Individual Swiss State Schools: Kilchberg School

Figure 1.--We note a Swiss school photo from the village of Kilchberg in the Zurich canton. There was only one school there so the school name is the same as that of the village. The class portrait was taken March 25, 1944 over a year before the end of World War II, but these well dressed children, who are about 12 or 13 years old, seem to show no signs of deprivation. The girls all wear long stockings, and the girl at the right in the first row is wearing argyle long stockings, which I don't think I have seen before in Europe--very sporty.

We note a Swiss school photo from the village of Kilchberg in the Zurich canton. There was only one school there so the school name is the same as that of the village. The class portrait was taken March 25, 1944 over a year before the end of World War II, but these well dressed children, who are about 12 or 13 years old, seem to show no signs of deprivation. The girls all wear long stockings, and the girl at the right in the first row is wearing argyle long stockings, which I don't think I have seen before in Europe--very sporty. We have seen patterened long stockings, but for some reason they were not very common in the 20th century. Just look at the image here (figure 1) or the other Swiss school pages. I think this is clearly a secondary class, given the age of the students, but I suspect that in Kilchberg one school served for both primary and secondary students. The boys are mostly in the baggy knickers with knee socks that were popular during the 1940s and 50s in Switzerland, at least in colder winter months. We see this in other European countries, but it seems particularly prevalent in Switzerland. One boy, however, is wearing long stockings with short trousers and a sporty sweater. Notice the woolen ankle socks that he wears on top of the long hosiery with the tops turned down over his boots--a style we see a lot in Switzerland for mountain hiking and additional warmth for the feet. Notice, also, the double-breasted cardigan sweater that the boy in the center of the front row wears. This is a somewhat unusual style, I believe. The teacher standing at the rear is Herr J. Oberhulzer. There is an older boy standing beside him, who might be some sort of assistant-teacher, although (since he isn't wearing a tie and jacket), I suspect he is still a secondary student himself, although he looks as old as 15 or 16. We can't tell what sort of trousers he is wearing. One of the boys with knickers in the front row is wearing over-the-knee long underwear (not ankle length, which would have been more common), which you can see under his knee socks--or is he wearing long stockings under the knickers? Some boys did this for additional warmth.

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Created: 7:03 PM 7/14/2009
Last updated: 8:08 AM 7/16/2009