Figure 1.--Here is a boy wearing the soft sailor caps that were popular in the early 20th century. I at first thought the boy was German, but am unsure how to interpret the photographer's mark at the bottom of the portrait.
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Figure 1.--Here is a boy wearing the soft sailor caps that were popular in the early 20th century. I at first thought the boy was German, but am unsure how to interpret the photographer's mark at the bottom of the portrait. |
German boys wore a range of cap styles, but they seemed to have closely followed the styles of the German Kriegsmarine. There were different styles. The two principal styles were a stiff and soft cap. There were also blue and white caps. Some were rather stiff construction with a saucer top. There were also a stiff cap, but without the saucer top. This appeared after World War I. I'm not sure what the proper term was for these different cap styles. We have also seen soft caps. The soft caps seem to have been very popular. This varied, however, over time. We see boys wearing sailor caps in the 1920s when sailor hats were no longer commonly worn. All the caps had tallies with the names of ships or regions. They also had rear black streamers, often twein streamers, of varying length. Unlike French sailor caps, German caps never had poms.
Sailor caps except as part of the Hitler Youth Marine Division virually disappeared in Germany after the NAZIs came to power (1933). I think they were declining in popularity earlier, but the trend is particularly notable after the NAZI take over. The NAZIs generally disapproved of sailor suit, except for very little pre-school boys. This is interesting in thst the NAZIs initiated a substantil naval building campaign and service on the the big battleships and laster the U-boasts was extremely prestigious.
We at first thought that the boy here was German, but after examining the portrait closer, we think it is probably not German. The boy looks like he might be Czech or Slovak. The studio names at the botom of the portrait should tell us where they were taken, but they are difficult to read. A reader writes, "The logo RYSEN FOTOGRAF in the bottom right corner would lead me to believe it is indeed German (or Austrian)." It looks to us that it says Rysan Fotograf", but the proubciation mark over the "s" looks to us like Czech or Slovak. Also note "Kosten" in the left corner. That is probably the city. A German reader writes, "I think Czech is pretty probable. Rysan seems to be Czech. The spelling fotograf is Czech."
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