Figure 1.-- a German documentary, "Die Harte Schule" (2006), that recreates the experiences of modern German children (teenagers of 16 mostly) trying to live like schoolboys in boarding schools did during the 1950s (strict rules, customs, and clothing). It is not entirely convincing historically.

A reader reports, "I found two shots yesterday from a German documentary, "Die Harte Schule" (2006), that recreates the experiences of modern German children (teenagers of 16 mostly) trying to live like schoolboys in boarding schools did during the 1950s (strict rules, customs, and clothing). It is not entirely convincing historically because this school is co-educational, and most German boarding schools up to the 1950s were single-gender schools, I am told. But these photos are rather interesting, and show the boys' knee socks and short trousers off to good advantage. We already have a couple of shots from this film, I believe, but these might be interesting to add. One of the photos shows the short sleeves and sleeveless sweaters that the boys wore outside of class. The other one shows a boy relaxing in his dorm room on a cot and wearing the clip-on suspenders with his shorts that were part of the uniform. What do you think?" Well We think you are probanly correct about single-gender schools. Also boys by 15 or 16 were more commonly wearing knickers or long pants in the 40s and long pants in the 50s.. These boarding schools were not very common. It is kind of like recreating a British school. More interesting I think would have have been to depict a period gynasium.

Created: 4:10 AM 11/27/2008
Last updated: 4:10 AM 11/27/2008