German Long Stockings: Double Socks


Figure 1.--Here we see German children playing in the snow during 1942. This was during World War II and at the same time German soldiers were dieing in the snows on the Eastern Front. Notice they are wearing long stockings with ankle socks added to keep their feet warm.

We note numerous images of German children, usually boys, wearing long stockings with ankle socks, often white ankle socks. We are not sure about the chronology of this convention. We note it in the 1930s, but might have developed earlier. It disappeared in the 1950s as long stockings gradually went out of style in Germany. We are not sure about the purpose. It may have helped keep the children's feet warm in the Winter. We notice a similar trend with Hitler Youth and Scouts after World War II who wore ankle socks woith kneesocks. This seemed to have been primarily to ptotect the feet when hiking. The children wearing ankle socks with long stockings were mormally pre-teen children as teenagers, at least boys, were less likely to wear long stockings. A reader writes about the image here, "An interesting detail of this photo is that the children are wearing long stockings (tan or light brown, apparently) with ankle socks on top of the stockings. This seems to have been fairly common in snowy weather, probably for extra protection of the feet. We note the same detail in the opening of Bergman's famous film, Fanny and Alexander, where we see Alexander wearing ankle socks over light brown long stockings (he has taken off his shoes for indoor play). The boy on the left in the photograph obviously wears short trousers. The stockings would be the same for both genders. Both children would be wearing Leibchens with long garters."








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Created: 12:01 PM 1/15/2006
Last updated: 3:09 PM 1/15/2006