Figure 1.--This boy near Hamelin during 1954 wipes his hands on his pants. Long stockings got progrssively longer as boys wore them with shorter and shorter short pants. Click on the image for a discission of the wide range of clothing styles being worn.

German boys until the 1930s mostly wore long stockings with kneepants and rather long, knee-length short pants. With knee-length pants, the length of the stockings were normally just a little above the knee. In the 1930s the length of the stockings became more complicated as boys began wearing shorter cut short pants. HBC is not sure why shorter shorts began to be worn at this time. One HBC reader believes was due to an increasing spirit of athletici, which called for shorter pants, especially in warmer summer season. This required mothers who continued to insist on long stockings to either to buy or make longer stockings for spring or autumn or for the evening hours. Thus long stockinfs which were initially made ar lengths just above the knee gradyually were made longer and longer, extending well above the knee. Some boys found that that the hem of the stockings never reached the lower hem of very short shorts. Most objected to this, espcially as their stocking supporters including the white button or the metal clasps would show. All this was by some children consdidered as extremely girlish or childish and were teased by other boy. There were other boys (and their mothers) to whom this did not matter.