Figure 1.--These boys are 6-years old and wearing matching tams for their first day of school. The image is undated, but we think it was taken in the 1900s. For more informaion, about their first day of school portrait, click on the image.

German boys at the turn of the century, like many European boys, at the time also wore tams. I do not know what the German term for tams was. We note that the French called them Scottish berets, the Germans may have done this also. We are unsure how common tams were, but we have noted a few images of German boys wearing them. They were worn by primary school age boys. As far as we can tell the tams worn by German boys had poms and streamers as was the case. We are not sure about the colors. The available shows a black or very dark-colored tam. I think they were worn by both boys and girls, but cannot yet confirm this. We note being worn in the early 20th century before World War I (1914-18). We believe they were also worn in the late 19th century. They were worn with a variety of outfits. We see one unidentified younger boy wearing a tam with his sailor suit about 1910. His brothers wear student caps. The boys here wear tams with single- and double-breasted suits (figure 1). You can tell that they were 6-years old and just beginning school. They both are holding their school gift cones.