Figure 1.--Here we see German boys wearing knit stocking caps and leggings. It doesn't seem to be that cold. One of the bys has an open-collar shirt and the parents are not dressed warmly. Leggings do not seem very common in Germany, but we see a few children wearing them. The boys here look to be about 6-9 years old.

Leggings in Germany are called We call them "Gamaschen". We notice quite a few portraits of American children wearing leggings, both learther and cloth leggings. We see very few examples of German children wearing leggings. We have not yet noted leather leggings which were worn in the 19th century. We have found a few images of children wearing cloth leggings in the 20th century. It is difficult to tell is this is a good reflection of the actual degree to which they were worn. Our archive of 19th century images is limited, so our assessment is probably not yet valid. We do have a fairly extesive archive of 20th century images and we think they do accurately reflect the fact that German children did not commonly wear legging. In fact we often see Grman boys wearing short pants during the winter, although commonly with long stockings or knee socks. Perhaps the fact that long stockings were so common is why leggings were not commonly worn. A German reader tells us that he wore leggings in Northern Germany during the late 1930s. "They were dark blue. They seem to have been considered somewhat elegant by the parents, only affluent children wore them, and rarely. I liked them a bit because they had a similarity with stockings which I liked more." Children in Germany when they wore leggings, commonly wore them over long stockings. A German readers, Hans recalls wearing them as a boy. A German reader who collects old photographs tell us that she has seen some photographs with leggings, but is unsure how common they were.

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Created: 8:33 PM 2/27/2008
Last updated: 5:07 AM 2/28/2008