Too bad. I think mine is signed too. Will see if I can make it out. Dated 1900 and in excellent condition, it was probably still in use in 1914.
After your message, I spent again yesterday a big part of the day trying again and again and again to decypher the name with all sorts of brightness and lighting angles. Now I think I have it! Because the helmet is made 1913 (stamp in the shell) and that it has not been worn a very long time (still in very good condition inside and outside), it could have only been worn by one guy. This helmet is for sure a bring back trophy of the first days / weeks of war.
Only the last part of the short name in the shell can be red (
---ßler). So by searching in the Verlustlisten of the 8/LGR100 for the first weeks of war of movement, there are only one name that responds to all those parameters. But to confirm that, I have to make some more research in the Regimentsgeschichte of the LGR100, especially for the day of 23.8.14 in Dinant....
During this sad day, the LGR100 was involved in the conquest of this city and in the following massacre of belgian civilians...Germans always said, they were attacked by belgian Franc-Tireurs....Legend or not?
One thing is sure: from all of the 12 companies of the LGR100, the 8.th suffered this day by far the heaviest cases of losses of the unit with 6 KIA and 42 wounded soldiers for a total loss of 113 soldiers this single day in Dinant for the LGR100. Something special must have happened to the 8/LGR100 during the street combats...I have to search more... The LGR100 fought its entry in Dinant by the south, so there must have been some big confusion during the street fighting in this south suburb of Saint-Nicolas, near the jail. Some german equipment could have been lost in the streets in the total confusion and then picked up as victory or revenge symbols by belgian civilians.
Bruno, try to make some picts of the name in your Haube. Because this helmet was worn by a Vizefeldwebel or Feldwebel, it is also possible that the guy, if he could return home at the end of the war, brought his helmet home too because it was his Eigentum. Do you have some more informations about where the helmet came from? A german family found?
Philippe