Figure 1.--These two unidentified eGrman children are on an outing in the country, but are rather dressed up. The boys wears a tie. They look to be about 12-15 years old. The family snapshot is indated, but looks like the late-1930s to us. The boy's short pants look a little long for the 1930s, a least the late-30s. Knee socks were probanly more common at the time, especially for boys when dressing up.

Most German 12-year olds wore short pant during the 1920s-40s. Shorts were wornfor both casualmwear, school, and when dressing up. Boys this age had short pants suits. And shorts were worn during the winter, usually along with long stockings. Short pants were standard to school. Here mothers decided when the shift was made to socks. Knee socks were very common. By the late-40s some boys were beinning to wear long pants during the winter. The major shift to long pants began to occur during the 1950s, espcially as the German Economic Miracle was just begining. We see many 12-year olds wearing long pants by the end of the decade. Short pants suits began to decline, but suits in general were becoming less common forvboys of all ages. German boys still wore shorts duing the summer as casual wear. This trend continued in the 1960s and by the end of the decade shorts were no longer standard for 12-year olds, although some boys wore them. Knee socks had to a large extent disappeared. By the 70s we no longr see shorts commonly at school for 12-year olds. Short pants began to disappear first from secondary schools and tgen gradually from primary schools.

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Created: 6:25 AM 1/21/2015
Last updated: 6:26 AM 1/21/2015