Individual Swiss Schools: Chronoloy--The 1950s
Figure 1.--Thus is a secondary school class during 1954 from Russikon, a town in the Zurich canton, a German-speaking canton. The name of the school is the same as the town, presumably because there was only one school there. The students are about 14-15 years old, but the school name in the notation does not include the word "Secondary". Perhaps Russikon had one school that taught both primary and secondary students. The girls are wearing bib-front pinafores looking more like aprons moters wore in kitchens. This apparently was a school requirement.
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We see major changes in Swiss schoolwear during the 1950s. The early 1950s looks much like the 1940s. Most primary children wore short pants, mostly with long stockings in the winter. A few boys wore knickers. The girls wore pinafores. Youngr secondary children still wore short pants or knickers, also with long stockings. Both boys and girls wore long stockings. We note long stockings by the 1950s declining in many European countries. Switzerland seems to be a country where they continued to be very commonly worn. This probably is a reflection of the inherent conservatism of Switzerland. We still see long stockings in Germany at the time, but they do not seem as common as in Switzerland. Much of our information comes from the German cantons. We are not yet sure if long stockings were as common in the French cantons. We note short pants being worn there, but we are less sure about long stockings. We also see knee socks, but during the winter, mostly in the seconary schools. By the end of the decade we see fewer boys wearing short pants, but this was in part seasonal. We note quite a few boys wearing knickers and not just the boys in the secondary schools. We even see Kindergarteners wearing knickers. Many of the knickers are plus-fours. Long stockings wre much less common than at the end of the decade. We begin to see more knee socks and ankle socks. We also see fewer boys wearing suspenders and more boys wearing belts. We note children wearing somewhat more trendy clothes, surely a sign of the strongly recovered Swiss econonmy.
At age 12 in 1948 I began boarding school and went to the same school for 8 years. This was not as common in Switzerland and other European countries as it was in Britain so I thought I write you a few notes about my years at the boardingschool. It was an all boys' school. It was called "Evangelische Lehranstalt, Schiers." There were about 350 boys boarding there from the ages of 11 to about 19 years old. We were housed by age. I was about 11 years old when I got there and I had to share my room with three other boys. Discipline was strict and our daily schedules were coordinated from morning utill bed-time. This was a dramatic change for me. Surrounded by 350 boys from all over Switzerland, far away from home, required considerable adjustment on my part. I was very ill prepared for my step from the elementary school to the secondary boarding school and had to repeat one year. I was not trained well enough to keep up with the fast pace of teaching at the boarding school and was also very shy and had problems interfacing with so many class-mates. After about a year, I had adjusted to the changes. Our school had a well used court yard. Here we would often gather after classes fr a range of of fun activities. I will tell you a bit about clothing. During the summer months all the boys wore in shorts and knee-socks and depending on the weather wore a sweater over their shirts. On Sundays we had to wear something nicer, which consisted mostly of knickers with knee-socks and a jacket. While I was at boarding school I was active in the Scout-troop at the school. We too had many activities and many weekend-camping trips. The one thing we did not do, we did not organize a summer camp, as all the members of the school understandably wanted to remain at home during the summer.
This class portrait was taken January 12, 1951. It shows a class of younger children, about 8 or 9 years old. Most of the boys wear baggy knickers or 'plus fours" although one boy in the front row wears brown long stockings with short shorts and a cardigan sweater. Knickers seems to have persisted longer in Switzerland than in America and even much of Europe. Perhaps it was the cold weather. We are not sure why knickers continued to be a major style into the 1950s. This was seasonal. Almost all of the boys here would have worn short pants in warmer weather, probably with knee socks. The girls as in earlier periods do not wear pinafores. Their teacher is Herr P. Angst.
This is a kindergarten class from the city of Zurich. The name of the school is Nordheim. The photo was taken on February 27, 1951, hence the winter clothing. These children are about 5 years old. Most of the children wear long stockings, although we see a few boys with the baggy plus-fours that somtimes substituted for short trousers in the winter time. The girls wear dresses and pinafores. The boys wear pullover sweaters. One boy in the third row, extreme left, wears a fashionably tied bow tie. Some of the boys also wear suspenders over their sweaters. Notice the boy riding a toy horse at the right. His clothes are interesting because they illustrate the length of long stockings worn with brief short trousers. You can see that he wears supporters, undoubtedly attached to a bodice, which fasten on the side just below his hips. He is wearing beige long stockings that look white. Beige was a more common color for school wear. Notice also the footwear of this boy--slippers with a band around the ankle that look almost like ballet slippers. These are probably only for indoor wear while he is at school. He would change to more substantial shoes for wearing outdoors. Notice the toy train in the foreground. The teacher, Frau S. Zollinger, is a little hard to see. She is standing in the last row, fourth from the left.
