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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Where is Kaiser Wilhelm ii’s Pickelhaube?


PrussianGarde

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I have been reasearching but I can’t find anything about it, does anyone know where it is?

589A68FE-F6A9-4A02-8513-FC16626F6306.jpeg

Edited by PrussianGarde
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Presumably he took it with him he he fled and it now resides, like the rest of his possessions, in the hands of his surviving family, which is his sole descendant, a g-g-grandson. Maybe he's wearing it in his crypt!

 

Cheers,

Derek.

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The Kaiser had uniforms of every conceivable regiment, so he must have had a lot of Pickelhaubes.

 

But at least one of them is in the archives of Huis Doorn, in the Netherlands where the Kaiser lived in exile.

1654702422_apickel.jpg.5f0a00f2b20bb203d063eb3fb888b01c.jpg

See this youtube clip of Boudewijn Buch visiting the curator of Huis Doorn for a tour of the archives, with amongst many many other things one of the Kaiser's Pickelhaubes.

From 15.55 , where the curator is unpacking a Pickelhaube (all in Dutch ofcourse)

 

 

 

*edit* now with correct link to the youtube video

Edited by JWK
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This thread has resurrected a memory of mine from long ago, possibly from as far back as the late 1960s. Admittedly memory can play tricks at that distance, but I distinctly recall reading in the newspaper (we took the Telegraph) that Kaiser Wilhelm's Garde du Corps pickelhaube was to be auctioned. I wasn't a collector then (too young to have any money) but I thought at the time what a fantastic piece that would be to own. I am pretty sure I subsequently read that it made about £100, which is obviously worth a lot more in today's money but still struck me as ridiculously cheap even then. So it's somewhere in private hands, hopefully still with its provenance.

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Maybe not strictly relevant, but back in the 1970s when I collected medals, I recall reading a piece in a related collecting magazine about the Kaiser's medals & decorations.  A photo of them was printed, with a Garde du Corps pickelhaube in the middle of them as laid out.  At this distance in time, I can't swear it was his.  The medals however belonged to a British collector, and he loaned them to the BBC for one or two of the scenes of their 13-part drama "Fall of Eagles" (1974).  It noted that he fastened them himself on the actor playing Wilhelm, and was hovering nervously behind the camera during the filming!

 

Clive

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I have visited the house, but only on the outside.

huis doorn.jpg

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