The Prince Henry cap (), sometimes Prince Henry hat or Prince Heinrich cap, is a

peaked cap A peaked cap, peaked hat, service cap, barracks cover, or combination cap is a form of headgear worn by the armed forces of many nations, as well as many uniformed civilian organisations such as law enforcement agencies and fire departments. It d ...

which is named after the Imperial German

Grand Admiral Grand admiral is a historic naval rank, the highest rank in the several European navies that used it. It is best known for its use in Germany as . A comparable rank in modern navies is that of admiral of the fleet. Grand admirals in individual ...

Prince Henry of Prussia (1862–1929), the younger brother of Kaiser

Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as th ...

("Kaiser Bill"). The Prince Henry cap goes back to the headgear of the Imperial Yacht Club, which in turn was based on the uniform cap of the

German Imperial Navy The Imperial German Navy or the ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly f ...

. The body of the cap used to be made of pure

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

, today it is often replaced by synthetic fibre components;

corduroy Corduroy is a textile with a distinctively raised "cord" or wale texture. Modern corduroy is most commonly composed of tufted cords, sometimes exhibiting a channel (bare to the base fabric) between them. Both velvet and corduroy derive from fu ...

has also been a common material since the 1950s.

Oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

leaf

embroidery Embroidery is the art of decorating Textile, fabric or other materials using a Sewing needle, needle to stitch Yarn, thread or yarn. It is one of the oldest forms of Textile arts, textile art, with origins dating back thousands of years across ...

as well as

braid A braid (also referred to as a plait; ) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing three or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair. The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-strand ...

ed or twisted

hat cord A hatcord or hat cord is a circular cord around a hat at the junction of the crown and the brim. It originally served to stabilize and hold the hat on the head and to prevent the hat material separating. A hat band fulfils a similar function. Hatc ...

usually adorn the hat band and peak. The colours of the caps usually range from dark blue to gray to black. Other primary colours, such as brown and green, are produced less frequently. The characteristics of the Prince Henry cap that distinguish it from other similar caps such as e.g. the

mariner's cap A mariner's cap, also called a skipper's cap, sailor's cap, Dutch Boy's cap, Greek cap, fiddler's cap, or breton cap is a peaked cap, usually made from black or navy blue wool felt, but also from corduroy or blue denim. Originally popular with s ...

, are the high hat band and the stiff, relatively small crown. Its diameter is only slightly larger than that of the hat band and is approximately the same size on all sides.

Examples

The German chancellor,

Helmut Schmidt Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. He was the longest ...

, made the cap popular in Germany because he wore a

Hanseatic The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

hat, actually a Heligoland pilot's cap from

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, which was often called a Prince Henry cap because of its similar shape. /www.muetzenmacher-hamburg.de/kleine-koenige.php Website of the Hamburg cap maker Eisenberg Retrieved 15 April 2015.

References

{{reflist Caps Prussian princes German clothing

Examples

See also

References