Original Item: Only One Available. This is an original German WWII M34 “Square Dip” steel helmet configured for Ordnungspolizei civic police use, retaining both the police eagle decal and NSDAP shield decal. It is a steel shell example with most of its original satin black exterior paint, a complete civic style leather liner, all four original liner attachment split pins with cork spacers, and a faint Eisenhüttenwerke Thale maker marking inside the rear skirt.

The exterior retains most of its original satin black paint, with scattered scuffs and chips through to the steel, especially across the crown. Both decals are more than 90% retained and show light scratches, age discoloration, and surface wear while remaining strong and clearly defined.

The interior black paint is also very well preserved with little significant wear. On the rear skirt is a faint partial marking:

DRP
THALE

beneath a lion logo, indicating production by the Eisenhüttenwerke, Thale factory. This is the same factory that developed the M-35 lineage of helmets. A large letter:

A

is stamped nearby. The shell does not have provision for a top comb, which is consistent with police use rather than the fire service configuration. There is a maker name on the crown pad, which we were not able to read.

The helmet retains its civic style leather liner with nine fingers present and a perforated forehead section for ventilation. The liner is mounted to a fiber band padded with wool felt, and a leather crown pad is suspended beneath the dome by crossing fiber supports. All five tabs for attachment of a neck shield remain present. The liner top tie is missing.

All four original liner split pins remain installed with their cork spacers. The original chinstrap is completely absent, and torn stitching at the liner edge indicates where it was formerly attached.

Overall condition is very good, with strong surviving exterior and interior paint, both decals largely intact, complete liner structure, and the maker marking still faintly visible. The principal condition issues are crown paint loss and exposed steel, light decal wear, missing liner tie, and complete loss of the chinstrap.

With its M34 Square Dip steel shell, double police and NSDAP decals, strong satin black finish, complete civic liner with crown pad and neck shield tabs, four original split pins with cork spacers, and Eisenhüttenwerke Thale marking, this is a strong example of an Ordnungspolizei civic police helmet. It would display especially well in a German police headgear, M34 helmet, double decal civic police, Eisenhüttenwerke Thale, or advanced German WWII helmet collection.

The Ordnungspolizei, abbreviated Orpo, meaning "Order Police", were the uniformed police force in NSDAP Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo organization was absorbed into the NSDAP monopoly on power after regional police jurisdiction was removed in favor of the central N government ("Reich-ification", Verreichlichung, of the police). The Orpo was controlled, nominally by the Interior Ministry but its executive functions rested with the leadership of the SS until the end of World War II. Owing to their green uniforms, Orpo were also referred to as Grüne Polizei (green police). The force was first established as a centralized organization uniting the municipal, city, and rural uniformed police that had been organized on a state-by-state basis.

The Ordnungspolizei encompassed virtually all of NSDAP Germany's law-enforcement and emergency response organizations, including fire brigades, coast guard, and civil defense. In the prewar period, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, and Kurt Daluege, chief of the Order Police, cooperated in transforming the police force of the Weimar Republic into militarized formations ready to serve the regime's aims of conquest and racial annihilation. Police troops were first formed into battalion-sized formations for the invasion of Poland, where they were deployed for security and policing purposes, also taking part in executions and mass deportations. During World War II, the force had the task of policing the civilian population of the occupied and colonized countries beginning in spring 1940.