Figure 1.--Here three German children are off to school in the moring in a rural village. The snapshot is not dated, but looks to have been taken about 1930. The children wear susopender/h-bar shorts and skirts. Notice their satchels and eraser cloth needed for slates. Also notice that the children do not have the lunch cases. I think that means they probably went home for lunch.

We note many photographs of German children on their way to and from school. The images show us how German children dressed for school over time as well as what they brought with them to school. Parents seeem to have mostly photographed their younger children. Of course the first day photograophs were especially common as this was seen as such an important step in a child's life. Here we have formal portraits and not always the children setting off to school. As Germans did not for the most part have school uniforms, except caps. These family school snap shots are a good reflection of not only schoolwear over time, but overall children's fashions. We do not have much 19th century information. Many boys seemed to have worn suits to school. Leather school satchels were very common. We do, however, know a great deal about the 20th century. Suits were still common in the early 20th century. We see German children commonly going to school in knee pants and later short pants. Some older boys wore knickers. Only the older secondary school students wore long pants. School wear begins to become more informal after World War I, especially by the 1930s. Both knee socks and long stockings were very common. Here seasonality was a factor. In the post-World War II era, long pants became more common. We note that by the 1970s that German schoolwear was no longer destib=nctive, but increasingly the children wore the pan-European styles that became common throughout Europe.

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Created: 5:06 AM 3/4/2008
Last updated: 7:50 PM 8/31/2008