Figure 1.--This photograph here was taken in 1948 shows another German school of unspecified location. This class is mixed, having both boys and girls. Long stockings with short trousers were still quite prominent, but there seems to be a greater acceptance of long trousers. We are told, however, by several German readers that it was common for boys to continue to wear long stockings underneath long trousers for purposes of warmth even though they didn't show.

After World War II, long stockings were still widely worn by German boys. They gradually became less common for older boys. This was a pricess we began to see in the 1930s. Children in primary schools still commonly wore them--especially during the cooler weather. Tthis varies somewhat. We see some children wearing knee socks and others long stockings. Here families differed. We also note varying patterns at schools. At some schools many children wear long stockings. At others, only a few children. We are not extirely sure how to explain these differences. This was true in both East and Wat Germany. The wearing of long stockings seemed to have declined more in the larger cities than in rural areas. This may explain some of the differences between schools. We note an impage from East Germany right after the War. We notice a farm boy, probably in the late 1940s. The fashion continued in Germany after World War II although we have only limited information at this time as to how common it was. This is in part because long trousers became more common and it is not possible to tell what kind of hosiery that the boys in long pants were wearing. This photograph here was taken in 1948 shows another German school of unspecified location (figure 1). This class is mixed, having both boys and girls. Long stockings with short trousers were still quite prominent, but there seems to be a greater acceptance of long trousers. We are told, however, by several German readers that it was common for boys to continue to wear long stockings underneath long trousers for purposes of warmth even though they didn't show. The long stockings are of various shades--black, dark brown and light tan. The sixth boy from the left illustrates a problem sometimes complained about by adult German readers reminiscing about their childhood clothing--the problem of boys who had grown too tall for their older long stockings with the result that the hosiery did not properly cover the gap between their short trousers and their stocking tops. This particular boy wears only two garter straps on his Leibchen and the effect is not only to have the attachment of the stockings showing under his shorts but also the uncomfortable unevenness of the stockings and the sagging of the stockings on the inner legs. Notice that a few of the boys wear additional ankle socks on top of long stockings, socks that are folded down over the tops of the hightop shoes. This style was popular with both men and boys who hiked in Germany, and the extra socks provided additional warmth for the feet. The division between boys who wear shorts with long stockings and those who wear long trousers (perhaps with long stockings underneath) is about half and half. Long stockings remained common for schoolboys in Germany up through the 1950s. They declined in popularity in West Germany in the 1960s (they were sometimes replaced by tights), but continued to be worn in East Germany, especially in the more conservative and less urban areas.