Figure 1.--Inge at age 10 would have attended a primary school. There are a few photograpgs of Inge on her way to school because she is wearing her book satchel and lunch container. There is only one image from the school itself. Put the cursor on the image to see this photograph. We see the girls at school being weighed and measured. They are wearing one-piece bloomer outfits. We thought that this might be underwear, but a German reader tells us that they are gym outfits. I didn't think primary children normally had gym uniforms.

Inge at age 10 would have attended a primary school. We find a little surprising that with all the photographs, there is not one of Inge on her first day of school with a bug hair bow and goodie cone. We see so many of those portraits in our German archive. Surely Inge had her photograph taken on the first day of school. Apparently it did not get included in the album. We hope that Inge got her gift cone. There are a few photograpgs of Inge on her way to school because she is wearing her book satchel and lunch container. There is obly one image from the school itself. We see the girls at school being weighed and measured. For an album with relatively little about school, this semms rather a strange photograph to include. Inge and her school mates are wearing one-piece bloomer outfits. We thought this imight be underwear and not gym outfits. American girls, usually high school girls had gym uniforms like these. I didn't think primary children normally had gym uniforms.

First Day

We find a little surprising that with all the photographs, there is not one of Inge on her first day of school with a bug hair bow and Zuckertüten / Schultüten (goodie cone). We see so many of those portraits in our German archive. Surely Inge had her photograph taken on the first day of school. Apparently it did not get included in the album. We hope that Inge got her gift cone. Coming from a fairly well-to-do family one might expect she did. But perhaps not as the family lived in Denmark. '

Primary School

Inge at age 10 would have attended a primary school. Age 10 at least in German schools is the last year all the children are educated together. The next year the clever children would transfer to Gymnasium or other slective secondary schools. We do not know what type of student Inge was.

School System

Apenrade wasa a mixed German-Danish town. I think, but am not sure about this, that there were primary schools for both communities. I don't think this was the case across the border in Germany. I think Danish children there had to attend German-language schools. I'm less sure if Apenrade had German-language secondary schools.

School Wear

There are a few photograpgs of Inge on her way to school. We can't tell a great deal about her school outfit because she wears a coat, She has a jaunty little hat that matched her coat. We suspect German and Danish children dressed similarly. You can see her book satchel and lunch container (figure 1). These are identical to the ones children in Germany had..

Gym Suit

There is obly one image from the school itself. We see the girls at school being weighed and measured (figure 1--linked image). For an album with relatively little about school, this semms rather a strange photograph to include. Inge and her school mates are wearing one-piece bloomer outfits. We thought this imight be underwear and not gym outfits. We note that American girls, usually high school girls had gym uniforms like these. They were also worn as summer camp uniforms. I have never seen American girls, however, wearing them with garter waist straps showing. I didn't think primary children normally had gym uniforms. A German reader, however, tells us, "No, they are not wearing underwear. A relative of mine described these gym suits to me. Marga gave me a picture of herself is such a suit. She is a contemporary witness. She was born in 1928." We should have known that the outfits were not underwear because I don't think girls wore one-piece underwar garments like this, but we were surprised that primary children had gym suits. I didn't think this was very common, but we do not have much information about this. Our German reader writes, "I can't tell you exactly how common gym suits were for primary school childrem. But it must have been common, they simply needed that for school sports. Marga's family was rather poor but she had one, too." This is a little unusual because primary children in other countries usually did not have gym uniforms.

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Created: 4:38 AM 11/6/2006
Last updated: 4:29 PM 11/6/2006