DDR Die Arbeitsschutzhelme-for the ZV

[Gordon Craig]

Gents,

The title is a general term for workers protective helmets. They were often standard hard hats used by individual organizations in the DDR. Sometimes there was a crest on them and sometimes not. An example of some of the organizations that wore helmets like the ones pictured, or similar ones, while working was the DRK, ZV, Volkespolizei, and the Betriebsschutze. Both these helmets come from a trip to the basement of Nico's shop!

The first one is a standard type of protective helmet often worn in building trades. It has a small ZV decal on the front. There is an adjustable nine finger liner as well as two nylon straps to help absorb the shock of blows to the head. The chin strap is of the Y type design. There are leather tabs around the circumference of the interior for attaching a neck flap which did not come with the helmet.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

A side view of this helmet.

[Gordon Craig]

The interior showing the liner and the chin strap.

[Gordon Craig]

These next pictures show a completely different helmet. Nither Nico or I had seen this particular design before. Whereas the previous helmet is made of fibreglass, this helmet appears to have been made from high impact plastic in an injection mold. It is a two piece helmet with the brim and the rain channel forming one part while the body of the helmet forms a separate part. They are held together with opaque plastic rivets. The liner is a much simpler plastic piece with a single piece of leather as a chin strap. The decal on the front of the helmet is much larger.

[Gordon Craig]

The side view of this helmet.

[Gordon Craig]

The interior showing the simplified liner and chin strap.

[Gordon Craig]

Some time ago, Olivier started a thread on the Wehrmacht Awards DDR Forum to try and find out what the meaning of the numbers, preceeded by a large "S", was on the bottom of the plastic brims of peaked caps. At that time, I suggested they were mold marks IE they indicate the number of the mold used to make the brims. There were some who agreed and no doubt some who disagreed. The next photo shows these same markings on the bottom of the brim of this protective helmet and leaves no doubt in my mind that these marks on both the hat pictured here and the brims of peaked caps are mold marks.

Regards,

Gordon