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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

german soldier named pheiffer


ireland12345

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:mellow:Hello ,recently purchased a stunning ww1 picklehaube,found in a barn in france thirteen years ago.The English guy had been restoring barn when he came across i,full of glorious dust, and cobwebs, he left it on display as found.when i got it recently i cleaned only the inner back peak, and much info was written on the helm,its dated 1912,and has a jr but cant make out the rest.It also has written by the bavarian soldier it belongs to the name( pheiffer)well we can easily narrow down soldier pheiffer belongs  to  a bavarian regiment.There is a cross in the middle of the Bavarian wappen/plate,which might narrow, it down further as most bavarian plates iv seen dont have this.Its a facinating piece im delighted to have bought,and look forward to more research on imperial german soldier Pheiffer,James.ps i dont intend to restore it one bit,im leaving it on display with its 100 year old dust.

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The cross normally indicates the helmet being from a Landwehr unit.

Edited by Jools mckenna
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All that I can tell you is that the man that wore your helmet survived. As there is only one Pheiffer is on the German Verlustlisten and he is from a Prussian regiment.

Edited by Jools mckenna
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Great find! (And don't clean it: imo a dusty helmet tells a story, a cleaned helmet doesn't)

If the surname is indeed Pheiffer (with an H, as opposed to Pfeiffer with an F) it's a rather uncommon German surname apparenty.

100 years later only some 10 Pheiffers in Germany, with only 1 or two living in or around Munich/Bavaria:

https://www.kartezumnamen.eu/en/index.php?sur=pheiffer&s=Search

 

There is indeed only one Prussian Pheiffer on the Verlustliste (although Ancestry lists 2 more?),

but there's also one Pheiffer, further details unknown, buried in Avricourt (as per the Volksbund)

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Dear ireland12345,

Obviously I have not seen the writing in the helmet, but I would almost certainly say the name of the soldier was Pfeiffer (rather than Pheiffer ).

I have never seen such spelling as the latter in all my decades in Germany - whereas Pfeiffer is quite a common name...

Kindest regards,

Kim.

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13 hours ago, Jools mckenna said:

All that I can tell you is that the man that wore your helmet survived. As there is only one Pheiffer is on the German Verlustlisten and he is from a Prussian regiment.

Im sure there would have been more german soldiers named pheiffer in the imperial german army,anyway this one definately has a bavarian plate on it, James.

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12 hours ago, Kimberley John Lindsay said:

Dear ireland12345,

Obviously I have not seen the writing in the helmet, but I would almost certainly say the name of the soldier was Pfeiffer (rather than Pheiffer ).

I have never seen such spelling as the latter in all my decades in Germany - whereas Pfeiffer is quite a common name...

Kindest regards,

Kim.

yes you would of course be right i looked at the signature and then wrote out of my head for the forum  the lettering weeks later,James.

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12 hours ago, JWK said:

Great find! (And don't clean it: imo a dusty helmet tells a story, a cleaned helmet doesn't)

If the surname is indeed Pheiffer (with an H, as opposed to Pfeiffer with an F) it's a rather uncommon German surname apparenty.

100 years later only some 10 Pheiffers in Germany, with only 1 or two living in or around Munich/Bavaria:

https://www.kartezumnamen.eu/en/index.php?sur=pheiffer&s=Search

 

There is indeed only one Prussian Pheiffer on the Verlustliste (although Ancestry lists 2 more?),

but there's also one Pheiffer, further details unknown, buried in Avricourt (as per the Volksbund)

yes im leaving it in all its dusty, and old glory.All the helmets i collect have to be in similar conditions or im not interested in buying them.its in  exstensive age patina which as you say tell a story. I have to enlist the help of a tech savy person,this will of course mean a kid to upload pictures for me ,James.

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Does the plate on the Pickelhaube look like this?

hp4e.jpg

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Here is a daft question.

Given that it has been neglected and stuck in the cold of an old barn for many years.

Has it lost any possible original size.

 

Has it shrunk ?

 

 

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18 hours ago, Jools mckenna said:

Does the plate on the Pickelhaube look like this?

hp4e.jpg

 

18 hours ago, Martin Feledziak said:

Here is a daft question.

Given that it has been neglected and stuck in the cold of an old barn for many years.

Has it lost any possible original size.

 

Has it shrunk ?

 

The stiching from the front peak to the back peak has rotted,the helmet is slightly mis shapen.The brass  fitiings are all there including one original cocade,obviosuly discoloured.The spike is in still nice condition although  discoloured a little, it still has its chinstrap ,inveitably the rodents have chewed the liner into near oblivian,and the chinstrap has suffered a bit of knawing.overall its one of the most interesting, and dare i say exiting items in my collection.It will remain with all the decades of barn debri ect untouched for display,James.ps all leather picklehaubes from ww1 they say shrink a little.i would think as the leather dried out in this case it resulted in a slight mishapen appearance,but that all to the good,its telling the story that it is indeed a ww1 imperial german soldiers spiked helmet .

 

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19 hours ago, Jools mckenna said:

Does the plate on the Pickelhaube look like this?

hp4e.jpg

yes it looks like that one although the brass is heavily discoloured,James

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44 minutes ago, ireland12345 said:

yes it looks like that one although the brass is heavily discoloured,James

Yep, your pickelhaube is from a Bavarian Landwehr regiment.

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