German Leibchen: Chronology


Figure 1.--

We do not yet have any information on the 19th century during which many German children extensively wore long stockings. We note different styles of leibchen during the 20th century and have developed some basic information on this period. The boy here wears a Liebchen from the period 1910-25 (figure 1). It is a white cotton sleeveless jacket which buttons down the front, over a long-sleeved union suit. His dark brown stockings are woolen and are held up by garter straps attached to the Leibchen at each side of his waist. This garment was more or less universal for the last decade of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century, since most German boys who wore knee pants or short pants during this period wore them with long stockings. We note two different styles of Leibchen from the period of the 1920s and 30s. The images of German Leibchen come from the German Hosiery Museum site. They are undated but are mainly from the period 1930-50. However, the German Leibchen is such a basic garment that I don't think it really changed very much during the first half of the 20th century. The style at the top, made of white cotton material, buttons down the front like the Leibchen in the first image. No hose supporters are shown but they would be attached probably at the sides. We note two different styles of Leibchen from the period of the 1920s and 30s. A HBC reader came across this photo illustrating the a young boy wearing a Leibchen in some discarded pages from an old German magazine. The date is 1943, but the name of the magazine is unfortunately lost. We have found various images of Liebchen from different decades. Most could be worn by both boys nd girls. As far as we cal tell, basically the design didn't change very much over the first half of the 20th century.

The 1900s

We note a vintage Liebchen from 1905. This Leibchen buttons down the front and is made of white sturdy cotton material and has two firmly sewn buttons on each side. The top buttons are for attaching underpants or outer clothing such as knee pants. The lower buttons are for the garter straps. This Leibchen would be suitable for either a boy or a girl and would presumably come in sizes from very small children (aged 2 or 3) up until about 14 (or perhaps even older since it dates from 1905 when boys wore long stockings into their teen years.

The 1910s

The boy here wears a Liebchen from the period 1910-25 (figure 1). It is a white cotton sleeveless jacket which buttons down the front, over a long-sleeved union suit. His dark brown stockings are woolen and are held up by garter straps attached to the Leibchen at each side of his waist. This garment was more or less universal for the last decade of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century, since most German boys who wore knee pants or short pants during this period wore them with long stockings. We note a Berlin catalog offereing three styles of Leibchen in 1913. We note a few years later a vintage World War I paper-fabric Liebchen.

The 1920s

We note two different styles of Leibchen from the period of the 1920s and 30s. The style at the top, made of white cotton material, buttons down the front like the Leibchen in the first image. No hose supporters are shown but they would be attached probably at the sides. Sometimes the garters attached to the stocking with a white button rather than with a metal clip with a rubber button. The Leibchen shown below is much shorter (it would come down only to the mid-chest), buttons down the back, and has two long garter straps attached in front--one for each stocking. There seem to be no clips at the ends of the straps. Probably there was only a button hole in the elastic strap to which a button sewn onto the stocking was attached. Two pairs of long stockings are also shown in the typical colors of the period--dark brown and tan.

The 1930s

The 1930 Leibchen is referred to as a "Bubenleibchen" (boy's bodice) and is made of a closely woven cotton mesh material with linen reinforcement straps running over the shoulders and horisontally around the middle. This Leibchen has two buttonholes in the shoulder straps so as to allow for the boy's growth. It buttons down the back and has a button in front for the attachment of underpants or short pants. By 1930 German boys were wearing shorts rather than knee pants. There are two tabs with buttons at each side for the garter straps. Probably this style of Leibchen was worn only by boys younger than 12. Older boys supported their long stockings with garter belts somewhat like those their mothers wore but usually white or grey rather than pink and without adornment.

The 1940s

A HBC reader came across this photo illustrating the a young boy wearing a Leibchen in some discarded pages from an old German magazine. The date is 1943, but the name of the magazine is unfortunately lost. From the context I believe the area of Germany represented in northeastern, but we can't be entirely sure about this. The magazine photograph is extremely valuable for HBC's discussion of the Leibchen, the German garment worn by children, both boys and girls (but commonly 10 years old or younger), for holding up long stockings. Here we see a standard Leibchen that would have been worn in the 1940s and perhaps early 50s.

The 1950s

The girl here wears a more modern Leibchen dating from the 1950s (figure 2). It is a sleeveless vest made of cotton (sateen apparently) with reinforcing straps over the shoulders to which four hose supporters, two in front and two in back, are attached. This liebchen worn by the girl here sem to have been the standard model in the 1950s (figure2).








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Created: 11:13 PM 4/19/2006
Last updated: 11:14 PM 4/19/2006