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Germany until relatively recently was divided into a number of destinct states with sibstantial social, cultural, political, and religious differences. Only in 1870 was a unified German Empire formed and even then substantial differences remained among member states. It was not until the Weimar Republic and even more so the Third Reich that the destinct legal and cultural differences of the German states began to breakdown. HBC at this time has only limited information on the extent to which these differences were reflected in clothing. Much of the information that we do have concerns areas that are no longer part of Germany (Alsace-Loraine and the Sudetenland). We have developed some information on the various German states for the Royalty satellote site. Hopefully our German readers will provide us more details about regional clothing differences in Germany.
Germany as a unified country only dates from the 1870s. Even after unification there were considerable differences in clothing style among different German states. Since the Werimar-NAZI era (1919-1945), these differences have gradually disappeared. In today's modern Germany, while there are differences in folk costume among different regions, there is virtually no difference in the ordinary clothes worn by German boys.
The worldwide German population totals about 170 million people.The following population survey gives us a break-down of where persons of German ancestry live throughout the world.
The German speaking nations are those countries where German is the official (or one of the official) languages. Germany itself accounts for 78.5 million Germans, Austria 7.6 million and German speaking Switzerland (74 percent of
the population) 4.9 million. Luxembourg has 0.4 million (68 percent of its population) people who speak a West Moselle Frankish dialect called Letzeburgesch. German has been one of the official languages of Belgium since 1963. An estimated 0.2 million German speakers live in the Eupen-St.Vith region. Finally, the tiny principality of Liechtenstein has 28,000 German speakers.
There were once substantial German populations living innvarious other Eyropean countries. These populations have since World War II been substantially reduced. Other areas of German settlement in Europe include the Alsace (Eisass) region of France with 1.5 million persons, Poland with 1.4 million Germans living in areas that were formally part of Germany, and Russia with 0.9 million surviving "ethnic" Germans or Volksdeutsche who Stalin mostly deported to Siberia. The South Tyrol region of northern Italy where German is an official language accounts for nearly 0.3 million persons. The ethnic Gemian Do-nauschwaben of Hungary number less than 0.1 million (down fsom 0.6 million in 1932). It is estimated that there are 0.2 million Germans in the Netherlands, less than 0.1 million in Romania (down from 0.8 million in 1939), 0.1 million in the Czech Republic (down from 3.1 million in 1932) as well as 0.1 million living in Spain. Some 48,000 Germans live in the "Nord Schleswig" area of Denmark and another 0.3 million are scattered throughout European states not already mentioned.
The largest population of people of German ancestry outside of Germany is the United States. The U.S. Census in 1990 estimated that 58 million Americans were of German, Austrian or Swiss-German ancestry. This is 75 percent of the population of Germany itself. This figure also included persons only partially descended from these Germans, Austrians, and German-Swiss. Of course it does not include some descendents that reported other ancestries. While numerous, only a handfull of Americans of German ancestry can speak German or have any actual ties to Germany. Canada has a German population 1.8 million. Mexico has about 10,000 German speakers.
In Central America and the Caribbean region we find 59,000 Germans and their descendants. Over 8.8 million Germans live in South America with Brazil accounting for most of them, 7.0 million and Argentina mucg of the rest or 1.2 million. Chile has 0.2 million and Paraguay 0.2 million.
South Africa has narly 0.9 million persons of German or mixed German descent and in the former German African colony of Namibia we find 36,000 Germans.
Australia has a German population of 0.6 million.
The central Asian republic of Kazakhstan has 1.0 million ethnic Germans, Kyrghyzstan 0.1 million, and Uzbekistan 40,000. We have already mentioned the 0.9 ethnic Germans Stalin deported to Siberia.
HBC has only begun to collect information on German boy's clothing in different regions. This is a little complicated because the borders of the various regions have changed over time. Some principalities/regions have grown in area and even absorbed other regions. Saxony was once a powerful state. Bavaria at one time was an important German state. These changes reflected the results of wars, dynastic marriages, and other events. In recent years there have been chnges for a variety of dynastic regions. Of course clothing styles in these various regions varied over time. .
