizes.
The smallest size (‘60’) should fit a head perimeter of 50 cm (~ 19.7 inches).
If it’s smaller it may be a replica.

#10

Thanks flametrhowerguy!
I actually didn’t think to measure it. Now I will.

#11
  1. Threatening the mods like that is the equivalent of going crying to a teacher claiming that “a big boy did it and ran away”. Our task is to keep order and give the order of the golden boot to known or suspected trolls where appropriate. Actions like this are classic trolling behaviour and have caused the situation to turn from a single mod giving you a friendly warning to the entire mod team keeping an eye on you as a possible troublemaker.
  2. Multiple usernames are against the forum rules. Do it again and I’ll ban all of them.
  3. Your current IP address shows as coming from Houston, Texas. Your previous IP address came from Muskogee, Oklahoma, through the same ISP. You have multiple accounts using different email addresses, even different stated timezones. Your claimed IP address is for a different company to that which you use to access the boards. All this is the classic behaviour of trolls, and as such Tankgeezer’s polite comment to let you know that you’re being watched is entirely appropriate.

In short, you’re still welcome to post on here but if you continue as you have been that welcome will rapidly evaporate. Consider this an official warning.

#12

That’s nice for you, but why should the rest of us, who don’t get paid for anything we do on this site, help you to make money by providing you with information for free that you’re going to sell to your client?

That’s nice for you, Sherlock Holmes, but I doubt that many, if any, members feel honoured that you’ve come back to repeat your exploitation of this site for your personal financial and career gain.

As for writing angry letters to the site owner, how about enclosing a cheque next time? The owner doesn’t get bandwidth for free, unlike the information you expect to get from the site.

#13

RS posts never fails to make me smile,. even its against me :slight_smile:

#14

As one of the other contributors already mentioned, Branislav Radovic is a good starting point for the information you seek. He’s my ex-husband so accept my assurance that he is an acknowledged expert on helmets, particularly German combat helmets of the Second World War. He is on Facebook under the name Brana Radovic and I’m sure that if you send him an email, he’ll help if he can. Do be aware though that he doesn’t look at his FB page that often. (He will get it eventually.) Hope this helps.

#15

Good grief! Do you have an answer to her question? Why do you even care if she is who she says she is? Reading through the board the past few days, as I just joined, there seems to be a who lot of this type of behavior. No good reason for it.

#16

In this particular case there is, relating to various behaviour which runs counter to the board rules. I’m not going to go into exactly what was involved, beyond the content of the official warning I gave higher up the page.This is the sort of thing that leads to slagging matches, so I’m locking this thread.

#17

Retropotamus, you are necroposting to a thread started a year ago. But to answer your observation, Site staff is charged with maintaining site integrity for those legitimate users who sign up. We are also charged with investigating suspicious users, and dealing with any who would disrupt the site’s operations through trolling, spamming, or other fractious, or disingenuous behavior.
We are very keen to keep your experiences on this site free from problems of any kind, and this is a part of that effort. I disagree that there is no good reason for “it”,something you may come to realize as you gain experience with the Site. Thank you for your input, feel free to P.M. me, or other staff with any additional questions, or observations. -Tankgeezer- Ps. I’m the kindly one.

#18

Tankgeezer is a moderator and in that case he was dealing with a longstanding, known troll intentionally asking silly questions. Things do get contentious here at times, but that is the nature of the beast on a history board with many who have agendas that are less than open and truthful…