Figure 1.--Here we see two unidentified German teenagers. They look to be about 16-17 years old. One wears a short pants suit. The other a suit jacket with what looks like Hitler Youth shorts. (Notice what looks like a HJ belt buckle.) The snapshot is undated, but looks like the 1930s. It seems to have been taken at home. We do not know if the boys are brothers, cousins, or friends. We suspect this was casualwear, in part because of the short socks. The boys may have had a long pants suit for formal occassions. Tghey were almost certainly still in school. We do not know how they woukd have dressed for school. Probably the jackets were not required but simply a choice. The ankle socks are a bit unusual. More often we see German knee socks worn with shorts during the 30s, but the ankle socks were probably popular during warm months. The boys may have been best friends and wanted to record their close relationship by having a third person photograph them. The combination of formality (the jackets) with informality (shorts and ankle socks) shows an interesting flexibility in German teenage dress. I suspect this photo comes from the early 1930s.

Generally speaking, German boys by about 14 or 15 years of age begn to get news suits. This was often knickers or long pants. The precise age varied from family to family. Some boys from conservative families tended to wear short pants longer. So we see 16 year olds or even older boys wearing short pants suits, especially if they were still in school. We are not entirely sure about the conventions involved. A 16-year old might have short pants suits for all occassiins. Or he might have a long pants suits for special occassions and his older short pants suits for school or casual wear. This again varied from family to family. This continued until after World war II when conditions in Germany were very poor. We see even older teenagers wearing short pants suuts because families did not have the money to buy new clothes. As soon as comditions began to improve with the German Economic Miracle we begin to see fewer teen agers wearing short pants suits in the 1950s.

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Created: 4:42 PM 12/19/2010
Last updated: 4:43 PM 12/19/2010