We know that clothing styles in Alscae-Loraine differed from France, but we do not know how common German styles were. Alscae-Lorraine is now part of France, but in 1871-1919 and 1940-44 were annexed by Germany. HBC is unsure to what extent boys' clothing differed in Alsace-Loraine with the rest of France, especially to what extent smocks were worn in Alsace-Loraine. These two border provinces in northeastern France were an issue of dispute between Germanic and French rulers since the division of Charlemange's Empire in the 9th century. German control from 1871-1919 presumably meant that smocks were not commonly worn, but HBC has few details at this time. The northern situation of both Alsace and Loraine may have also been a factor affecting clothing.
Baden was a Grand Duchy in the German Empire. It is located in the west along the Rhine River facing Alscace. It is bownded on the north by Bavaria and Hesse; on the west by the Rhine which separates it from the Palatine and France; on the south by Switzerland; and the east by Wurtenburg. HBC has some information on the royal family. Baden is best known for the Black forest. Some information is available on folk costumes.
Bavaria is the dominant state of southern Germany. The German Alps are located in Bavaria and there are many cultural similarities with Austria. We know that Lederhosen were more common in Bavaria than other areas of Germany.
A number of small German islands are located close to the coast along the country's North Sea coast. An exception is is the small Heligoland Archipelago. Heligoland only recently was acquired by Germany, a reflection of the country's relatively weak naval power. The Heligoland Archipelago is the only German North Sea islands not in the immediate vicinity of the coast. Thet are located in the Heligoland Bight about a 2 hours' sail from Cuxhaven at the mouth of the River Elbe. Heligoland was for centuries a Danish possession and then acquired by Britain during the Napoleonic Wars.
Prussia is today seen as the genesis of Imperial Germany and the modern German state. The original Prussians were, however, not Germans at all, but rather a Baltic tribe, the Prussi. The Prussi were eventually conquered and Christinized by the Germna Teutonic Knights and the Germans became the ruling class in Prussia. The principality was eventually obtained by the Hohenzollern dynasty which in combination with Brandeberg became the Kingdom of Prussia. Germany was later unified under the leadership of the Hohenzollerns and Chancellor Bismarck around the Prussian state (1871). The Prussian King became the German Kaisser (Emperor). As part of the World War I peace settlement, a Polish corridor was cut accross Prussia, separating Pomerania from East Prussia. Danzig (Gadansk) was made a Free City. As part of the World War II settlement, East Prussia was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union. The Sovirt portion is today known as Kaliningrad. The German population either fled or was deported.
Pomerania was incorporated into the German Empire in 1871. As part of the World War II peace setlement, it was awarded to Poland. The German population was deported.
The Rhineland (Rheinland) is the area of German west of the Rhine bordering on France. The primary objective of Louis XIV's wars was the seize the Rhineland for France. The Rhineland became a controversy after World War. The Versailles Treaty required Germany to demilitarize it. Hitler's remilitarization of the Rhineland (1936) was one of the steps to World War II.
Silesia has been disputed for centuries by Prussia, Austria, and Poland. It was a rich prise and it was for Silesia that Frederick the Great launched the War of the Austrian Secession. Prussia managed to win most of Silesia. The province had a mixed German-Polish population. It was largely incorporated in the German Empire upon unification in 1871. It had The German population was deported. After World War I, the nationality of the province was to be settled by plebecite. Most went with Germany. After World War II, the Soviet Union essentially moved Poland west. The Soviets annexed what was eastern Poland. Part of East Prusssia, Pomerania, and Silesia was turned over to Poland. The Ples expelled the Germans who had not already fled these provinces.
