Figure 1.-- Here we have three brothers. The boys are unidentified. Two boys are about the same age. They had their portait taken with their younger brother. The older boys look to be teenagers about 13-15 years old. They wear matching knee pants suits. Image courtesy of the BP collection.

We have quite a number of German family images from the 1910s. Some are formal portraits and others informal snapshots providing a good overview of how the whole faily would have dressed in the 1910s. Formal clothes were still the standard convention. Dressing children in coordinated styles was popular. Younger boys wore sailor hats and caps. Older boys might wear flat caps or military-style school caps. A lot of younger boys wore tunic suits and sailor suits. Norfolk suits were very popular. There were a range of collar and toe styles. We note older boys wearing both kneepants suits and long pants suits. Both socks and long stockings were common. Girls still wore dresses. Pinafores were still common.

Three Brothers (about 1910)

Here we have three brothers. The boys are unidentified. We think they may be a Jewish family. If so the portrait is notable for how assimilated thefamily clearly is in German society. Two boys are about the same age. They had their portait taken with their younger brother. The older boys look to be teenagers about 13-15 years old. They wear matching kneepants suits. Curiously they are dressed exactly alike, including the collars, except that their hosiery is different. Note the caps. I am not sure if these are school caps. One boy wears socks and the other long stockings. I'm not sure how to account for this difference, especially because eveything else about them is so carefully identical. Their younger brother wears a knee pants sailor suit. He looks to be about 8 years old. He wears socks rather than long stockings.

Unidentified Middle-class Family (about 1910)

We have absolutely no information about this family portrait. They are clearly a comfortable middle-class family. It is a cabinet card, but it is one of the new style mounts that did not have studio information. Thus all we have to go on is the mount style and what we can see in the photograph. The mount style suggests the 1910s to us, although we know less about German than Ammerican mounts. Cabinet cards were once almost entirely studio portraits. With the advent of the snap shot, we see more portraits outside the studio. This looks like a snapshot dad took (which is why he is not in the photograph) and had mounted. The clothing looks like the 1910s to us. The late-1900s is possible, but we do not think the late-1910s. The one boy's hat looks more like the 1910s than 1900s. Without the studio information there is no easy way of knowing where it was taken, but there are sevral indicators that the family is German. The most obvious is that the girl is wearing a dirdl, the German folk dress. The house has more of aGerman than an American look, especially the wood working on the banisters. The bicycle is also a clue. American families would be more likely to show off a car than a bike. There are four chilren avout 5-14 years old.

Affluent Berlin Family (about 1910)

Here we see a wonderful portrait of a Berlin father and son out for a bicycle ride. He boy wears a Norfolk knickers suit with a flat cap and his father is equally well dressed with a bowler hat. We thought this wonderfully shows the family relationship between father and son. Unfortunately we have no indormation about the photograph. Bicycles were expensive at the time. This and the way the two are dressed suggests to us that the family is a prosperos middle-class family. It is interesting to see how the two dressed for their bycycle ride. We wonder if this was for the photograph or the way they normally dressed.

Wealthy Family (1910)

The wealthy family of Prince Albert I of Thurn and Taxis was photographed in 1910. They were one of the wealthest families in Germany. I am not sure where the portrait was taken, but the family lived at Regensburg. Princess Margarethe apparently believed in dressing the boys similarly, at least those relatively close in age. The family portrait is a good example of families at the time dressing children similarly, but using major and minor differences in the outfits to recognize age differences. Their father Prince Albert appears to have been rather a rakish dresser.

Middle-class Family (1910s)

This portrait is unidentified and undated. We would guess that it was taken in the 1910s. The family looks comfortable, but ceryainly not rich. The mother wears a blouse and skirt rather than a dress, a sign of informality that was not common in the 1890s. The father wears a rather formal collar and tie. The two boys wear identical knee pants sailor suits with long stockings. The sailor suits are the button-up jacket style rather than the middy blouse style. Theu look anout 4- 6 years old. Their older sister wears a very plain print dress with a pigtail. She looks aboit 11 years old.

Osnabrück Family (early 1910s)

This wonderful German image in the early 20th century, probably theearly 1910s, shows a younger boy wearing one of these caps with a sailor suit. The portrait shows some of the different types of headwear worn by German children of different ages and gender. Our HBC reader reports, "The portrait was taken in Osnabrück, Germany. About 1910 seems a good guess. The way, the backside of the picture reveals the name of the little boy: Willi (Wilhelm) Ernst zu Eikern (sounds a little noble)."

