Figure 1.--These German boys have just finished a soccer match. The snapshot is undated, but was presumably taken during the 1930s. Note that many of the boys wear quite long shorts.

The length of pants changed during the 1930s. Curiously fifferent kinds of pants changed in a different direction. Knickers got longer and short pants got shorter. I'm not sure quite how to explain that. American boys by the 1930s were fastening below the knee as had become standard by the 1930s. We mostly see European boys wearing below the knee knickers. Younger boys might wear short-cut shorts. This was at a time when girl's skirts could be quite short. Shorter-cut short pants were seen as most appropriate for younger boys. Older boys and in Europe even teenagers might wear short pants. These boys often wanted longer-length shorts. There seem to have been some variation here. We see some Hitler Youth boys wearing short-cut short pants. We also see boys in other German youth movements wearing shorter cut shorts, presumably before 1933. Rarely do we see Boy Scouts on other countries wearing shorter-cut shorts during the 1930s. Many boys, often older boys, still wore long-cut short pants in the 1930s, but by the mid-30s we see boys beginning to wear shorter-cut shorts, especially in European countries (France, Germany, and Italy). A godd example here is a French boarding school. There we see boys wearing shorts of varied length. Many boys wear the long-leg shorts, but we see quite a few boys wearing shorter cut shorts. There were even some boys wearing kneepants. This was mostly boys in some European countries wearing formal suits. Romper suits appeared with shorter pants legs.