Figure 1.--This is ny Swiss boarding schoo, Chillon College, and the rather dramatic mountain setting. The school moved from Germany after the Anschluss (1938) and took over a derelict hotel in the French part of Switzerland.

I went to a German-language Swiss school. I find that part of my childhood fascinates me more than the English schools I attended. I noted the excellent article on HBC about Tom's experirnces at his Swiss boarding school, with some very memory stirring photographs. My school was much smaller than his, with fewer than 150 boys. But I do remember the intensity of the work. We got up at 05.30 av and, though the official bed time was 21.30 pm for our class we often worked on our Aufgabe (homework), until 23.00 pm or later. It was alright as long as we were ready for bed in our pajamas or night shirts. Eventually Mutti or our teacher would tell us to go to bed anyway. I do remember boys wearing what my friends and I called Tintinhose, those baggy knicker type pants. Not many wore them in our class and no-one in my room did. I couldn’t see the point of them. Wear longs if it’s very cold, otherwise shorts was my approach. I think our school was more progressive than what he describes. It paid lip service to the ideas of the great Scottish Educational pioneer AS Neill.

The School

I went to a German-language Swiss school. I find that part of my childhood fascinates me more than the English schools I attended. I noted the excellent article on HBC about Tom's experirnces at his Swiss boarding school, with some very memory stirring photographs. My school was much smaller than his, with fewer than 150 boys.

History

The school's history was somehow rooted in the anti-Nazi Wandervogel movement. When the Nazis took power one Wandervogel school uprooted to Scotland to become Gordonstoun, the school where Prince Charles was educated, and others fled to Switzerland and perhaps other countries. Mine had first gone to Austria, then came the Anschluss and it moved again and took over a derelict hotel in the French part of Switzerland. Where it still was when I was there. It was called Chillon College. One notable ex student was Bernie Goetz, the New York Subway Vigilante killer. But I think he was after my time.

The Pupils

Out of about 150 boys at the school you could have counted the number of Swiss boys on your fingers. I don't think the Swiss were a big nation for sending their kids away to school.

Academic Work

I do remember the intensity of the work. We got up at 05.30 av and, though the official bed time was 21.30 pm for our class we often worked on our Aufgabe (homework), until 23.00 pm or later. It was alright as long as we were ready for bed in our pajamas or night shirts. Eventually Mutti or our teacher would tell us to go to bed anyway.

A.S. Neill

I think our school was more progressive than what he describes. It paid lip service to the ideas of the great Scottish Educational pioneer A.S. Neill. Neill did found a school in Germany soon after the First World War. I wonder if it could have been the one from which my school had descended. Neill believed that attending classes should be voluntary and it was in our school, in theory. But everyone went to class and we all knuckled down to the work to be done. Schools influenced by Neill in England were or are: Summerhill, which follows his doctrines to the letter. Kilquhanity in Scotland which more or less does. King Alfred’s in London, St Christopher’s in Letchworth, Bedales School and Frensham Heights School in Surrey, Dartington Hall, The Yehudi Menuhin School, Burgess Hill in Surrey, Summerhill in Aberdeen, Risinghill in London, Midhurst Grammar school in Surrey, and probably others adopted some of his ideas to create a better school environment. Now nearly all British Schools follow quite a few of his teachings, most notably that there should be no corporal punishment. Kilquhanity School in Dumfriesshire in Scotland, although there were only about 90 kids there, nearly brought down the British Government in the 1960s when it published in its weekly school newspaper the secret information that the British Government had built Atom bomb shelters for itself but not for the general public. All the newspapers picked up the scandalous story, but it was first broken by the Kilquhanity school newspaper. It was more than just a school paper of course. It had a weekly circulation of 3,500 and it was edited by a 16 year old relation of the American Kennedy dynasty called Bob Cuddihy.

Student Goverment

We also had a degree of student government at class and at school level. Punishments, which were rare, were always decided by a vote in the class, never by a teacher alone. Usually it was a motion to Censure - Tadeln. That was all. It sounds nothing, but it usually reduced a boy to tears, to have his classmates vote to censure him for his behaviour. It happened rarely, but the boy was subdued for days and almost invariably changed his ways. We did not treat him any differently afterwards, still talked to him and played with him, but there was a distance for a while. The next stage – a school Tadeln was serious and could lead to a recommendation for expulsion.

