HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Here is a rarely encountered early 1930's commercially produced SS-Himmler style Duck Bill helmet in a satin black with it's original liner still in tact. Notice the protruding front bill and the overall low profile of the shell along with the lack of a chinstrap rivet and the almost horizontal alignment between the front retaining pin and side wall pin which is only seen on early 1930's SS parade helmets. These helmets were privately contracted in 1932/33 and were made exclusively Himmler's newly formed Allgemeine-SS. Back then the SS were not a priority within the Wehrmacht supply chain and so they were not able to get access to M16/17 or M18 helmets since in those early years they were not considered to be a combat organization but more so a political one.
At the time the main way of polishing the helmet for parade or guard duty was to buff the outside with some soft beeswax which is why the outside is generally a bit more shinier than the inside. The sheet steel construction retains about 90% of its original satin finish black overpaint. Liner is a wonderfully complete and sound condition with no tear or rips and bares the size stamp "58" with cork spacers only seen on these early 1930 commercial helmets and never on M17/17 or M18 earlier versions. Most of the original matching black chinstrap remains fully intact. Classic Himmler Duck Bill helmet produced in from 1932/33 and exclusively for the Allgemeine-SS. About half of the ones I have handled in person will lack any insignia whatsoever with about 1/4 having hand rendered decals by way of small paint brush in varying sizes and the remaining 1/4 very clean and neat where the soldier must have had access to some type of paper stencil. These practices ended around the year of 1935 when both standard SS decal shield decals were officially introduced and then widely adopted.
Most historical photos show these helmets being worn by black uniformed members of the Allgemeine-SS at important SS buildings, parade squares or special guard duty for higher ranking SS officials. A definite gem and hard to find in all original condition like this one. The few I've seen were mostly bikerized, chrome dipped or repainted post war as a WW1 helmet. Anecdotally speaking there just can't be too many untouched survivors out there. The last two photos show two other known examples of SS-Himmler style Duck Bill helmets for comparison.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
At the beginning of this month I spent 10 days visiting my older brother in a south eastern district of Berlin called the Aldershoff. I included some of my scanned photos of some S-Bahn (subway) tickets as proof of being there.
My brother is a history buff just like I am and is an avid picker and flea market blood hound scouring throughout the countryside as well as outdoor markets scattered all over the city. Here you can find 1950's Eames armchairs, 800 proof silver cutlery, old German military service photo albums, expired WW2 passports, vintage jewelry and basically anything that a household liquidators would think has value and therefore sell to one of these outdoor "junk dealers". While I was there we visited 8 outdoor markets and only 2 of them had anything helmet, uniform, cap, insignia or medal related from WW2 but at least when you find something know it's distinctly German and came more or less direct from a veteran of the war. Most of the time you have to ask the guy for more sensitive items like SS insignia or helmets with decals and he'll go into bins in his van and show you things on the side so no one is offended and complains to the police about it. The law in Germany is basically that you cannot display the "bent cross" symbol in public so they mainly just use stickers to cover up symbols which basically makes it legally for them to sell it outside.
This helmet is a rare find as most of these I believe were melted down after the war and re-issued in the post war industry since they are light weight meaning they have a higher cobalt and aluminum content that your standard German helmet. Many of these are badly dented on the top dome from being dropped on a parade square but this one is in great condition. The seller told me that from his time cleaning out flats/apartments in Berlin and he believed that it was original but seemed to be more of a medals and insignia dealer and so I just don't think his helmet knowledge was all that strong. He kept referring to it as a "security guard" helmet but I believe he just meant it was for ceremonial duty or light guard duty. He didn't seem to realize this was a rare Himmler DuckBill helmet.
This helmet was a private contract helmet produced only for the SS who didn't have regular access to Wehrmacht stockpiles and so were considered at the time to be a non-combat force and so interestingly enough had to hire small helmet firms to make their own helmets. In this case the helmet was modeled from an M18 with a protruding front rim. This is clearly an SS Himmler style helmet because of the position of the chinstrap rivet which is higher up than on M16's almost on the same horizontal plane as the helmet liner rivets. This outside rivet placement is unique to the DuckBill Himmler SS helmet as is the fact that the helmet remains completely unmarked on the inside as this was not produced by one of the 5 major helmet manufacturers.
The chinstrap is the early 1930's transitional style with a roller buckle and 3 padded liner system. As the liner and chinstrap are both permanently riveted in place we never have to worry about them being tampered with or removed so this is a 100% untouched original example. The paint colors seem a bit weird as there seems to be a gray/blue layer of paint with some reddish brown paint in places all painted over in a satin black parade finish. I can't say weather or not they were priming these helmets at the time or if this helmet was originally intended for some other use at the time that required it be a gray blue color. The paint is clearly old and even cracking in areas which is generally a very good sign. The decals are both hand rendered possibly by stencil and I have had similar helmets before from my travels to Berlin but as this example is not factory stock I really cannot authenticate it 100% without an XRF scan or the ability to accurately date old paint.
The buyer is best advised to use the photos provided and make their own determination of whether or not the decals are period applied or not.
Asking price I believe to be very reasonable all things considered. Definitely a great looking helmet to display on your shelves as an early SS-Allgemeine helmet before they became the Waffen-SS (fighthing force).
$950 HOLD - (Tom-NY)
Please call, text or email me if interested.
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