Flugeladjutant Helmets

b.loree

b.loree

Administrator
Staff member
As the result of my "Mystery Officer Helmet" post, the piece in question has been identified as a Flugeladjutant from Saxe Coburg Gotha in the post 1905 style. Fortunately, we have a member who has several of these rare helmets in his collection and he has kindly agreed to provide photos and descriptions. So, this will be the first of a series of posts on the Flugeladjutant helmet. The Hessen Fadj. helmet:
COMPRESSED 2 DSCN1028.jpg
Compressed Hesse Flugel Adjutant DSCN1024.jpg
Compressed Hesse Flugel Adjutant DSCN1023.jpg
Compressed Hesse Flugel Adjutant DSCN1022.jpg
DSCN1031.JPG
DSCN1030.JPG
Compressed Hesse Flugel Adjutant DSCN1028.jpg
Hesse A d C -Major.jpg
 
Many thanks Bruno, that was quick! That is a beautiful helmet you have there! Here is some additional text provided by Jim Turinetti who is sending photos of his collection:

Flugeladjutants and General Adjutants were officers who were assigned to the staff of a king,duke,prince or senior commander to serve as an Administrative or Executive Assistant. The German translation of flugel is "wing". The Flugel Adjutant, was a special assistant or aide to the German rulers at all levels (kingdom, Grand Duchy, Principality etc. and served at all ranks from General Officer on down and often came from the nobility.
For parades, senior staff officers in the War Ministry Cabinet, the General staff, the Greater General Staff, War Ministry, Flugel Adjutants and members of the General Staff wore a white horse hair busch.
Numerous European authors state that the Duchies and Principalities wore Fuerst on their helmet banners in place of Koenig. The clothing regulations say that the helmets of the Duchies and Principalities should be patterned after the Prussian model. This indicates to me, that they should wear Koenig. I have seen both Koenig and Fuerst on these helmets. Given human nature what it is, I think that these officers might possibly have been showing their loyalty to their monarch.
Hesse: Hesse Generals did not take a pearl ring on their helmet's spike throat.
The Hesse style General Officer's helmet had a round front visor instead of the squared visor of the Prussian style helmet.
The Hesse Flugel Adjutant: Flugel Adjutants wore a Dragoon officer's helmet with a fluted spike. A Hesse FA wore the helmet of Dragoon Regt 23 of Hesse.
The helmet had all silver fittings with convex chin scales round top fasteners for the spike base and the Hesse plate with a double leaf wreath and a silver and enamel Ludvig Star with the Motto: Gott Ehre Vaterland. For parade, they wore a white over red buffalo hair busch with a fluted trichter.
 
Additional photos:
DSCN1044.JPG
DSCN1045.JPG
DSCN1046.JPG
Of note, most Hesse officer wappen that I have seen have the screw posts soldered on the diagonal not the typical horizontal which we see here.
 
Steve strikes again, with some examples from his collection :D :
Kurt von Gillhausen.jpeg
Carl Edward von Gillhausen Saxe Coburg FA
C E front.jpg
One of his epaulettes.
Carl Edward 1923.jpeg
Carl Edward in 1923.
 
Brian ;
Thanks again for all your good work.
And thanks to Jim Turinetti for the photos
of his very rare helmets
Jim I am looking forward to the next one
Bruno also thanks for getting in so quickly
nice helmets
Steve McFarland
 
I want to thank Brian and all of you fellow collectors for all of your help in identifying this helmet that I have owned for many years. It looks like my work is cut out for me if I reside to restore this helmet back to original condition. I am sure the correct plate for this one will cost an arm and leg and will be very hard to find.
Now I have to ask myself the big question, do I put out the funds or do I want to trade it for something else that is complete ?
I know this would be a high dollar helmet if it was restored to original condition so what should I do ? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated !
:?
 
SHOOTEST said:
I want to thank Brian and all of you fellow collectors for all of your help in identifying this helmet that I have owned for many years. It looks like my work is cut out for me if I reside to restore this helmet back to original condition. I am sure the correct plate for this one will cost an arm and leg and will be very hard to find.
Now I have to ask myself the big question, do I put out the funds or do I want to trade it for something else that is complete ?
I know this would be a high dollar helmet if it was restored to original condition so what should I do ? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated !
:?
Click to expand...

In my opinion, the chance you will find an original plate is extremely low, to say the least. Most collectors, even experienced ones, have never seen one, and would not even know what it looks like without digging into reference books. The chance you will find an original plate THAT FITS (correct size) without butchering attachments is virtually nil. Then you would have to find a pair of silver domed chinscales of the right size. Much easier than the front plate, but not so easy... I cannot see on the pictures if the state cockade is correct but this might be another challenge.
Well, you can still believe in a miracle...
Best wishes;
 
The S-C-G "mystery" helmet is so rare, that if someone out there does have a plate, it likely comes from this very helmet!
 