The School Day

I will write at greater length to describe a school day, with emphasis on getting dressed, undressed and being bathed by Mutti. Adolescent boys though we were she plonked us in the tub and scrubbed and sponged as though we were toddlers. When I wrote to my dad describing it he asked me to reserve him a place.

Friends

I made some very good friends while I was at the school. My best friend was Mathias. But I made other good friends as well.

My Friend Mathias

One of my room mates at my German Swiss boarding school in 1954-55 wore long stockings on very cold days, but only under his Bluejeans. He preferred them to long underpants which I and the other boys wore. We were 3 boys to a room and all 3 of us were 13 at the time. I was particularly fascinated because I was English and had never seen such a thing before. His long stockings were light brown or tan color and held up by nothing more elaborate than straps of a sort of canvas material that came up over the waist band of his jeans and clipped on to the sturdy leather belt holding up his jeans. This boy was from Bavaria and called Mathias, and he was my best friend at the time. A sissy he most definitely was not. Almost uniquely in our school Mathias almost never wore short pants, except he occasionaly wore Lederhosen in the summer. The rest of us usually wore shorts from choice except when it was too cold to do so.

Fritz

Fritz was a German boy from Argentina. I supose his parents did not want hiom to lose his German identity by going to school in Argentina. He wore very retro clothing. Grey shorts, long socks, V neck sweaters, almost like pre-war British boy.

Fritz

We had only one Swiss boy in our class. He was called Fritz, one of two boys with that name. Unlike the German boys, he never wore Lederhosen as far as I can remember.

Our Mascot

We had a kind of unofficiasl mascot. The little boy was like a much loved mascot for us. We all loved him hugely and treated him like a little brother, which he liked. He was some sort of genius and did not stay at the school long. He slept with our class as we were the youngest kids at the time, but attended classes with much older boys. Just exiting to the right of the picture is a German boy in my class, circa 1954. He is wearing Argyll knee socks with, I think, Lederhosen under his raincoat. I forget the names of either of these two.

English Speakers

There were two other kids in the school who I knew spoke fluent English. I had little to do with them apart from a weekly English literature class. All three of us met in a nearby cafe once a week to be taught English by a South African woman who was a native English speaker - Fraulein Braun - probably actually Brown come to think of it. That's the only contact I had with them. Both were quite a bit older than me. I was kept from them initially from fear that if I had English speaking boys to talk to I would never learn German. Very wise.

Michaeel

One English speaker was a German boy called Michael who had an interesting history. His father had been a leading ant-Nazi. They had fled to Shanghai, where he was born. That was then captured by the Japanese and his parents were interned as British. He was born soon after in a Japanese prison camp. It had been essential that the Japanese did not find out who his dad was, else they would have been sent back to Germany, where dad would surely have been liquidated. So Michael was raised in the camp speaking only English until he was about 4 years old . When Michael was at school his father was something important in the West German government, but he did not trust the Germans enough to have his family live there and they lived in Switzerland.

Franz

The other English speaker was a South African boy of German ancestry called Franz.

Paul Paquin

Another Swiss boy I knew was Swiss French, called Paul Paquin in the class above ours. I got to know him well because when I first went there I had good French and not a word of German, but we were never close like I was with the two Bavarians Mathias and the other Fritz in my my room. Paquin was noteable in that he nearly always wore short trouser suits. When it was very cold he wore Tintin type below the knee britches, like British plus fours. I don't think he liked them as he would be about the last boy still in shorts, long after the snow had fallen and the first back into shorts in the Spring. I don't remember him ever wearing socks that came above the knee. He was just hardy I guess. But his shorts weren't Lederhosen either.

