Figure 1.--This class portait is undated, but looks to have been taken in the 1930s. The boys look to be about 13 yeats old. Only one boy weas a suit and tie. Most boys wear sweaters and jackets. Most of the boys werar short pants, a few with long stockings. A fe boys wear knickes, but none of the boys wear long pants. Curiously the only boy here we see wearing ankle socks wears them with long stockings. The photograph looks to have been taken in the fall or winter. Put your cursor on the image to see the rest of the class.

As German children did not wear uniforms, the garments they wore to school were a good reflection of the way they normally dressed. Mother must have saw to it that they wore better clothes than for play, but boys for the most part do not seem to have really dressed up for school. In fact we see a more casual approach to schoolwear than in gthe 1920s. Some boys wore suits to school, especially the older boys in secondry school. Suits and ties seem much more common in the early 1930s when the NAZIs seized power, than at the end of the War. Of course the privations of the War may have been a factor, but the trend toward casual clothese was a clear trend even before the War began. We see see boys commonly wearing shorts without ties in warm weather, ading a sweater or jacket when it got cool. We still see boys wearing sailor suits in he 1930s, but less commonly in the 1940s. Most boys wore short pants until about 13-15 yes of age. Yonger boys might wear suspender or H-bar shorts. Teen agers sometimes wore knickers, especially in cold weather. We note more boys wearing long knickers (the Hitler Youth winter uniform) and long pants during the winter by the end of the War. We see boys mostly wearing knee socks or long stockings. Ankle socks do not seem to be very common, but we are not real sure what boys wore with long trousers. Younger boys might wears sandals, nut most boys wore shoes, both low-cut anf high-top shoes. Girls wore either dresses or blouses and skirts. Some children wore their Hitler Youth uniforms to school.

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Created: 3:49 AM 10/16/2008
Last updated: 3:49 AM 10/16/2008