Figure 1.--

HBU has never seen a boys' youth group ever wearing a uniform quite like this. It is clearly a uniform for dress wear. The boys would hardly play a wide game dressed like this. Many of the images we saw at first were all a 19th century Fanco-Prussian War. The uniform appears to be a mid-19th century military-styled unifom, but with short pants and white kneesocks which were not worn until much later. It looks, at least in part, a uniform like the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) period. We are not positive why the uniforms are based on these styles. Perhaps this is when many of the groups were first oganized. Actually it was the caps and jackets that are styled lule the Franco Prusion War era. The short pants and white kneesocks look more like the mid-20th cntury. Boys at the time of the Franco-Prussian War were beginning to wear knepants, but short pants and kneesocks were not common. A German reader writes, "I´m not very clear about, why the boys are wearing such a special uniform. I think it`s because of the long tradition of historical shooting clubs, espiacelly in the western part of Germany." HBU suspects that choosing a military-styled uniform for German youth is a politically contentious matter. Because of the terrinl things that the NAZIs did in WorldwarII, they obviously could not choose a World War II style uniform. This may have even prevnted the use of World war I uniforms, because thy look in part like World war II unifoms. Thus the Frano Prussian uniforms was a style that did not have the political baggage of more modern uniforms. We have since seen a variety of other uniform styles. Some are based on other 19th century styles. Others in recent years have a much more modern look.

Formal Uniforms

HBU has never seen a boys' youth group ever wearing a uniform quite like this. It is clearly a uniform for dress wear. The boys would hardly play a wide game dressed like this. We are not sure why these Groups selected such formal uniforms. We have noted some groups with more casual uniforms, although we are not sure if some groups have both formal and casual uniforms. These casual uniforms may be simply the casual outfit of a group that has a formal uniform for some official functions.

Styles

Although we initially noted primarily Franco-Prussian unifoms, we have since seen other styles.

Fanco Prussian War

Many of the images we saw at first were all a 19th century Fanco-Prussian War. The uniform appears to be a mid-19th century military-styled unifom, but with short pants and white kneesocks which were not worn until much later. It looks, at least in part, a uniform like the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) period. We are not positive why the uniforms are based on these styles. Perhaps this is when many of the groups were first oganized. A German reader tells us, however, that these groups wre modstlyorganized in the 1950s fter World war II. Actually it was the caps and jackets that are styled like the Franco Prusion War era. The short pants and white kneesocks look more like the mid-20th century. Boys at the time of the Franco-Prussian War were beginning to wear knepants, but short pants and kneesocks were not common. A German reader writes, "I´m not very clear about, why the boys are wearing such a special uniform. I think it`s because of the long tradition of historical shooting clubs, espiacelly in the western part of Germany." HBU suspects that choosing a military-styled uniform for German youth is a politically contentious matter. Because of the terrinl things that the NAZIs did in World War II, they obviously could not choose a World War II style uniform. This may have even prevnted the use of World war I uniforms, because thy look in part like World war II unifoms. Thus the Frano Prussian uniforms was a style that did not have the political baggage of more modern uniforms.

Other 19th century styles

We have since seen a variety of other uniform styles. We have fewer images here and thus believe the other 19th century stules were not as popular as the Frnco-Prussian War uniforms. here we are not sire that these uniforms are actually based on any actual historical uniforms. They may be just fanciful creations. Here we are not sure. Hopefully our German readers will provide some insights on th iniforms. Here we are talking about the caps and jackets. The short pants and kneesocks are more of a mid-20th century style.

Modern styles

Some are based on other 19th century styles. Other in recent years have a much more modern look. The more modern uniforms that some of these groups have been dopting in thelate 1990s tend to be much simplier styles. We do not notice any trend with the caps and jackets. One group adopted a fez worn with a white shirt and sash. As to the pants, several groups have adopted black long pants. We are not sure how common these new modern dstyles are.