This is a class of 10- or 11-year olds from the town of Oberembrach primary school. Their teacher, Herr Kägi is standing at the rear with a sweater under his suit jacket. The photo is dated November 11, 1952. All the children seem to be wearing long stockings except for one boy at the right (in front) who has on plus-fours. Notice that nearly all the boys wear suspenders with their short trousers which they wear on top of their pullover sweaters, which means, of course, that the sweaters have to be tucked into the trousers. This was a common style in both Germany and Switzerland in the years after the war. This seems more commin at this school than most schools we have looked at. We see a boy with a belt rather than suspenders standing in the third row, but he, too, has his sweater tucked into his trousers. One boy in the center wears ribbed cotton stockings while most of the others seem to have on stockings of a smoother texture. These and othr school photographs show that long stockings were still very common at Swiss schools during the early-1950s.
This is another Swiss primary school. The children look to be about 10 years old, which would mean they are fifth graders. The school is simply called Ottikon School, the same as the town, which is in Zurich canton, one of the German-speaking Swiss cantons. The date of the photo is March 19, 1952, late winter just before Spring,
which you can tell from the bare limbs of the trees in the background. The young teacher is named Herr Burri. Notice that almost all the boys wear short trousers with separate button-on elastic suspenders. Many German and Swiss boys wore suspenders with their shorts because belts don't work as well with narrow hips and suspenders help keep the children neater with their shirts tucked in and the trousers don't sag uncomfortably. Some boys wear sweaters and others just open-collared shirts. Many of the girls wear pinafores. We see one boy on the extreme left wearing the baggy plus-fours, which (in this case) look almost like plus-eights since the knickers come down so low, almost to his ankles. But long stockings with short trousers are much more common, obviously worn with Strapsleibchen or stocking-shirts (bodices that button down the front and have four elastic supporters attached, two in front and two on the sides). Such bodices keep the stockings neatly in place without wrinkles. Notice the boy in the front row (third from left), whose stockings are perfectly smooth almost as though he were wearing tights. But of course they are stockings, not tights, which didn't come on the market in Europe until about 1959.
This Swiss class of 2nd graders (about 8-years old, was photographed in the village of Uitkon Waldegg, a little town in the Zurich canton. The picture was taken on December 12, 1953, just before Christmas. Many of the children wear long stockings for warmth while some of the boys wear plus fours. Notice the boy sitting at the left
on the floor with knee-length argyle socks. The boy in the analogous position, half-kneeling, at the extreme right, wears very brief short trousers with extremely long dark tan cotton stockings that reach so high on his thighs that they almost look like tights. But they are not tights. He is simply wearing a "stocking shirt" or Strapsleibchen with supporters that hold his stockings very tautly in place without wrinkles. Most of the children wear pullover sweaters. A few of the girls wear pinafores, although by no means all of them as was common at many Swiss schools. Their teacher, Frau Emilie Spillmann, stands at the rear of the class. Perhaps some of our German readers can decipher the writing on the blackboard. It looks like a class in reading and writing. Part of the blackboard is covered with a printed text while the other half is in cursive German script.
This is the Madetswil primary school, Zurich canton, photographed on November 5, 1953. Madetswil is a village with, I believe, only a single school. The teacher standing at the rear is Herr Theo Allenbach. These children seem to be about 8 or 9 years old. One boy wears knickers with suspenders but most of the other boys wear short trousers with either long stockings or knee socks. The two boys with long stockings in the front row seem to be wearing heavy woolen hosiery
(notice the ribbing). The second boy from the left is obviously wearing a Leibchen with supporters for the stockings, which is obvious because of the way the tops of his stockings show under his short trousers with a gap between the shorts and the stocking top. This is obviously not an embarrassment for him as it was for some boys. The girls wear pinafores. All of the boys seem to be wearing sweaters, several with the suspenders on top rather than underneath.
This is Ilinau Primary School in Ilinau, Switzerland, a town in the Zurich canton. There is only one public there so it has the same name as the village. These children 4th graders, about ten years old. The photo was taken on 12 November 1954. There teacher, standing in back at the right, is Herr H. Straub. All the children seem to be wearing long stockings since it is late autumn and therefore chilly, although the children don't seem to be uncomfortable out of doors without overcoats or outer jackets. There are still leaves on the trees. All the children appear to be wearing long stockings neatly supported by garters undoubtedly attached to a Leibcchen, sometimes referred to colloquially as "stocking shirts" (sleeveless bodices with four supporters attached, two for each leg). Most of the boys wear pullover sweaters with their short trousers.
