Figure 1.--This is me wearing my lederhosen. I was 16 years old at the time. It was taken in May 1949 at a class outdoor week. The DM had been issued and conditions were improving. No more starving. The shops were now well stocked. My outfit, shoes and shirt probably given away by my father. The self knitted socks show that parents still had other priorities than to fashionable dress their only son. |
Here are my boyhood memories from the 1940s, both during and after World War II. Lederhosen then were popular for boys. They were nearly undestructable, needed no washing, could not be spoiled by dirt, and limited back pain in case of being caned. The more grown out they were, the better! Finally, having been outgrown, they could be handed down to a younger brother or cousin who could wear them for several more years.
I remember my first pair of lederhosen. My parents purchased them for me at the age of 9. We were on holiday in Bavaria. My first lederhosen had a halter. I continued wearing my lederhosen with a halter up to the age of about 12 I wore a halter. At that time, I began to think halters to be childish and I began fastening my pants with the HJ uniform belt and the belt buckle with the NAZI emblem in front. Finally, after the war, I preferred a normal leather belt. Lederhosen then were made for halters only and did not have belt loops. They were not so tight to the body as in the 1960s. For the accommodation of belts the cobbler fixed some leathern loops to the waist. Or, as I did, you tied up the belt very close and put the clasp under the front flap which we almost never opened.
I was in the Jungvolk (junior division of Hitlerjugend like Cubs in Scouting) from 1942 to the end of the war. The uniform was obligatory in service (two half days per week), but it differed a little regionally. Also the shortage of textile material became a problem as the War progressed. During the Summer we wore black cord shorts, brown shirts (with sleeves rolled up or down), and ankle or knee socks. Our sleeves were rolled up or down on command of the leader only. The same was with knee sockets. Some of the leaders wore
lederhosen instead of the official shorts, but we boys all wore the black cord shorts. On cool days a black woollen blouse was allowed. In wintertime the shorts were replaced by black woollen pants. We also had black caps worn with the winter uniform. They were knickerbocker-style pants, but very long coming down to the shoes.
DJ activities were quite varied. Outdoor activities were games like those popular with Scouts suchas tests of courage, marching, singing, and drill. [HBC note: This sound a bit different than Cubbing activitie.] And we also colleted recycling material such as metal, paper, textile, an bones. Indoor activities were learning new songs, political
indoctrination, and handicraft.
As with all Germans, World War II changed our livers forever.
Allied air raids destroyed my home town in 1945 shortly before end of the war.
The Kinderlandverschickung (KLV) was the German program to evacuate children from the cities. It was very different from the British program. British children were sent to private homes. German children were sent to camps orother group facilities. My school was not evacuated to a KLV camp since our town was not targetted by the bombing until just before the end of the War. Thus I have nopersonal experiences, but I do know a little about the KLV. I attach a poor quality newspaper photo taken as a KLV camp during the very cold winter of 1944. Conditions by that time were becoming very bad throughout Germany. Here at the camp there is deep snow. But 6 out of 11 boys in the first row wear just summer shorts and woollen blouses. How many too in the 2nd and 3rd line? Perhaps they had long pants and they were being dried after washing. I do not know? Anyway this shows the difficult conditions for these 10 t0 14 year old boys at the endof the War.
After the NAZI surrender, we found ourselves in the Russian occupation zone. As a very specialized chemical engineer the Soviets would send my father (with family?) to Kaskhstan. In the early months of the occupation, the borders were still quite porous. As our home had been destroyed anyway, we left for the American Zone with what we could carry with us.
Th situation immediately after the War was dreadful. I call them the barefoot years. Here is some infornation on the worst years from 1945-47. Food and clothing was nearly
impossible to obtain. People starved and exchanged their valuables for some food. Children were told to save their leather shoes for the wintertime. Very uncomfortable wooden sandals were available but many preferred being barefooted. Even a minority of high school boys! I put off the sandals after school on my way home and in the holidays.
In late summer 1946 I, 13, was sent with some 50 more boys to the countryside since I was undernourished, weighing just 30 kg at a height of nearly 1,60 m. My lederhosen which I got 4 years earlier still were not tight to the body but too short. Mother told me. "You are looking quite indecent but it will do for the countryside." The dress was completed with a
very worn out shirt, no undershirt (never in summer), underpants and wooden sandals. I took a half empty rucksack with me containing a second shirt and underpants, a pullover, pyjamas, swim shorts, and a toilet bag. No shoes. No socks, no jacket, but some school books and Karl May novels. At the rail station we were welcomed by the village mayor, but the farmers, mostly old and poor men with small fields behaved like at a slave market--checking muscles and picking out the strongest of these meagre town boys to have them as harvesting helpers. The smaller ones came to a boarding house. I and an other boy of my age came to the
village inn. We got a shed under the floor with old matrasses and blankets on the floor, there was no water and an inside window only down to the ball room. We were not allowed to enter the private rooms of the innkeeper and should clean ourselves in the dirty guest toilet room but we preferred a water place in the court. Our meals we got in the inns kitchen: never meat, little butter with the bread, but plenty of a sweet or salty soup made
of rolled oats with milk or fried potatoes with salad, or cooked potatoes with curd. Four weeks without hunger. I added at least 4 kg (and lost it again at home). The wooden sandals were broken after a few days and I strolled barefooted across the forest collecting mushroom to dry or sweet berries to eat at once. In the evening we jobbed at the Kegelbahn (like bowling, not automated). The farmers paid some worthless money and enjoyed to make us drunken. Once my buddy puked on the bowling floor which resulted in a big comotion. After we had to wash away the dirt in a very humiliating way. Over all I was free and happy to be a long period away from home for the first time and I showed a lot more of self consciousness as before.
