The popularity of the sailor suit in Germany changed significantly in the 1930s, especially after the mid30s. We still see German boys commonly wearing sailor suits in the early 30s. Even teenagers wore them, especially younger teenagers. A good example is an unidentified boy in a middle-class family. The sailor suit did not disaapear in the 1930s, but became much less common. Again school portraits are a good reflection of popular styles. We still see sailor suits, in school photographs, but we genrally ee only a small number of boys wearing them in each class--especially by the mid-30s. There was also a change in the age of the boys wearing them. Especially after the NAZIs seized power, we see fewer older boys wearung them.We see German boys commonly wearng sailor suits to dress up and to school in the early 30s. A good example is two German boys in a family grouping. We think with the coming of the NAZI era in 1933 that the sailor suit declined in popularity. I don't think that this had anything to do with official or adult criticisms of the navy. Rather boys and probably many parents seemed to have found the Hitler Youth uniform more appropriate in the New Germany of the Third Reich. Perhaps some did not see the sailor suit fashion as the proper image for tough NAZI youth. Perhaps the NAZI Government set guidlines for styles of clothes produced and may have encouraged private companies producing boys' clothes to deemphasize production.
The sailor suit's association with artistocracy and the middleclass made it unpopular with the NAZIs in the 1930s because the Party was trying to break down the prevailing class structure to create a more unified Volk and Reich. Hopefully German visitors to this page can provide some insights. For whatever reason,
sailor suits, at least for older boys, seemed to have gradually declined in popularity during the 1930s and were even less common during the War years (1939-45)
Sailor Suit Country Related Pages:
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[Return to the Main German sailor suit inter-war years chronology page]
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