Figure 1.--This World War I studio portrait shows three boys, perhaps brothers dressed in paramilitary outfits, probably cadets. Note that they are not wearing uniforms, but caps and military belts over suits. They do, however, have rifles.

We note student groups that seem to be involved in some sort of cadet groups. These would be secondary-level schools. At the time, most German children did not advance beyond primary school. Thus the cadet program was to prepare officers in case of war when the peace-yime army had to be rapidly expanded. We do not know if Germany had a system of school cadets. Given the number of images we have found, we believe they did, although we have been unable to find details about the program. Some of the boys seem to be in uniforms while others seem to wear their school clothes, normally a suit and tie. Cadets were not necesarily from military schools, but rather regular schools where the students did some military training, like Reserve Officer Training Cirps (ROTC) in America. Their teachers seem to be involved in leadership roles. We do not know just what the groups represent and to what extent they actually involved the students with military training. We notice uniforms on some school groups. Here we see what looks like a school class (figure 1). Not all the boys wear military uniforms, but most do. We have the idea that this is some sort of training exerise. It must not have been too rigorous as some of the boys are wearing suits. Hopefully some of our readers can give us some insights into these student groups. The term cadets here should not be confused with para-military grops that operated in Germany after World War I.

Created: 12:31 AM 7/28/2007
Last updated: 12:31 AM 7/28/2007