World War II

An interesting aspect of going to school with mostly Germnan boys was how we viuew World War II which at the time was still recent history. We boys were born at the end of the War, but were too young to have any personal memories of our own. The war despite its monentous repercussions was hardly ever mentioned at school. Germans preferred to think it had never happened. I was probably at fault, having come from a British Prep school where boys talked of little else. It took me a while to adjust and adopt the general ethos that prevailed of, to quote John Cleese as Basil Fawlty: "Don't mention the war!" I think it fair to say that my German school friends knew little or nothing about the war. What they did know mostly came from older relatives rather than teachers. And some of what they were told may have been designed to try and diminish the sense of guilt and inferiority at having lost, that the boys may have felt. I soon learned not to mention it, as I was obviously upsetting people I liked, even loved. One exception: Every British schoolboy believed that Rommel was a great hero. I too was a Rommel enthusiast, and I did try to share that with them. It upset me that they were ignorant of one of the greatest Generals of the 20th century. I felt he deserved to be remembered and revered by his countrymen just as he was by British schoolboys, who rated him up alongside Nelson and Wellington, and at least equal to Montgomory.

Schoolwear

Most of us usually wore shorts from choice except when it was too cold to do so. In the Spring we would even ski in shorts. It indicated that you were too good to fall over, so it was a kind of boast. I also preferred shorts, even though I had hated them in Britain and had bluejeans in my closet. Other boys owned jeans or long pants too but preferred to wear shorts, usually lederhosen, whenever possible. I never saw a boy in my class wearing long stockings with shorts, although my friend Mathias wore long stockings with long pants. They were worn with shirts sometimes by boys in younger classes. The school took boys from age 10. We had hardly any contact with boys from other age groups. I think it was a measure to cut out bullying which makes life hell for so many kids in boarding schools. I do remember boys wearing what my friends and I called Tintinhose, those baggy knicker type pants. Not many wore them in our class and no-one in my room did. I couldn’t see the point of them. Wear longs if it’s very cold, otherwise shorts was my approach. While Lederhosen were commonly worn at school, this was because so many of the pupils were Germans. Swiss boys did not tend to wear Lederhosen. Most of my school friends were German, and they did: also Kniebunde - Lederhosen knee britches, and some wore Tintin type pants, and so did a lot of the German kids. Blue jeans were popular but mostly the preserve of the younger boys, under 14. I don't think I ever saw a boy older than that wearing them. I don't know why that was. It might have been because each class/house had a Dienstmutti, a house mother in charge of about 15 boys. They looked after us very closely, even bathing us. They also had more than a little say in what we wore, laying out each boy's clothes the evening before. Our Mutti quite liked blue jeans or Lederhosen. So we wore them. I also think maybe she didn't like long stockings, perhaps she didn't fancy darning all the holes they would inevitably get about the knees. On warm days, I think all the boys in our class except Mathias would have been wearing shorts, me included. Mathias was new to jeans. I had worn them for years already. And, like I read elsewhere on HBC, they were indeed stiff when new, always tight in places where maybe guys don't want things too tight, and hot in summer, especially if you were a boy who often wore shorts. And they weren't too warm in winter either, always need long underwear or socks. I know they are an American icon, and I obviously liked them when I was a little kid, but ... I didn't wear jeans much at all after I was 14. I got tired of them I guess.

Other Students

A HBC reader writes, "From 1954 to 1956 I was at school in Glion Chillon College a branch of Monte Rosa in Montreux. When I was there we had two Pakistani Brothers and me from India but I don’t remember their names. I have very vivid recollections of an American boy who wanted to heat the Lac Leman to be able to swim in Winter. There could have been some Hungarian boys there too. My parents were very tight with pocket money and I used to get SFr.0.50 per week. I remember I used to purchase Bazooka bubblegum at a shop up towards Caux run by a gentleman by the name of Müller. One day I went into the shop and quietly stole a bazooka roll. I think it was in 2011 when I was in Glion. I returned to shop and told the sales woman of the incident and wanted to pay back the SFr. 0.50 or whatever the bubble gum cost then. The lady looked at me as if to say, 'You must be off your rocker'. Another incident was that we were asked where we wanted to go to church and I choose Glion because otherwise I would have had to walk to Montreux as I did not have the cash to pay for a “aller et retour” ticket. I would love to touch base with others who attended the school if anyone is interested in coresponding." [Kaikoo]

Sources

Kaikoo, E-mail message (January 27, 2015).

Created: 2:08 AM 9/9/2009
Last updated: 10:41 AM 1/27/2015