Figure 1.--Here we see a Berlin school boy wearing a sailor cap and tunic fo school. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken aboit 1905. Note the floppy bow. |
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German boys have worn a wide range of garments to school over time. This of course varied chrnologically. German boys did not normally wear school uniforms, except for boys attnding military schools. Thus there are no school uniform garments in the same sence as in England. Thus the garments worn to school are a good reflection of popular contemporary dress patterns. While there were no uniforms, there were certain garments that were commonly worn by boys for school. Perhaps the most popular garment was the sailor suit. Sailor and army-styled caps were also popular. We see many boys wearing suits of various styles to school, but this became less common during the inter-War era and was gradually went out of style asfter the War. Lederhosen were commonly worn in in Bavaria, but less so in other parts of Germany.
Sailor hats were commonly worn by younger school boys in the early 20th century. We have noted both broad-brimmed hats and the floppy soft caps. We although many boys also wore an army-style peaked cap, although these were sometimes worn with sailor suits as well. I'm not sure what older boys wore. One study explains that school caps showed through colour the school type the pupil belonged to (today Gymansium, Realschule etc). They also showed grade he was in, and even his progress, by different coloured ribbons around their caps. The colours of a Gymansium at Jena (to which the brother of the author went to) were also mentioned. [Ossowski and Rösler] We have noted boys in the 1940s and 50s wearing a kind of ski cap. It was the winter uniform cap worn for the Hitler Youth. Unlike other Hitler Youth uniform items, it continued to be popular after the War.
German boys did not normally wear smocks to school. We have noted a few examples, but they are not very common. We believe that smocks were consideredc a French school style. Interestingly though we do note boys wearing berets.
We do not notice German boys wearing pinafores to primary school. We do see a few Kindergarten children wearing pinarores. We do not know if this was just in their classrooms. We note both boys and girls wearing pinafores. They seem to be the same style for both boys and girls. We do not know how common this was. We note Swiss children commonly wearing pinafores to school, but this seems more common with French than German speking Swiss communities. We also do not know if wearing pinafores in Germany was regional. such as close to Switzerland. The pinafores seem to be very simple, practical ones. They also look colorful. We are not sure about the chronology here. Tne image was dated to the 1920s. They do not seem to have been required. Perhaps the teachers encouraged the mothers to purchase them.
Casual shirts and sweaters had become nmore common by the 1940s as German boys began to dress more casually for school. These casual garments became standard in the 1950s. The sweater became a standard garment in both cool and cold weather.
Large numbers of British boys of all social classes wore Eton collar to school in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We note far fewer German boys wearing Eton collars to school. We do not note large numbers of German boys wearing Eton collars, although we have few 19th century images at this time. I am not sure why the Eton collar was not very popular in Germany, probanly it was perceived as an English style.
We do not hve a great deal of informtion sbout German tunics yet. We believe, however, that the tunic was a common school garment in the 19th century. Even after the turn of the 20th century we still German boys wearing tunics to school. Many of the photographs are undated, but we think this was more common in the 1900s than the 1910s and we no longer see tunics being worn after World War I (1914-18). By the 1900s the tunic was only being worn by hounger primary childten.
HBC has little information on schoolwear in Germany during the 19th century, at least by the 1890s. We are not sure, however, just when German boys began wearing sailor suits. Kaiser Wilhelm II himself in the 1860s, because of his English mother, may have been one of the first German boys to wear sailor suits. We believe that sailor suits were probably common in the late 19th century as Kaiser Wilhelm after dismissing Chancellor Bismarck, began to build a fleet of highseas battleships--a development of enormous national pride and a pet project of the Kaisser. We note that many younger school boys in the early 20th century wore sailor suits to school. Sailor suits declined in popularity during the NAZI era (1933-45). I see no indication that boys after the War wore sailor suits to school any more.
Winters can be quite cold in Germany, not as cold as in Svadanavia and Russia, but colder than in England and France and especially southern Europe. Germany can get quite a bit of snow. Thus children needed a variety of jackets and coats to keep warm in the winter. Light jackets and sweaters might be enough in the Spring and Fall, but children needed a heavy coat to go to school in the winter. We notice many different styles. Some might be worn by both boys and girls hile otghers were gender specic garments. A lot of jackets had navy styling and seemed to have been done in dark blue. Navy pea jackets seem to have been a popular style. Colors were geneally muted unil after World War II when we begin to see more brightly colored coats.
Suits were commonly worn in the 1920s and 30s. This was especially true of boys in secondary school. Suits by the 1950s were rarely worn to school. An exception here seems to have been younger boys. We see quite few photigraphs of youngr boys in suits. This may have been first day portraits and not what they normally wore.
The types of pants worn to school varied over time. We see boys commonly wearing long trousers in the 19th century. By the late 19th century knee pants were becoming increasingly common. We also see boys wearing bloomer knickers. At the turn of the 20th century, knee pants were very common. Gradually after World War I, short pants became more and more common. Older boys wore long pants to school. The age at which boys shifted from shrt to long pants varied over time. The school did not play a role here. This was essentially a family decession. We note that in the 1920s and 30s boys often began to shift to long pants a school a a about age 15. Some boys began wearing longs earlier, others later.
In some cases boys wore knickers in between the transition from short to long pants. By the 1930s seasonality began to become an issue with some mothers allowing boys to wear long pants in cild weather, Until the 1950s, however, shorts were more common. Some German readers tells us that even if parents allowed boys to wear long trousers to school at age 14 or 15, they often wanted the boys to wear short trousers at home and to church until at least 16. Again this varied substantially from family to family.
Many German boys beginning in the 1920s seem to have worn lederhosen to school, but this from available images appears to have usually been a minority of the boys in most classes. We have noted lederhosen being worn earlier, but we do not begin to see a lot of boys in school photographs wearing lederhosen until the 1920s. Often a few boys in many primary schools are wearing lederhosen by the 1920s. I'm not sure why lederhosen became more common for schoolwear at this time, but surely it had something to do with the war. Almost always boys wearing lederhosen to school wear them with the decorative halters. Wearing lederhosen varied regionally in Germany, being most common in Bavaria. Lederhosen continued to be worn to school through the 1960s, but are now not very common.
Hitler Youth uniforms were sometimes worn to school. I am not sure if there was a specific day for this, as was common for Scouts in many American schools through the 1950s. I do not yet have full details, but boys appear to have worn their Hitler Youth uniforms on special days, but not regularly on a weekly Scout day as in America.
German boys wore a range of hosiery to school and this changed over time. Seasonality was another factor. We notice three-quarter socks and long stockings in the early 20th century. Kneesocks gradually became very common. Long stockings went out of style in the 1950s.
German boys wore a range of fifferent footwear to school. The popularity of the different types varied over time. We see German boys in the early 20th century going to school in heavy boot-like shooes. These shoes were very popular for younger boys. Okder voys were more likely to wear oxford low-cut shoes. We also see boys wearing strap shoes and sandals. The hoigh-top shoes were still worn after World War II in the 1940s, but were rarely worn by the 1950s. In the 1970s sneakers also began to be worn.
Many Germans boys sent off for their first day of school were equipped with a book satchel or bag, a lunch satchel, and a pencil case. This was very common into the 1930s. Boys before Workd War I often had slates as well. These items were very standard and the satchels continued to be seen into the 1950s. German parents loved to have a portrait made of the new scholar all done up for school. As the century progressed we begin to see more family snap shots rther than formal portits. These images leave us a wonderful record as to the school items German children were equipped with in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Ekkehard Ossowski and Winfried Rösler. Ed., Kindheit: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven zu einem Forschungsgegenstand.
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