Awertheim Family (about 1910-15)

We know nothing about this family, except they must have lived in Awertheim where the portrait was taken. The portrait is undated, but we believe was probably taken about 1910-15. We are not sure if it was taken before or during World War I. The portrait was a small family, only one son unless another son was in the army. The boy has a close-cropped head and wears a standard sailor suit. The portrait suggests a less formal relationship than is often shown in German family portraits.

Father and Son (1914)

Here we see a very proud father and self satisfied boy in 1914. The date is all we know for sure. The photographer is A. Wertheim. We do not know the city, onlt the street--Lepzieger Strasse. The boy wear a military-styled school cap with a sailor blouse, knee pants, and long stockings. His father looks rather like a prosperous businessman with a bowler hat, elegant suit and cane. The boy who is not holding on to his father seems very secure sitting on his father's knne. That seems a rather informal pose given the fathers rather formal demeanor.

War-time Family(1914-18)

This German family portrait is undated. It looks like it was taken during the 1910s, probably during World War I. We say this because of the father's or more likely older brother's uniform. We think that before the War, he would have dressed more formally for a family portrait. His uniform looks more like a field uniform than a dress uniform. His son wears a striped sailor suit. Notice that the belt matches the detailing on the collar. He looks to be about 13-14 years old. Note the bow, rather unusual for Germany. His little sister wears a simple white dress with a sailor "V" collar. Mother wears a blouse and skirt.

Grandmother and Grandchildren (mid-1910s)

This postcard-back portrait pictures a grandmother and her five grandchildren. They look to be about 6-14 yearss old. For some reason granny is not in the chair and surounded by the children. Note tge embroidery on her dress. They all seem very serious. The portrit as taken outside of granny's modest home, we think in the 1910s, perhaps during the War (1914-18 as there are no adult men present in the portrait. The children are variously dressed, perhaps from different families. The youngest girl wears a plaid dress and is holding something, perhaps a black wreath. That might have denoted a funeral, but one is wearing a black arm band. Her older sister wears a blouse and pleated skirt. The younger boys wwears a knee pants sailor suir with unusual stripe detailing and a scarfe of the same color as the suit. The older boys wear suits. One a collar buttoning suit, the other a vested suit with a Schiller (sports) collar. There is a message on the back of the postcard, probably from one of the parents to a soldier at the front.

Chemnitz Family (about 1915)

Here we see a family in Chemnitz, a city eastern Germsny--in Saxony. The portrait is undated, but the dealer believes the 1910s. We suspect it was taken during Wirkld War Ii, in part because the aduklt male figures are not present. A dealer writes, "Schönes Kabinettfoto von zwei Mädchen und zwei Knaben in feiner Kleidung, wie die 'Orgelpfeifen' aufgestellt! Atelier Paul Papesch, Chemnitz! Rückseite mit Atelier-Aufdruck!". This cabinet photo shows the children of a German family, two boys sanwiched between the two girls. They look to the grandchildren of the elderly lady in the portrait. Thy all wear white summer outfits. The boys wear very similar sailor suits. Even with the white outfits the children wear black long stockings. The Germans use the term 'organ pipes' to describe the pose of the children by height. All we know about the portrait is that it was taken at the Studio Paul Papesch in Chemnitz.

Gersich Family (about 1917)

Here we have the children of the Gersich family. The portrait is not dated, but as we know the birt dates of the children, we would guess that it was taken during World war I, probably about 1917. We do not where in Germany that the children lived. The children are: Heinz (01/1912), Franz (01/1907), and Hanna (05/1909). The portrait is notable for several reasons. One is the severity of the boys' hair cuts. Also notice the touching way the twon older children are holding hand. The body language in these old photographs is often very telling. The importance of the sailor suit can also be noted.

World War I Christmas Scene (1917)

No holiday is more dear to a German family than Christmas. An idealized World War I postcard shows a German soldier retuning from the front to be with his family for Christmas. His son wears a tunic suit. His daughter wears a dress and pinafore.

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Created: 10:30 PM 9/11/2005
Last updated: 7:00 PM 4/28/2023