Pickle Hats

Well, I'd originally planned to do issue six of my New Mexico saga this week…but, a couple of things got in the way. First, I worked myself ragged on some other projects. Second, I got a flu shot and that seems to have whacked me a bit. So, put 'em all together, and they spell I-Can't-Keep-My-Freaking-Eyes-Open.

So, instead of New Mex, here's some Intermezzi:

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As an historian, I'm sometimes astonished by the difference between the present and the past. Things which seemed perfectly sensible then would seem laughable (at best) today. And vice versa, I'm sure.

Take for example, the Pickelhaube. Yes, it does look like Pickle Hat. No, it doesn't have anything to do with forking out cucumbers in brine. Instead, it is the German word for a spiked helmet. That's the one you see in pictures of Prussian troops...the one with what looks like a spear point sticking out of the top.

After the Franco-Prussian War, everyone was so impressed with the Germans that a number of different armies actually adopted or adapted the Pickelhaube for their forces. There were British spiked helmets, Chilean spiked helmets, and even American spiked helmets.

I've never understood that.

I mean, how threatening can you be if it looks like the Jolly Green Giant is, at any moment, going to grab you by the ankles, flip you upside down, and use you as a garden implement?

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Before someone jumps on me, I ought to mention that the Prussian Pickelhaube was not necessarily a German invention. There have been spiked helmets for centuries (the spike actually deflects a downward slash of a sword) and they may have been first introduced (or re-introduced) to modern European armies by the Russians.

So, the Pickelhaube is ancient and venerable.

But, even so…

Damned but if it's always looked to me like some clown's idea of a way to pick up trash while doing somersaults.

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But seriously…

For a cool example of a British Pickelhaube, track down the portrait of Sir Frank Swettenham by the American painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Swettenham was the British governor of what is now Malaysia. Sargent's portrait of him shows a man resplendent in a white uniform, a white spiked helmet in the chair next to him. (See here, for example, http://jssgallery.org/Paintings/Sir_Frank_Swettenham.htm)

Meanwhile, here's a site with images of American Pickelhaube, http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=17628

And, lest we forget, here's a site that deals with the Prussian original, http://www.kaisersbunker.com/pe/. (BTW, I love dachshund in the Pickelhaube.)


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Finally, I gather that after World War I, the Pickelhaube died out in military dress (at least, outside the German speaking world) and pretty much vanished entirely after World War II.

Sad for the hat, I suppose, but, in the long run, a good thing. I mean, I have friends in the military. It's hard enough for them to stow their gear as it is. Imagine a modern government issue Pickelhaube. Going though airport security would be a nightmare. And getting it in the overhead compartment?

Sheer hell.

Maybe worse than combat.