Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very good condition Genuine WWI Austro-Hungarian Model 1917 helmet with an original standard Olive Green / Brown "Isonzo braun" paint. The paint is well retained, something we do not often see, as many of these helmets were repainted during the war or after. The helmet retains the very weak oilcloth liner with all three pads, but the chinstrap is a post-war leather replacement. Wartime Austro-Hungarian chinstraps were always hemp. All three liner split pins are intact, with the correct thicker pin in the rear.

Many of these were only ever marked by the maker with an ink stamp, and this example actually retains the outline of one to the right of the right side chinstrap bale. It’s a square stamp, but the wording inside can no longer be read. The sort step ventilation lugs indicate that the helmet is either size 66 or 68, but we are leaning more towards 66.

The top of the crown on the exterior of the helmet is stamped with a heat lot number:

P
36

The P prefix is associated in surviving Austro-Hungarian helmet references with Poldihütte, one of the steel producers supplying plate for wartime helmet manufacture, while 36 represents the corresponding production or lot number.

It is very common to find heat lot stamps on the crown of Austrian M17s. The Isonzo brown paint is retained at roughly 75% with some moderate wear throughout. The thin oilcloth liner has thin metal grommets reinforcing the holes on the pads. All Austro-Hungarian made liners have small black-finished metal eyelets. One of the three pads retains the interior pillow, a lovely red with black polkadots. Austrian liner pillows were often made from scrap materials and it is always a treat getting to see the variation. The three pads are joined by a small piece of twine. One pad is missing a grommet and the same pad has some tearing. The chinstrap is a post-war example, made from leather, but it looks fine on the helmet.

The Austro-Hungarian M17 was closely based on the German M16 Stahlhelm but incorporated several distinctive manufacturing and equipment differences. The Austrian chinstrap attachment rivets were positioned higher on the shell, the liner and chinstrap arrangements differed from their German counterparts, and manufacturer and steel-production markings were frequently applied in different locations or by ink rather than permanent stamping.

This example is especially attractive for the survival of approximately 75% of its brownish olive wartime finish, original three-pad liner, all three liner-retaining pins, faint square ink maker or inspection stamp, short large-size ventilation lugs, and exterior P / 36 Poldihütte steel-lot marking. The leather chinstrap is a later replacement, but the principal shell, finish, liner, and manufacturing features remain strongly representative of an original Austro-Hungarian WWI M17 Stahlhelm.