Figure 1.--This photograph was taken in an East Berlin shoe store and illustrates both the shoe and clothing styles in East Berlin during the 1950s. The children are with their mothers buying shoes in 1955. The girl is 5 years old and the boy 6 years old. The girl wears a cardigan sweater buttoned only at the top over a dress and long stockings. She is trying on high-top shoes. The boy wears a beret and a dressy short overcoat, probably navy blue, with brass buttons down the front. Underneath he wears short pants and long brown cotton stockings with hose supporters, undoubtedly attached to a bodice or Leibchen. He wears low cut Oxford shoes, but mother seems to be considering a new pair of high-top shoes. This seems to be the typical clothing of younger children in East Berlin out with their parents on a shopping spree. The GDR operated government run shoe stores and promoted their use to prevent children from going without proper footwear.

HBC has little information on 19th-century footwear in Germany. Much more informatin is available on German 20th century footwear. Boys at the turn of the century might wear high-top shoes. Many boys wore boot-like high top shoes. Working class families might wear wooden shoes while boys from affluent families might wear strap shoes. After the turn of the century, especially after World War I (1914-18), increasingly wore low-cut shoes or a variety of closed toe sandals. The sturdy high-top shoes for boys, however, endured into the 1950s. I think some German mothers considered them healthtier for children as they offered more support. There may also have been class connotations as they appear to have been more of a working-class style. Hopefully our German readers will provide more information here. After World War II open-toe sandals appeared. Sneakers appear to have been less popular in Germany than in many other countries we have studied. We have not yet compiled information on 21st century styles.

The 19th Century

HBC has little information on 19th-century footwear in Germany. This is a topic we hope too persue as HBC develops.

The 20th Century

Much more informatin is available on German 20th century footwear. Boys at the turn of the century might wear high-top shoes. Many boys wore boot-like high top shoes. Working class families might wear wooden shoes while boys from affluent families might wear strap shoes. After the turn of the century, especially after World War I (1914-18), increasingly wore low-cut shoes or a variety of closed toe sandals. The sturdy high-top shoes for boys, however, endured into the 1950s. I think some German mothers considered them healthtier for children as they offered more support. There may also have been class connotations as they appear to have been more of a working-class style. Hopefully our German readers will provide more information here. After World War II open-toe sandals appeared. Sneakers appear to have been less popular in Germany than in many other countries we have studied. We rarely see German boys wearing sneakers before World Wa II. I have never noted, for example, Hitler Youth boys wearing sneakers, except at sports in summer camps. Even after the War they were not common. We do not notice German boys extensively wearing sneakers until the 1970s. After World War II there were presumably differences between East and West Germany which by the 1950s were in part a reflection of the growing affluence of the West. Here we do not yet much information. German boys by the 1980s were wearing footwear much like the rest of Europe. The one destinctive feature e have noted in Germany was tghe popularity of a variety of styles of open-toed sandals.

The 21st Century

We have not yet compiled information on 21st century styles.

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Created: September 12, 2003
Last updated: 11:37 PM 4/5/2009