After having got lederhosen, I refused to wear the short pants suit I had. I was an obstinate boy! At the age of about 15 I also had a pair of khaki shorts. I did not like them either and much preferred my lederhosen. In summertime sandals and a short-sleeved shirt completed my dress. In spring and autumn a pullover, jacket, or wind breakercheater (blouson or anorak) was normal but you could not ask for a special type of clothing after the War. We made do with what ever we could get a hold of. I do not remember much conservation on dressing among us boys. This was perhaps because of the difficult conditions following the War. Also I do not thinknwe were as concerned about clothe as modern boys.
Until age 10 or 11 years, it was mom who decided. Her rule was that I would not wear lederhosen earlier than Easter holidays and not later than "Kartoffelferien" (autumn holiday end of October). Later, I tried to expand the shorts season as other sportive boys did as long as possible. Mother disapproved my overdoing in self toughening.
As a younger boy I wore long brown over-the-knee stockings of cotton or wool. At the time in the 1930s they were were quite common winter clothing for smaller children (boys and girls). In the 1940s they began to go out of fashion. I hated them even as a younger boy, but my mother insisted that I wear them up to about 7 or 8 years of age. I refused to wear the warm long stockings as a very young schoolboy and got long pants for the winter. I do not remember details but the situation was like this: I got in rage (not for the first time) about these hated long stockings I was teased for at school. Mother slapped me and complained about my behaviour when father came home from the office. Both of them kept on and on lecturing me. At last I was howling sent to my room. But a few days later I had succeeded: A pair of long pants was provided for the winter.
After that I mostly wore short socks, not kneesocks. I recall that they were often knitted by my grandmother from available wool remnants. I can not remember the colour. Knee socks were quite common for younger boys, but many older boys also wore them. These were boys who likedto be warmer when the weather got cool. I remember thinking at the time that that this was unsportive and rather a sign of weakness. The boy next to me in the photograph here was not sportive. Rubber bands at the time was poor and knee socks often slid down. So some boys rolled them down. I believe this also became a popular look.
I did not dress up on Sunday. Visiting church was not so normal in the part of Germany were I lived. But grandparents or other relatives would come for dinner and mom would want me to be presentable. I normally wore lederhosen. I remember a white shirt or at least a freshly washed and ironed shirt, a jacket and better (purchased socks).
We were refugees after the War. We moved several times and I attended five high schools which was very disruptive for my education. Only one of the schools was coeducational (for boys and girls), but classes were separated. The German school system had some coeducational classes, but only for the yunger children. Primary school (Volksschule) had coeducation classes 1 to 4, separate gender classes 5 to 8. The more academically talented children moved after class 4 to either Middle School (Mittelschule) classes 5 to 10 or High School (Gymnasium), classes 5 to 13. Both were single gender schools.
During my High School years, nearly all of my classmates had lederhosen. We wore them continuously from spring to late autumn. All my highschool classmates normally did wore shorts continuously for 6-9 months. Lederhosen were not easy to get immediatelybafter the War. The situation improved after 1948. Thereafter most of the upper and middle class boys got them. Poor underclass boys often had to wear cheap cotton shorts or even such made from fatherīs old suit pants.
My best friend and I were rather crazy about toughening up ourselves. We started a real competition as to who would be the first in springtime and the last in autumn with bare legs. After the war ended, conditions were terible. Parents had to fight for survival and no longer bothered about minor problems such as a child's cold. So, I decided for myself: wintertime lasts only 3 months, from December 1 to February 28. I know, generations of British schoolboys stood the whole winter with bare knees, but lederhosen tended to be substantially shorter than he long Bermuda-like shorts that I have noted in the English section of HBC. I remember early snowfall in November. I remember even tobogganing with ice-cold legs.
My father was proud of his tough son. Mom just looked incomprehendingly. Nevertheless I did not become "winterking" - the winner of our competition. Two of my friends, twin boys, did not own long pants any longer. The long pants which were part of the Hitler Youth (HJ) winter uniform now were no longer worn. And no boy of 10 years onward would ever wear long over-the-knee stockings. Bravely those two stood frost, snow and storm, admired by me. After the Christmas holidays our class teacher pitiful looking to their bare legs asked whether any of us had an extra pair of long pants and would give it to them. But the little heroes strictly refused the offer.
My lederhosen era ended when I entered university. A younger cousin inherited my never washed and nearly worn out favourite piece of clothing.
A French Canadian reader writes, "I found this account fascinating. It is interesting how beyond the differences in various countries, there are many similarities in these various individual experiences from different countries. I note how common it is for clothes to figure in a boy's efforts to establish his own identity while growing up. When at college (meaning a secondary school) at about 15 years of age, I discovered my identity through turtle necks, cord pants, duffle coats, and sandals."
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