Figure 1.--German boys still commonly wore long trousers in the 1860s and 70s. This CDV shows a German boy about 10 years old, probanly in the late-1860s or early 70s. He was from Lwowie / Lemberg. I'm not sure, but I don't think he would have worn long stockings with long trousers. We will probably have to switch images here. We find the boy was not German. For a fuller discussion click on the image.

We are no possitive when long stockings first appeared in Germany. Like America we suspect that it was probably in the 1860s when boys first began to commonly wear shortenened length trousers. Long stockings were worn in Germany in the late 19th century much as they were in many other European countries. Most boys wearing knee pants wore them. We have, however, limited information on German boys' clothes during the 19th century. We note most German boys, even school age boys wearing long pants through the 1870s. We begin to see more boys wearing knee pants and long stockings in the 1880s. A German reader tells us that he notes a destinct change in school portaits about 1885 with more and more boys wearing knee pants and long stockings.