Figure 1.--Most German boys wear their sandals with socks. Striped socks apper to be particularly popular with boys. |
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German boys have worn sandals both with and without socks. Even though sandals came to be warm weather clothing, it has been much more common in Germany to wear them with socks. This was in fact a common European style, although there were substantial differences from country to country. . American boys, in contrast, were much more likely to wear sandals without socks.
Sandals seem to have first appeared in Germany after World War I (1914-18). Strap shoes were worn in the early 20th century, but they wre always closed-toe sandals. Open-toe sandals did not begin to appear until about the 1950s or 60s and were at first always worn with socks.
HBC at this time has no information on sandals during the early 20th century. I do not believe boys at this time wore open-toe sandals, but strap shoes were worn, mostly by boys from affluent families. I do not know if they were called sandals at the time. They were always worn with socks.
Boys in the inter-war era generally wore kneesocks with sandals, often white kneesocks. I don't believe the term sandal was used at the time. Sandal or strap sdhoe usage, however, declined during the NAZI era (1933-45) as they were considered girlish by the NAZI, not suitable for German boyhood.
German boys began to increasinly wear ankle socks after World War II. Sandals were worn much more commonly than before the War. Thus increasingly boys wore their sandals with ankle socks. I'm not sure why mother who bought sandals for boys chose to mostly have them wear socks wigh their sandals. It was at this time that open-toe sandals appeared.
Most Germam boys have worn their sandals with socks. This has only begun to change significantly in the 1990s. It has now become more common to wears sandals without socks, but this is a fairly recent phemonenon. This development appears to be primarily related to the appearance of sport sandals.
German boys have generally not worn sandals without socks. We see some boys wearing them without socks, but wearing them with socks seems more common. This was primarily we believe because mothers thought it proper to wear socks. Another factor was probably the climate. Sandals in German were almost always worn in the summer when the weather was warm. This began to chnge somewhat in the 1990s and more boys are now seen wearing sandals without socks. One factor as been the increase un pooularity of the new sports sandals which have begun to compete with trendy sneakers. Boys wearing these sport sandals are more likely to do so without socks. With the sport-sandals from Nike, Teva etc. in the 1990s, German boys have begun increasingly to wear sandals without socks, although it is still more common to wear them with socks.
The types and colors of socks worn by German boys have changed over time. Boys from wealthy families during th 1920s and 30s might wear white kneesocks with closed toe sandals and strap shoes. Older boys might wear grey or other solid colored kneesocks.
After World War II boys began to wear kneesocks less commonly, especially during the summmer. Boys wore a wide variety of ankle socks with their sandals. This was especially true as sandals became more and more casual summer attire.
Boys before World War II who wore sandals or strap shoes might commonly wear whitle kneesicks. There were class overtones here as strap shoes with white kneesocks were an upper class style. After the World War II (1945), sandals were worn with all colors of socks, presumably in the early post-war what ever the boy was lucky enough to have. Eventually as economic conditions improved, trends developed. Younger bous might wear white or brightly colored socks where older boys began to wear plainer les brightly colored socks.
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Usually they were colored socks. The white athletic socks common in America were not commonly worn by German boys. Many Germwn boys did wear striped color socks with sandals. By the 1990s, however, some boys began to appear in white socks with sandals.
German boys wear sandals for school or to go shopiing with parents with socks. Generally speaking mothers would not think it proper for boys to go to school without socks or to go places away from home like shopping.
The popularity of sandals in Germany appears to be primarily due to mothers. A German HBC contributir reports, "I think German mothers like their sons to wear sandals, it was not something that boys them selves asked for." He indicated that in the 1970s when he was growing up, his mother insisted that he wear sandals. He relates, "When the weather began warming up each year I was allowed to wear tennis shoes for football, the rest of the day (for school and after school for play), I had to wear sandals, always with socks." The current trend not to wear socks appears to be something that boys themselves appear tp prefer and not something mothers are incouraging.
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