Figure 1.--This German boy, probably on a Sunday outing with his parents, wears a short pants suit. He wars an open colar shirt ad white knee socks with the suit.

We have noted several different types of pants German boys wore with suits over time. German boys have worn all the various pants styles. The popularity varied chronologically as well as a variety of other factors such as social class. We are unsure at this time concerning trends and conventions associated with this the different types of pants. We have, however, begun to collect images to develop these and other topics. Long trousers seem the most common in the 19th century, but by the end of the century we see many boys wearing different types of shortened length trousers, both knee pabts and bloomer knickers. This continued in the early 20yj century. After World War I boys began commonly wearing short pants suits. Older boys might wear knickers. Short pants suits were common into the 1950s, but generally went out of style in the 1960s as short pants became increasingly seen as casual summer wear and boys tended to wear suits less commonly.

Long Pants

German boys in the mid-19th century generally wore long pants suits. Many fashionable suits had pants and jackets in matching rather than contrasting colors. Long pants suits were still common in the 1870s, but gradually kneepants and knicker suits became increasibgly common. These shorter cut pants were quite common in the late 19th century. Long pants suits were also worn, but HBC is unsure how common they were. Note the three boys here, probably in the 1870s (figure 1). Based on available images we have archived, it sems to us that long pants suits, at least through the early 20th century and World War I were more common in Germany than in other countries like Britain and France. This is a trend, however, that needs to be persued in more detail. When boys got their first long pants suit varied from family to family. Here we believe social class was an important facor. By the 1970s almost all suits sold in Germany were long pants suits, even for younger boys. Many boys now get their first suits at age 14 for their Confirmation.

Kneepants

German boys commonly wore knee pants suits for several decades. We're not sure when kneepants and knicker suits first appeared nor the relative popularity of these two types of suits. We are not yet sure aout the 1850s. We see kneepats suits being commonly worn by younger boys in the 1860s. They ewere cut relatively long, commonly at calf length. Our archive of German 19th century is still fairly limited. We see quite a number of boyswearing knee pants suits, but they tend to be younger bys. German boys still commonly wore kneepants suits in the early 20th century. They were much shorter tha earlier, commonly at knee level. We see boys wearing bloomer knickers, but we do not see many German boys wearing knicker suits like Aneriucan boys in the 1910s. After World War I (1914-18), short pants suits became increasingly common and kneepants gradualy went out of style. We do notice kneepants persisting for formal suits such as the ones worn for Confirmation by boys about 14 years old. Kneepants disappeared in the 1930s after the NAZI take over. Knicker suits were worn by some teenagers deem to old for short psants suits.

Knickers

We're not sure when knee pants and knicker suits first appeared nor the relative popularity of these two types of suits. We see both knee pants and knickers in the late-19th century. Knee pants were common, but not nearly as dominate as in America. We also see many boys wearing knickers. The fashions in the 19th century seems more like Britain. We think that many German boys like American boys shifted to knickers in the 1910s. But unlike America we do not see knee pants Virtually disappearig in Germany furing the 1910s. We do not see the really baggy knickers as were popular in America, We see German boys wearing Little boys tended to still wear knee pants, but we see older boys wearing knickers suits. German boys still commonly wore kneepants and knicker suits in the early 20th century. After World War I (1914-18), short pants suits became increasingly common, gradually replacig kneepants suits. Knicker suits continued to be popular. After World War I a convention develooped in Germany where younger boys would wear short pants suits and older boys knicker suits. A good example in the HBC personal experiences section is Han J. The age at which this shift occurred varied from family to family and over time. This convention continued after World War II until knicker suits disappeared in the 1950s as suits generally became much less common in the 1960s.

Bloomer Knickers

German boys in the mid-9th century might wear bloomer knickers. These were often worn by younger boys as part of suits with cut-away jackets. Lengths varied from knee to mid-calf lengths. The jackets were often detailed with embroidery or other decoration. This decoration might be repeated on the pants. Other suits were more plain, but the bloomer knickers often had stripes. A good example is a Bremen boy in 1873. We thought that the bloomer knickers were bloused at the leg hem with elastic. A German reader believes that it may be done by a drawstring.

Short Pants

We first note short pants suits in the 1920s after World War I. Actually early short pants and kneepants suits were quite similar in that short pants at the time were only sligtly shorter than keepants. Short pants did not have the three button trim at the leg hem. In the United States and Britain the destinction between short pants and kneepants was more obvious because short pants were generally worn with kneesocks and kneepants with long stockings. This destinction was less useful in Germany where long stockings were much more common. Short pants suits were very common for boys in the 1930s, although the increasing importance of the Hitler Youth program there was somewhat less need for suits. (One effort of the HJ for example was to discourage family church attendance.) Boys often wore shrt pants suits to about age 14 when they began wearing knicker or longpants suits. This varies somewhat from family to family and some boys wore short pants suits beyond age 14. After World War II, Gemany was in a terrible state and few families had much money for clothing. Many German boys continued wearing their suits after they had rather grown out of them. Many boys srill wore short pants suits in the 1950s, often with sports shirts or with an open collar. Catholic boys common woreshort pants suits earily for their First Communions. By the 1960s, boys were increasingly wearing long pants suits, although suits were being worn less than before as German boys increasingly turned to more casual fashions.

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Created: 1:24 AM 6/14/2007
Last updated: 7:00 PM 1/11/2010