Figure 1.--The boys at this German summer camps before World War I wore a variety of different garments. These boys are wearing sailors suits and even a short smock.

German boys are noted for wearing unoiforms at summer camps, in part because of associations with the NAZI Hitler Youth summer camp program. Wearing uniforms at summer camps hs not always been the case nor does it aoppear to be very common in modern Germany. We have few images from German summer camps before World War I. The available image show the boys wearing long short pants. We are not sure bout the hosiery that was commonly worn. We are not sure, however, how representative the few images we have are. We note a variety of other garments like salor suits and smocks. After World War I we note that that boys increasingly wore shorter short pants and kneesock. Presumably Scouts in the 1920s and early 30s wore their Scout uniforms. We are unsure about other camps. After the 1933 NAZI take over, Hitler Youth uniforms were worn the throughout the Third Reich. After World War II, Scout uniform were worn at Scout camps in West Germny. We have no information on other camps. In East Germany (DDR) Young Pioneer uniforms were worn. We are unsure to what extent the uniforms worn were the same as or differed from the standard uniforms of these youth groups. Since the end of the DDR and Communism in 1989, uniforms hav become less common in German Scout camps. This is especially true because uniforms are no longer an important aspect of German Scouting.

Created: September 2, 2002
Last updated: September 2, 2002