I mentioned that I had run into one of these Flugel Adj. helmets back in the late 80's. The kokade suggests that this one was from Anhalt! As I said in another post, once a dealer knows he has a serious collector customer all kinds of helmets start to show up in his store. I could have bought this helmet which was complete except for the missing officer Garde star but internet was limited, I did not have a computer and where would I find one...Manions??? I dug up my photos of this and I apologise for the poor quality but we did not have digital cameras back then and inside pics always involved using a flash. Photos were taken in the dealer's (Brian Lawrence) store:
IMG_1152.JPG
If you look closely, this helmet has the "Fuerst" bandeau as mentioned by Jim in his previous description.
IMG_1153.JPG
A solid green Anhalt officer kokarde.
IMG_1154.JPG
I mentioned Manions Auction House, now long gone but I am sure members of a certain age remember their catalogues. For younger members, the only way I could access the US militaria market was through this auction house. This was the most convenient, bid on items pictured in their catalogue and hope for the best. I eventually heard about the MAX Show and I did finally drive down to Pittsburgh.....what a surprise!! :-?
 
Question ; Finding the correct plate ? Jan Kube 's next auction has the largest and rarest collection of
helmet front plates that I have ever seen . The plate that you need is NOT in that auction .
I don't know how old you are , but you could spend the rest of your life and never find the correct
plate as Bruno has said .It that helmet were mine and I had a good offer for it , I would sell it .
I have an accurate drawing of the plate that I sent to Brian . My reference is ; Zeitschrift fur Heereskunde
1940 - 1944 pages 43 ; 44 & 45 Article ; Die Flugeladjutanten der Herzoge und Grossherzoge von Sachsen
by von Oberslieutnant Fiebig . He was also an the author of a well know book on Imperial German Regimental flags .
Steve McFarland
 
P S ;
If that plate were to show up at an auction I know at least
2 very serious collectors who would be bidding very heavy for that plate .
Steve McFarland
 
I want to thank all of you guys for your reply's to my question about this helmet ! I guess the best thing I could do is to pass it on to someone that will do it justice. I wanted an example of a helmet with a swept winged pate to round out my small collection when I got this one, I had no idea how rare it was.
Maybe I could trade for something like that and make my life a lot easier !
 
b.loree said:
I mentioned that I had run into one of these Flugel Adj. helmets back in the late 80's. The kokade suggests that this one was from Anhalt! As I said in another post, once a dealer knows he has a serious collector customer all kinds of helmets start to show up in his store. I could have bought this helmet which was complete except for the missing officer Garde star but internet was limited, I did not have a computer and where would I find one...Manions??? I dug up my photos of this and I apologise for the poor quality but we did not have digital cameras back then and inside pics always involved using a flash. Photos were taken in the dealer's (Brian Lawrence) store:
IMG_1152.JPG
If you look closely, this helmet has the "Fuerst" bandeau as mentioned by Jim in his previous description.
IMG_1153.JPG
A solid green Anhalt officer kokarde.
IMG_1154.JPG
I mentioned Manions Auction House, now long gone but I am sure members of a certain age remember their catalogues. For younger members, the only way I could access the US militaria market was through this auction house. This was the most convenient, bid on items pictured in their catalogue and hope for the best. I eventually heard about the MAX Show and I did finally drive down to Pittsburgh.....what a surprise!! :-?
Click to expand...

Hi Brian,
Interesting information and pictures. I want to believe that the helmet pictured was actually from Anhalt; however, the center is probably not original. Why would a Flugeladjutant from Anhalt bear a simple, plain, enlisted-type Suum Cuique center motif on the beautiful silver "Fuerst" eagle? In fact, there is an Anhalt Flugeladjutant plate in the coming auction mentioned by Steve: it bears the regular Anhalt arms in gold on a silver star, affixed to the silver Guard eagle. Beautiful plate.
 
Hi Bruno you are totally correct and even back in the eighties, I knew this star was incorrect, that is why I did not buy it at the time. Someone added that just to fill in. Probably some dealer :) .
 
I agree with Bruno .The enlisted Prussian Garde star would not go with
an Anhalt officers helmet . No doubt the Anhalt center was missing
and was all the person who owned it could come up with
to fill the missing center .Who knows in those days it might have had
the correct Anhalt center and the owner thought it was incorrect
on a Prussian Garde eagle plate ?
Steve McFarland
 
For those of you who are interested in learning more about Flugel Adjutant helmets let me point you to the chapter on "General Officer Helmets" in A Guide to Collecting The Headgear of the 1914 German Army The helmets for the GOs of all of the kingdoms and principalities along with their corresponding Flugel Adjutanten are pictured and described in these 10 pages of this chapter.
 
jimturinetti said:
For those of you who are interested in learning more about Flugel Adjutant helmets let me point you to the chapter on "General Officer Helmets" in A Guide to Collecting The Headgear of the 1914 German Army The helmets for the GOs of all of the kingdoms and principalities along with their corresponding Flugel Adjutanten are pictured and described in these 10 pages of this chapter.
Click to expand...

There you go, I had not looked at Jim's guide book for awhile, but he does a great job of showing and explaining the differences etc.

Thanks Jim for the reminder.

James
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top