Figure 1.--This family snapshot is undated, but looks to have been taken at about 1930. The boy looks to be about 12 years old, perhaps 13 years. Boys that age often began objecting to weaing long stockings, but this varies from family to family.

The popularity of long stockings varied significantly over time. They were a standard fashion for many years. Subsequetly, especially after World War many mothers continued to insist that bots, especially younger boys wear them. Their concern was practical, to keep their sons warm in cold weather. They became rather unpopular with boys, who generally prefered socks. Thus was not true of all boys, but was the perdominate view.

Mothers

The most prominent country where long stockings were worn was Germany. We believe that the major factor here that many mothers insisted on long stockings. A major factor was of course Germany's northern location and resulting cold climate. This was also in part because German boys mostly wore short pants all year round. Apparently German mothers were more concerned about their boys wearing short pants during the winter than British mothers. Long stockings were also worn on formal dress occassions. The principal reason, however, that mothers insisted on them was to keep their children warm, both boys and girls.

Boys

Many German boys did not like wearing long stockings. This was especially the case after World War I (1914-18)when wearing long stockings was no longer such a widely accepted convention. This was especially true when boys began to see them as a girlish type of hosiery. There were, however, some advantages to wearing them. Until about 1925 even a few older boys wore this kind of black long stockings when living in rambling groups--Wandervogel. For them the advantage seems to have been that the stockings could be tucked down during day time, and near the evening, up again. A German reader, when he was about 10, and his friends in the 1940s also, appriciate this possibility. Inside the house where it was wamer, I wore them down, outside I wore them up." It was in the rural areas where practicality still often over rode fashion considerations that long stocks came to be most commonly worn by boys as socks becme increasingly common in the 1930s. Several factors appear to have affected the attitude of the boys wearing long stockings.
Bother: One factor that affects how boys like particular garments is conveniemce. In this regard long stockings were a bit of a bother in that you had to keep them up. As can be seen here, they sometimes came undone (figure 1). Socks on the other hand you could put on and forget.
Social class: One was whether or not the mother insisted on the stockings as appropriate to the family's social class. There was considerable class consciouness in Germamy until World War II. German society was fundamentlly changed as a result of the NAZIs and post World War II democratization. Many mothers, concious of their social class insisted on long stockings as the way that wll brought up boys should dress. In some cases these mothers just insisted on long stockings for church or special occsions.
Proper handling: Another factor affecting boys' attitudes was how well their mother maintined his clothing, clean and neat or not. Some children are very particular in this respect. One German reader reports that he did not like wearing lonf stockings as a boy becuase he thought that they looked untidy.
Gender: The increasing view among boys that long stockings were a girlish, or at best, little boys' garment severely affect the tendency of boys to wear them.
Personal character: Some boys are shy and very sensitive about even off hand remarks. Other boys are not particularly bothered about what others say. In this regard it should be remembered that before World war II, it was much more important hat a boy's parents said than what other boys at school might say.