There were three basic types of leather helmets.

1. The Lederhelm used by most of the German military.

2. The Tschako which was used by machine gun, avaition, train, jager, telegraph, and home garde units.

3. The third type is the unique Tschapka used by the Ulanen units.

There were two basic types of metallhelms.

1. The Kurassier with a "lobster tail" type construction.

2. The second type is he Jager zu Pferd.

The Pelzmutze for the officers before 1912 were made of Otter. After 1912 they would use gray Opossum.

The helmet for the enlisted man was made of black Sealskin.

During WWI helmets were made from paper, felt, tin amd combinations of these materials. Above is pictured two felt helmets and a tin helmet.

The Bavarian Army did not adopt the German style of helmet until 1886. Until that time they wore the Raupenhelm. The top piece was made of bearskin for he officers and lamb of the enlisted. The above is a lamb type helmet.

The metal combat helmet was introduced in 1916. The helmet had modifications to the liner as the war progressed. The style of he helmets, M1916, M1917 and M1918 can be seen by the location of a rivet or the lack of a rivet, on the helmet.

A shield was developed for the front of the helmet to help protect the soldiers head as it went above the trench. These are very heavy and make it hard to keep the helmet on correctly. The shield would hook on the two projections on the front of the helmet. A strap would go around he back of the helmet to keep the shield in place.