Armaments Production @museum.de

Up to 1914, the ironworks manufactured mainly sheet metal, household utensils such as pots, bathtubs and storage barrels for breweries. But during the First World War, it switched almost completely to producing armaments.

The product range included: hand grenades, gasmasks, sea mines and torpedo casings ... and above all steel helmets, which replaced the Prussian spiked helmet in 1916. The First World War, with its unfamiliar style of warfare, resulted in new dangers and injuries. Artillery fire, fragmentation projectiles and shrapnel shells left soldiers cruelly maimed. The Stahlhelm – or steel helmet – promised better protection, and large numbers had to be manufactured at speed.

Mass production started in Thale in January 1916, and the first 30,000 units were immediately delivered to the front, where the Battle of Verdun was under way.

Making a helmet from a steel disc involved 12 deep-drawing stages, in other words, 12 different stamping processes. The Thale ironworks had excellent stamping technology at its disposal. In the early days, it was actually the only plant in the whole of Germany that was able to manufacture the new steel helmets. By the end of the First World War, almost 2.6 million steel helmets had left the Thale works – a third of all helmets produced!