Figure 1.--Here we see a German family out for a country walk. Notice the boy's binoculars. Does this mean that they were bird watchers. The snap shot, presumably taken by father, looks to have been taken in the 1930s. The boy wears a traditionally styled sailor suit.

Younger German boys in the 1930s might wear button-on outfits as well as suspender or H-bar shorts. We see German boys still wearing sailor suits, especially in the early 1930s. Sailor suits were especially common in middle-class families. The Schiller collar was still popular in the early 1930s, but the popularity declined later in the decade. It was popularity the dress children in the family alike. Long stockings were very common for cold-weather wear for both boys and girls. After the NAZI take-over we see more and more children wearing Hitler Youth uniforms. We see relatively few family photographs with the children in their uniforms. We are not sure if that was uncommon or stemming from the fact that after the War many families destoyed photographs that would suggest a NAZI connection.

Middle Class Family (1930)

Here we have a middle-class Berlin family on an outing to a city park. It presumably is a weekend, probably Sunday as father is with the family. It is a small family, only one boy who wears a short pants sailor suit with long stockings. The sailor suit suggests a middle-class family, but the boy's close-cropped hair by the 1920s was not common for middle-class families. We at first thought that this portrit was dated about 1930, but we think the late 1920s may be more likely. Again notice the small size of the family.

Family Living Room (early 1930s)

Here we see a German boy at home with his father during the late 1920s or early 30s. We are not at all sure about the radiator in the rear. The boy wears a traditionally styled sailor suit, a very popular style in Germany at the time. Note how the boy's sailor scarfe is tied. This tight tie and white string was the most common approach. Many images archived on HBC are interesting, but some are especially poignent. It is often not exactly clear to me just why some of these images are especially powerful images. The snapshot here is one of those images. I think it captures the atmosphere of a German middle-class family.

Middle Class Family (1930s)

Here we seee a family with tennis equipmet in their back yard. No provinance comes with the photograph, but we elieve it is a German family in the early 1930s. Terecare three children, two boys and their sister. One boys wears a short pants sailor suit, apparently with shoes but no socks. The girl wears a blouse and skirt.

Affluent Germany Family (1930s)

Here we see three generation in a German family in a photograph presumably taken by the father. Grandmother, mother, sand two children are photographed by the family car. The women are holding onto the girl, but the boy stands apart from the group. It is quite a car, a sporty convertable. The family is standing in the driveway with their home in background. The car tells us that the family was affluent. Most German families at the time did not have cars. The children look about 11 and 14 years old. The girl wears a white dress. The boy wears a shirt with a Schiller collar, a light-colored double-breasted jacket, dark short pants, light-colored knee socks, and low-cut shoes.

Village Family Album (1934)

Virtually every German family had a photograph album in the family parlor. The pgotographs of course varied, dependong on the interest of the family. Not every family had a camera, but most did. Generally it was the father who was the photographer. The ablums in the 1930s were generally composed of heavy [aper on which photographs were pasted. They were mostly snapshots taken by the father, but other items may be included as well. The album her seems to be entirely fmily snapshots. The first page includes some writing describing the contents, but we can not yet make it out. Hopefully it will tell us the name of the family and the name of the village. We can make out the date, February 26, 1934.

Middle-class Family (1930s)

We have an undated portrait of a German family probably taken in the mid-1930s. The mother wears a plain, but smart dress. Hr husband a fashionable suit. The boys wear matching blue sailor suits with only vert minor differences. The younger brother wears a short pants suit with dark long stockings. We are not sure about his older brother.

Unidentified Rural German Family (1930s?)

We have found an interesting snapshot from rural Germany. Unfortunately we gave no information about the photography. We think it is very clear that the photo comes from a rural community or small village. We do not know, however, just where the snapshot was taken or when. We would guess that it was taken in the 1930s, but the early 40s is possible. Here dating rural images is complicated because people in the country often do not wear more easily dated fashionable clothes. Nor do we know the name of the family. We think the snapshot is of three children, we believe brothers, and their parents, but the lack of ckarity makes even this difficult to assess. All three boys appear to be wearing short pants with long stockings. The tallest boy on the left seems to be a bit taller than his father who seems to be wearing plus-fours or perhaps boots. The figure on the right looks like a boy to us because of the boy's short haircut and short trousers, although he seems to be wearing a white sleeveless garment comparable to apinafore. We seen boys commonly wearing these garments in Germany during the 1920s and 30s, but not the 40s.

Middle-class Family (mid-1930s)

This portrait shows what looks like a prosperous, middle-class city family-- the parents and their teenage son. Unfortunately the portrair is not dated. We would say that it was taken in the early or mid-1930s, although the late-1920s is possible. The interesting aspect of this portrait to us is that how similar the parents are dressed to American adults. This portrait could have easily been taken in the United States--except for the sailor suit the boy is wearing. American boys did wear sailor suits, but only younger boys in elementary (primary) school. Americn teenage boys did not wear sailor suits, although we see girls of all ages wearing sailor outfits.

