Figure 1.--This German boy wears a pinafore-type smock. This is from a 1931 magazine |
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One doesn't usually think of Germany in connection with smocks. Smocks do not appear to have been very popular in Germany, although admittedly I have little information at this time. We do note a variety of images of pre-school children wearing smocks which seems to continue into the 1930s. HBC has noted some younger German boys school boys wearing smocks, during the late 19th and early 20th century. After
World War I (1914-18) smocks virtually disappeared as fashions associated with the English and French became unpopular. After the NAZIs seized power in 1933, smocks were no longer commonly seen in Germany, except by younger pre-school children
Smocks do not appear to have been very popular in Germany, although admittedly I have little information at this time. A few boys did wear them. We do note seeing quite a number of younger pre-school boys wearing them. Older boys apparently did not like them as so few other boys wore them. A German writer in an autobiographical account describes how he had to wear a smock apron, but didn't like it because other boys didn't wear them. [Andres]
In German both smock and pinafore become "Schuerze". Another term was "Fuhrmannskittel" which was the smock once worn by workers. Youger children wore them as well. For a pinafore, Germans might say "Kinderschuerze" (kids apron).
We have very limited chronological information on smocks worn by German children during the 19th century. We know nothing about the early-19th century. They may have been worn in rural areas. Our German 19th century archive is not large, but large enough to suggest that smocks were not very common in the late-19th century. Thuis is when we begin seeing children wearing smaocks in France and other countries. For some reason the fashion never caught on in Germany. The CDV portrait here looks like a late-19th century portrait of a boy in a smock, but we are not positive (figure 1). It seemns a style for home wear. We would guess that he came from an affluent family. We know much more about the 20th cebtury. We have a very extensive archive and it is clear that smocks were not very common either in schools or at homes. We do note a variety of images of pre-school children wearing smocks which seems to continue into the 1930s. HBC has noted some younger German boys wearing smocks to school during the late-19th and early-20th century. After World War I (1914-18) smocks virtually disappeared as fashions associated with the English and French became unpopular. We do note boys wearing pinafore-smocks. The style seems to be primarily for boys as guirls more commonly wore actual, pinafores. After the NAZIs seized power in 1933, smocks were no longer seen in Germany, except for very young boys. Although we have found one snapshot of boys wearing smock-like garments after World War II in the late-1940s.
HBC has not yet acquired enough information on smocks to seiously assess the different types of smocks. We have a reltively large German archive. Yet we have found very few images of German boys wearing smocks. This tells us that smocks were not very common, but makes it difficult to fully assess the types of smocks worn in Germsny. Some boys at the turn of the 20th century wore back buttoning dark smocks to school. We have, however, found few examples. We suspect that this may have baried regionally. Yonger boys at home might wear a pinafore-type smock. This garment was fairly common, but we ar unsure as to whether it should be classified a smock or a pinafore. We also see a few garments that look more like smocks, but they were not very common. And some of them look rather like tunics. And we are unsure as to where they should be clasified smocks or tunics. And we are unsure as to what German mothers may have called them at the time.
There does not seem to have been gender variations. We have not found many photographs of Germn gils earing smocks either. We do ee German girls wearing pinafores, but few wearing mocks.
German boys did no commonly wear school smocks nor did German schools reqwuire smocks. The school smock, however, was not unknown in Germany. Some individual boys in the late 19th and early 20th century did wear smocks to school. Generally these were younger boys. Presumably there were areas of Germany where smocks were more common. Presumably smocks may have been worn to some extent in Alsace-Loraine, the area of France sized by Germany in the Franco-Prussian War during 1870. This was, however, before smocks were required as schoolwear by the French Government and German authorities may have discouraged any fashion that suggested French cultural influence. By the same token after Germany's defeat in World War I (1914-18), fashions such as smocks which were associated with France probably would not have been popular.
HBC does not know at this time if any regional differences existed in Germany concerning smocks. We have so little information that we can not make an assesment at this time. We do note a German Sudeten boy wearing a smock like his sisters in a home portrait during 1936. [Harasko, p. 37.] This was before the Sudentland was incorporated into the Reich and was still part of Czecheslovakia. We are not sure what the fashion influence was.
We have very liitle informaion at this time as to just how smocks were used in Germany. As far as we can tell, the smock in Germany was primarily a garment worn at home. Our information, however is still very limited. We have primarily noted younger pre-school boys wearing them at home. We noted a few images of an occasional boy wearing smocks at school before World War I, but they do not appear to have been a common school garment. We note a few images of older boys wearing smocks. One image from the Sudentenland shows a boy in what looks like a dress-up smock. Anothervimage from what looks like the early 30s shows a boy wearing a smock to paint with at home. It might have just been used for painting, but we suspect that he may have worn it for other occassions as well.
We have noted the smock worn as part of various German folk costumes. We do not yet know enough about German folk costumes to assess how common this was or just where in German smocks were commonly worn. It appear to have been a garment worn by agricultural laborrs in the early 19th cenury--much as it was worn in Britain and France at the time, although we have relatively limited information at this time.
We have noted a few individual German boys wearing smocks. Smocks were not nearly as common as in neigboring France, but we do note occassional portraits of German boys wearing smocks. We think it may have been more common in the 19th than the 20th century, but we can not yet substantiate this because of our limited 19th century archive. We do have a few inages from the 20th century.
Harasko, Alois. Bilder aus dem Sudetenland (Weltbild Verlag: Augsburg, 1990),
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