The Sudetenland is German term for a frontier region of German-speaking people, meaning the "southern lands" in German. The Sudetenland is the area Sudetes Mountains on the north the Erzgebirge Mountains on the northwest and the Bohemian Forest to the west. The Sudetenland was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1919 when it was awarded to a news Czecheslovakian nation by the Versailles Peace Treaty. The ppulation before World War II largely consisted of Sudeten Germans. NAZI agitators in the 1930s brought about the Munich crisis in which the Sudetenland was awarded to the Germans. This was important because the Sudetenland constituted a natural frontier without which the defense of Czecheslovakia was impoosible. The NAZIs proceeded to dismember the rest of Czecheslovakia in 1939 during the months leading up to World War II. The region was restored to a revived Czecheslovakia in 1945 after World War II and the Sudeten Germans forcibly relocated to Germany.
The Volksdeutsche are German people who emmigrated to East and South Europe, but kept their language and customs. German minorities used to live throughout Eastern Europe and Russia. They were incouraged to emmigrate by Austrian emperors to help secure their control over lands liberated from the Ottoman Turks. Some Russian Tsars incouraged German German immigration to help develop and modernize their vast country. These German minorities lived in these countries for centuries, dut many did not assimilate or drop the German language. Often they even mainatin separate schools. While the Austrian-Hungarian Empire existed many lived in the political structure of a German-speaking Austrian monarchy, but this changed in 1918-19 with the collapse of the Austrian Empire as well as the loss of German territory. Many Germans found themselves under th control of newly independent countries. When the NAZIs came to power in 1933, the Volksdeutsche proved a useful political issue and a way of justifying German territorial claims. The history and situation of the Volksdeutsche varied idely from country to country.
In addition to the Volksdeutsche which were whole communities of Germans living in eastern and southern Europe, were Germans who as individuals moved to neighboring countries. The numbers of Germans were the largest in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherland and Switzerland. The situation here varied substantially from country to country. These Germans had varying attitudes toward the NAZIs and World War II. These were generally no communities of Germans like the Volksdeutsche, although there were some in Denmark and Switzerland. The Germans in these counties were not there as part of a government sponsored settlement program. Many Germans in these countries (except Switzerland) returned to Germany in 1945 because of hostility of the local population. We know there were many Germans in Belgium before World War I. We are not sure about what happened to them after the War. Prussia had seized most of the German speaking areas of Denmark in the Prusso-Danish war (1864). Large numbers of Germans lived and worked in the Netherlands as did the Dutch in Germany. German is one of the two main Swiss linguistic groups.
The royal lines of the huge multiplicity of German states is very complicated. The two major roual lines are the Hapsburgs (Austria) and the Hohenzollerns (Prussia). There are many other German states of course, some of which have played a major role in European history. A Hannovarian, for example, assumed the English throne as George I. Many other German lines have married into royal families and served as Czarinas, Kings, Queens, and Emperors throughout Europe, not to mention and illfated attempt to establish a Mexican monarchy. These families participated in the ruling of Germany and Europe as a whole into modern days. It should not be forgotten that as late as the 1910s, almost the entire world was ruled by monarchy. While some constitutional monarchies had evolved in Western Europe, many monarchies in the 1910s were still absolutists (Russia) or yielded power that approached absolutism (Austria and Germany). The number of republics of any significance could be counted on one hand (primarily France and the United States).
Germany as a modern nation was created in 1871 after the Prussian victory in the Franco Prussian War. As a result unlike the other major European countries, Germany did not have the opportunity to carve out a large colonian empire. The Germans did join the grab for Africa, seizing Camaroons, German East Africa (modern Tanzania), Southwest Africa (modern Namibia) (1884) and Togo. The Germans also seized a large also seized a large area of the South Pacicic, including northeastern New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and island groups to the northeast, the Carolines, Marianas, Marshalls, and Samoa as well as Nauru (1885-99). The Germans in addition seized a Chinese port city--Tsingtau (1898). This was one of the so clled treaty ports. Germany lost these colonies in World War I, mostly to the British and Japanese. We have very limited information, but as far as I know there is no significan German population or influence remaining in any of these colonies. Namimbia may be a minor exception.
Cotati, Rudi. E-mail, February 5 and July 23, 2002.
Mueller, Reinhard. E-mail, July 20, 2002.
Williams, Kent. Santa Rosa California German Club, monthly newsletter, date unknown.
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