Unidentified German Family Summer Scenes (mid-1930s)

Family snapshots provide some glimeses of a summer being enjoyed by an unidentified German family. The psnapshots are unidentified, but it looks to us like they were taken in the mid-1930s, although the late-30s/early 40s is quite possible. The photographs give a good idea as to how German children dressed during the 1930s. We see boys wearing short pnts, Lederhosen, and rompers. Girls wore light-weifgt dresses. The boys wore a kind ofcasual strap shoe. The Lederhosen suggest they may have klived in Bavaria. Lederhosen at the time were primarily worn in Bavaria.

Unidentified German Family (1936)

A rather charming domestic scene in 1936 Germany--Mother washing dishes with her two children, approximately 8 and 10, helping to dry the dishes. I wonder if this could have been a propaganda photo to show how happy family life was under the Nazi Third Reich. It seems almost too good to be true. But the clothes of the children are very accurate, historically speaking. The boy wears suspender short pants, long brown stockings, obviously held up with a Leibchen and Strumpfhalter (bodice and garters), and what look like sandals. He seems to be wearing a checked shirt that buttons only half-way down his chest with a white shirt underneath of which only the white collar is visible. I'm not sure I've ever seen before this wearing of two shirts--a white one underneath a patterned one. At first I thought the shirt just had a white collar, but we can see the patterned collar underneath the white collar, so there must be two shirts. Is the boy protecting his white shirt by wearing a colored shirt on top? Notice the very short hair cut with bangs. (The British would call this a short back and sides.) The girl wears a pinafore over a dark blouse and the same kind of dark brown stockings as her younger brother. Notice the girl's blond hair in pigtails, a common German style. The kitchen seems to be typical of a middle-class German home in 1936.

Family Outing (1930s)

Here we see a German family out for a country walk (figure 1). Notice the boy's binoculars. Does this mean that they were bird watchers. The snap shot, presumably taken by father, looks to have been taken in the 1930s. The boy wears a traditionally styled sailor suit. A reader writes, "I cannot tell for certain, but the boy's stockings look as if they are long stockings that were folded down due to warm weather." Yes that is difficult to tell. There is no knee cuff. Is it possible that they were turned down all the way to the ankles. Another reader writes, "I wondered about these socks myself. They look like dark grey woolen knee socks to me, but they have slipped down just a bit to look like three-quarter socks, and there is a bulge on the left leg under the sock which could have been caused by a bandage of some sort. But it's a bit puzzling. The socks are too early to have any elasticizing in the tops, and they have slipped down the boy's leg a little bit since, apparently, he wears no garters."

Family Home Celebration (late 1930s)

This is a very interesting family image taken in the living room of what looks like a lower-middle class family. Unfortunately there is no inscription on the back identifying the family or dating the image. Even so, it illustrates some very important trends in Germany at the time. We believe the snap shot was tken in the late 1930s, although the early 40s is possible. The family consists of a mother and father with two teenage sons--both Hitler Youth boys. The couple to the left may be an older son and his wife. Note the phonograph and rafio in the background. This was the family's livingroom and the phonograph and radio were a very important part of it. The sparseness of the room suggests a lower-middle class or working-class family. They seem to be having some kind of celebration. As the one boy is at the center of the photograph, perhaps it is his birthday. The fact that he has a HJ armband on, suggests he is dressed up a bit. Note that both boys are wearing their HJ uniforms, even for an intimate family celebration.

August Heissmeyer Family (late 1930s)

August Heissmeyer was a a decorated World War I soldier and an early recruit to the NAZI Party and became a geberal in the Waffen-SS. His wife, Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, was an eminent NAZI herself--the "Reich Women's Leader" ("Reichsfrauenführerin"). They were the perfect NAZI family. There werec10 children, including children from earlier marriages. We do not know a great deal about the children. A photograph shows the older boys dressedin the uniform of one of the NAZI Party boarding academies. The girls and youngest boy are all dressed in brighly colored tracht. A nephew was a SS doctor who planned and crried out medical expeiments on children at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp near Hamburg. Both were tried as war criminals. It is these family photographs of ardent NAZIs surrounded by their adoring children thatare perhaps the World War II images that are most difficult to understand.

Unidentified German Family (1938)

This is a portrait of what looks like an ordinary middle-class famoly. All we know for sure is that the portrait was taken in 1938. We see wjat looks like mother and grandmother with two children. We are not sure where father is. Normally we might speculte that father took the photgraph, but this looks like a studio portrait. The children are dressed somewhat informally as was becoming more common. The little girl looks to be about 5 yesars old. She wears a blouse and a very high-set suspender kilt. We sususpect it was ought in a large size so she could wear it several years. She has a hair bow. Her older brother lloks to be about 11-12 years old. He wears an open-collar shirt, similar to, but smaller than a Schiller collar. He also wears a sleeveless sweater, short pants, and knee socks.

Middle Class Family (1939)

This looks to be a comfortable middle class family which was photographed in 1939. We have little informationa bout the family, but the father looks to be a professional or businessman. His wife is stylishly dressed and she had carefully outfitted their thress sons in identical outfits, colorful folk blouses and H-bar suspender short pants.

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Created: 10:52 PM 3/16/2006
Last updated: 2:43 AM 11/18/2008