Figure 1.-- This German portrait is undated. The boy wears sporty striped knickers. The shirt is also striped. I have not noted matching outfits like this very commonly. We believe the portrait was taken in the the 1910s. He would have been more likely to wear short pants for tennis in the 1920s. The short tie also lookss more like the 1910s. We would guess the portrait was taken in the early 1910s before the War. Also notice the cap and dark long stockings. Wewonder if he really played tennis dressed like this. The hightop shoes in particular do not look very appropriate for tennis.

We notice a lot of German German boys wearing knickers in the late 19th century. They seem to have been especially common with boys fashionally dressed boys from affluent families. Boys from working-class families more commonly worekneepasnts or their fathers cut-down long trousers. After World War I, short pants became more common for boys from all social backgrounds. Older boys might wear knickers. German boys beginning in the 1920s might wear short pants well into threir their teen years before receiving a knicker suit for best wear or for school. It was also very common to wear knickers instead of shorts during the colder winter months. HBC has not noted German boys commonly wearing knickers into the 1940s. The one exception was the Hitler Youth boys who had a knicker-like ski pants (longer-knickers) uniform for the winter. We are not sure what term was used for German knickes. One source suggests "Pumphose". We note boys wearing knickers inton the 1950s. They didnot entirely disappear even in the 1960s, although the style changed. An American reader writes, "I recall seeing boys and young men wearing the close-fitting knee breeches or tight knickers in Austria and Bavaria in the 1960s when I made a trip to Salzburg, Innsbruck, and Munich in 1963. One also saw this style of pants in Copenhagen, Denmark. They were usually worn with woolen knee socks (gray, dark blue, or even white) but sometimes also with tights. They were, I think, considered rather dressy and were sometimes worn with suit jackets. The material was usually gray or brown worsted, but perhaps corduroy was also used. The knee closures always had buckles, not elastic. It was very much a young man's and teenager's style, as I recall. I think it might have been a modification of Bavarian and Austrian national dress. It was popular with boys and men who rode bicycles because long trousers (unless worn with bicycle clips) tended to get caught in the bike chains." We notice these trim-cut knicker-length pants in German catalogs. I'm not sure whst they were called.

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Created: 7:17 PM 12/1/2005
Last updated: 7:17 PM 12/1/2005