A group of 6-year old children, apparently 1st graders, at the Tössfeld School in Winterthur, Switzerland, a
town close to Zurich, almost a suburb of the city. The photo was taken February 18, 1954. The teacher standing in back is Frau Schuler. All the children seem to be wearing long woolen stockings with hose supporters and short trousers. You can see the garter clasp of the boy sitting at the extreme left. Two boys, however, standing at
the extreme left are apparently wearing plus-four knickers which were sometimes substituted for shorts and stockings in cold weather. One boy in the front row illustrates the style of plus-fours. Notice that some of the
boys hold up their plus-fours or short trousers with leather suspenders. But these are not halters with cross pieces like those usually worn with Lederhosen. Notice that some of the children seem to have taken off their outdoor boots and are wearing slippers for indoors (see the footwear of the boy and girl at the extreme left). In
Switzerland in the public schools there was usually no separation of boys and girls, unlike similar schools in Germany. The Swiss schools tended to be coeduational. Private schools, on the other hand, did usually segregate boys and girls. Notice the picture hung at the back of the room--apparently showing flowers that are amusingly taller than the man in their midst. This could be an illustration from a fairy-tale or perhaps part of a nature lesson.
Thus is a secondary school class from Russikon, a town in the Zurich canton, a German-speaking canton.
The name of the school is the same as the town, presumably because there was only one school there. The students are about 14-15 years old, but the school name in the notation does not include the word "Secondary". Perhaps Russikon had one school that taught both primary and secondary students. Many of the girls are are wearing bib-front pinafores looking more like aprons moters wore in kitchens. One boy looks to be wearing an apron, but we think that they are actually baggy trousers. The date of the photo is November 18, 1954. The teacher. standing in the back row in a double-breasted suit with shirt and tie is Herr A. Schlatter. Most of the children are wearing wool sweaters. The boys seem to wear both short trousers and long trousers. In the front row, we see two teenage
boys wearing both styles. One wears a woolen collared jacket with long trousers while the boy next to him of the same age wears the more conservative cardigan sweater over an uncollared shirt with heavy ribbed long stockings and boots (but with additional ankle socks turned down over his boot tops for extra warmth on his feet). We see this
style of additional ankle socks quite often in Switzerland during the 1940s and 1950s. The long stockings are very tautly gartered, probably with what was known as a Strapsgurtel, a male garterbelt similar to
what modern hockey players wear. The ribbing in this boy's stockings match the ribbing of his sweater. Maybe his mother knitted both the stockings and the sweater. This boy is probably too old to be wearing a Leibchen to keep his stockings in place. Notice that one boy standing to the left next to the teacher wears a sweater that is tucked into his belted trousers, which could be shorts, plus-fours, or long trousers. One girl wears knee socks while another wears striped anklets.
Here we see the a class at the Hinwil Schoolin Zurich canton (February 1, 1955). The girls and boys here look about eleven or twelve years old to me. Most of the boys wear baggy knickers, but three boys in the lower right hand corner wear long stockings. Two of the boys are obviously brothers, and they look to me like identical twins. Notice that they are dressed identically in the same color of shorts, with identical pullover sweaters and tan or grey long stockings, pretty clearly heavy woolen stockings obviously worn with a Strapsleibchen for supporters. Note that the third boy from the right (second row), who is wearing knickers, has on ankle-length long underwear since the season is winter. The boys all wear sweaters. The girls mostly wear pinafores, usually on top of sweaters. The teacher standing at the rear left with glasses and a plaid woolen blouse is not named, but the young man with jacket and tie at the right is Herr M. Zimmermann. Again we see the style of woolen ankle socks worn over other hosiery and turned down over hiking boots.
A group of 12-year old children in Rüdlingen School. Rüdlingen is a village in the Zurich canton with only a single school; therefore the name of the school is the same as the town. The photo was taken on November 9, 1955. Their teacher, Herr Maier, stands at the back with a suit and striped tie. The boys seem to wear either knickers with knee socks or short trousers with Strapsleibchen and long, rather heavy-textured stockings. Notice the ribbing on the long stockings of the boy kneeling in the center of the front row. Another boy in the front row, towards the left, seems to have sportily textured long stockings as well, but without the wide ribbing. The boy close to the center in the front row who is wearing plus-fours (baggy knickers) has on argyle knee socks but without garters to keep them up, so that they look saggy and wrinkled. Children often care little about such things although their parents or teachers usually take a stricter view of neatness in boys' dress. Some 12-year old boys still wore Strapsleibchen or "stocking shirts" with supporters for long stockings; but older boys sometimes preferred garter belts as more grown-up. Of course, we have no way of knowing from the photographs what their mothers prescribed for them. Notice the heavy woolen sweaters. At least one boy is wearing a suit jacket. The girls wear dresses and pinafores, probably a requirement. Notice, too, that the boys who wear suspenders with their trousers tend to wear them on top of their weaters so that the sweaters must be tucked into the trousers.
HBC-SU
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Created: 11:19 PM 3/20/2009
Last edited: 11:46 PM 7/5/2009
