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Our information on German weddings over time is limited, but we will archive what we find here. We have not yet found written material on German weddings. We can begin to assess weddings through available images of weddings. We have only a few images of German weddings, but we will archive what we find here. We have no information on the 19th century, but we have begun to collect some information on the 20th century. Wedings of course were significantly affected by social class. Working-class familiies were limited as to what they could spend on a wedding. The well-to-do could spend lavishly. And in the photographic record we find evidence of this dichotomy, both very modest weddongs and elaborate affairs and of course many wxample of weddings between these two extrmes. Here economic propsperity was an important factor because as Germany grew in prosperity, Germans could afford to spend more money on luxuries like wedding cremonies. There are also differences resulting from the two different Christian traditions, Protestantism and Catholovcism. And with the growth of the working-class and Socialist thought, we have mopre people that are no longer tied to Christian traditions, including church weddings. It is interesting to what these and other trends at play over time and the impact on weddding ceremonies.
The 1910s was dominated of course by World War I (1914-18). The War must have affected weddings. There would have been far fewer weddings once the War began and a degree of austerity with the ones that were held.
The economy during the 1920s was quite varried as were weddings. Germany struggled to recover from the after affects of World War I. The middle-class lost much of their money in the hyper-inflation of the 1920s. The economy than began to recober until the Wall Street crash launched the Depression (1929). All of this of course affected decesions to get married as well as weddings and the disgressional income available for wedding ceremonies and events. We note very basic crremonies for working-class families. For these events the participants commonly put on their best clothes, but the ceremonies were often not formal. We also see elaborate ceremonies for the upper class. For these weddings we note younger boys wearing fancy ring-bearer outfits. Many boys wore sailors, usually traditionally styled suits. Many boys wore white knee socks for these occassins. We also see black long stockings.
We have acquired several portraits of 1930s weddings. Noys would ear tyheir best outfirs for weddings abd this often were sailor suits. We see a 1930 wedding with a flower girl and two boys wearing fancy sailor outfits and natty caps. The boy seem to be flower attendants rather than ring boys. The NAZIs seized power (1933). They dominated Germany in the 1930s and began to target traditional religion. We are not sure just how this affected German weddings. The NAZIs were hostile to Christianity, but did not move openly against the country's Christian churches. The Hitler Youth program was structured to compete with church services and activities. The NAZIs were very interested in increasing the birth rate in Germany. And in the conservative German society that the NAZIs inherites this required promoting marrige and the family. We are not yet sure, however, how wedding ceremonies were affected, if at all. We also see a German 1932 wedding. It looks rather like a modest income, working-class family family. Notice the boys here are not wearing sailor suits. We suspect that it represents a good idea of how many Germans married in the 1930s. We see a more elaborate wedding of a naval officer, probably in the mid-1930s. The boy, however, does not seem especially dressed up. We note a SS wedding about 1935.
Germany was at war during the first half of the 1940s. For the first few years the civilian population was not avversely affected nor were there major casualties. Thus life went on fairly undisturbed by the War. NAZI looting of occupied countries helped maintain the standard of living. This would have included weddings. The Soviet offensive before Moscow (December 1941) chnged this. And as the War dragged on and the Allied strategic bombing campaign intensified, civilans were impacted. Here see a wedding at the end of World War II in 1944, the year the War came home to Germany. The boys in the wedding party are very plainly dressed, perhsaps indicative of the times. It looks like a Protestant wedding. Germany was devestated by the War. The big industrial cities were left piles of rubble. The very difficulr resulting economic conditions affected family live and did not begin to change until the later part of the decade when the American Marshal Plan began and the first steps toward Euripean economic unifification helped launch the German economic miracle in West Germany.
The German economic miracle transformed Germany in the 1950s. Germany rebuilt its economy and in the process its cities. Germans by the end of the decade, at least West Germans, were more prosperous than they had been before World War II--a remarakable achievement, The new prosperity significantly affected family life. Germans could aford to dress well. Most Germans had a more extensive wardrobe than before the War. This was especially the case of the working class, Germans could once include luxuries like dressy clothes for weddings and elaborate wedding ceremonies. This was especially true by the end of the decade. Another trend in the 1950s was a movement away from Christianity. Church attendance began a long decline that would become increasingly pronounced in coming decades and lead essentially to the de-Christianization of Germany. This is a process that can be observed in most other European countries (Poland here was an exception), but not the United States. Many Germans even if they were losing their Christian beliefs still wanted a church wedding, in part because their families expected this. The situation was different in Coimmunist East Germany where the Government actively discouraged church membership and promoted aethism in both schools and the work place.
The German economic miracle was in full swing by 1960 a returning the country to prosperity. I was an almost unbelieveable accomplishment given the devastation experienced during World War II. Germans now had the income to afford traditions like weddings and confirmation that might require new suit. Here we see a wedding procession. Iy is undated, but we believe was taken in the 1960s. It looks like a Protestant wedding.
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