Figure 1.--Here we see an unidentified group of German boys. Note the number of boys wearing Schiller collars. The photograph is undated. A German reader believes that it was taken in the 1910s. Possibly, but surely the very late-1910s. The early 1920s seems more likely. Another German reader writes, "I do not believe that this picture is from the 1910s. It looks clearly like the 1920s."

We are not sure when the Schiller collar first appeared. We note Schiller collars in the mid-19th century especually before the 1860s. After that closed collars are dominant. We rarely see Schiller collars again until the 20th centuty. We note it being widely worn by German boys in the 1910s and 20s. It is a good example of the more casual, practical approach to children's clothing appearing in the early 20th century. School portraits show that the style was was very popular in both decades. We note a commercial postcard mailed in 1918 showing a German boy wearing a shirt with a Schiller collar and Lederhosen. The Schiller collar was much more prominent after World War I in the 1920s. The collar is a good example of the informality in dress that is often associated with World War I and the post-War era. A German reader tells us, "In the mid-1920smy grandfather wore such a collar at the age about 10. Here in Germany we have three very famous boys choir and one of the still wears today a Schiller collar. It's the Dresdner Kreuzchor. I think the popularity of Schiller collar declined in the 1930s. A German reader tells us, "The idea of the free Schiller-collar does not fit in NAZI times." She believes that by the 1930s the popularity of the Schiller collar had largely passed and that the open collars seen in the 30s were Schiller-like collars, but not true Schiller collars. We do not yet, however, a complete chronology.

The 1800s

We note Schiller collars at the turn of the 19th century. They were large, fancy ones. We note Henrik Brunn (1799-1800) wearing a skeleton suit with a large fabcy Schiller collar. TThe boy was apparently Danish, but Demark was a small country and fashions there were strongly indfluenced by German fashions. We also notice Marcus Pauli Holst von Schmidten (1802). ,

The 1840s

We are not sure when the Schiller collar first appeared. We contunue to see Schiller collars in the mid-19th century. A German reader is not positive these are actual Schiller collars, but they certainly look similar. A good example is the Paul Kessler-Tr�mpi family, a Swiss family in 1840. The Schiller collar was a German style, but e see it being worn in neigboring countries like Austria ans Switzerland.

The 1860s

After the 1850s, closed collars are dominab\nt. We rarely see Schiller collars again until the 20th centuty.

Late 19th Century

We do not nore Schiller collars in the late 19th century. More formal collar-buttoning styles were worn.

The 1900s

We are not entirely sure when the Schiller collar first reappeared in the 20th century. We have not yet photographic records from the 1900s.

The 1910s

WE think the Schiller collar appeared in Germany during the 1910s. Our information is still very sketchy, however, and one of our readers writes, "Schiller collars appear after World War II (1914-18). We have very limited information to establish that Schiller collars were worn in the 1910s. A portrait of an unidentified boy with recovering soldiers looks to be taken during the War. He was probably the doctor's son. The photograph is not dated and could have been taken after the War. We note a commercial postcard mailed in 1918 showing a German boy wearing a shirt with a Schiller collar and Lederhosen. We believe that the style was much more popular in the late 1910s than at the beginning if the decade, but do not yet have an adequate archive to fully establish the time line. A German reader writes, "Maybe Schiller collars appeared in the the late-War years, but they are mostly a fashion of the 1920s."

The 1920s

The Schiller collar as our reader maintains was much more prominent after World War I in the 1920s. We note the Schiller collar being worn by German boys in the 1920s. School portraits show that the style was becoming popular. The collar is a good example of the informality in dress that is often associated with World War I and the post-War era. We see a group of boys here in the early 1920s and several wear Schiller collars (figure 1). A German reader tells us, "In the mid-1920s my grandfather wore such a collar at the age about 10.".

The 1930s

I think the popularity of Schiller collar declined in the 1930s. A German reader tells us, "The idea of the free Schiller-collar does not fit in NAZI times." She believes that by the 1930s the popularity of the Schiller collar had largely passed and that the open collars seen in the 30s were Schiller-like collars, but not true Schiller collars. We see a German boy in a family portrait wearing what seems to be a Schiller collar in the early 1930s, styled a little differently than we ones we noted in the 1920s. Another example is a unidentified teenager in 1933. An example is a German boy wearing what looks rather like a Schiller collar in 1938. We note another unidentified boy in the mid-30s, but the collar sems smaller than that worn in the 1910s and 20s. http://histclo.com/essay/war/swc/force/for-wehr.html

The 1940s

We think that some boys were still wearing Schiller collars in the early 1940s, but was rarely seen by the end of World War II in the mid-40s.

The 2000s

The Schiller collar had not totally disappeared. A German reader tells us, "Here in Germany we have three very famous boys choir and one of the still wears today a Schiller collar. It's the Dresdner Kreuzchor."

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Created: 5:05 PM 3/2/2006
Last updated: 10:50 PM 12/1/2022