Specific Schoolwear Garments:  Germany during the Weimar Republic


Figure 1.--The photograph of this German school group was taken in 1930. We notice some bots wearing sailor suits. Other boys seem to be wearing lederhosen, at least the halters. We are not sure where in Germany this photograph was taken. Most, but not all of the boys wear short pants with kneesocks. One boy wears white kneesocks and strap shoes. We are not sure what kind of school group shown here. We would guess it is a secondary school class. The boys look 14-15 years old.

We have some limited information about the garments worn by school children during Weimar Republic era. Here we hope to acquire images which will provide us more detailed information. We see a substantiasl shift from early 20th century style to mid-20th century styles. As a result we see styles worn in both periods. We are gradually expanding our coverage of garments worn during the Weimar era. Here we will archive both group photographs showing a range of garments and styles as well as separate pages for the popular garments at the time.

Overview

Here we see group photographs showing all the different contemporary garments. We see during the Weimar era a substantiasl shift from early 20th century style to mid-20th century styles. As a result we see styles worn in both periods.We have found a number of German school photographs. Wewould like to archive them by individual school. Unfortunately commonly the school is not indicated. We will archive them here to provide an overview of the different clothes worn. German schools did not have uniforms. The children wore their own clothes and we see quite a wide range of garments. Thus school portraits provide wondeful overviews of the different garments and fashions popular at any given time. ere we will look for portraits that provide a look at school and other groups over time.

Specific Garments

It was much more common for boys to wear caps duing the winter than the warmer months. We notice a variety of styles: peaked military caps, sailor caps, berets, knitted stocking caps, leather caps with ear flaps, and other styles. The boys here all have heavy winter coats, but it is difficult to make out details. The boy standing seems to have a coat with fur trim. Sweaters were very commonly worn. As the decade progressed it became increasingly common to come to school in a warm short and warm sweater rather than a more formal suit. Many classrom images show some boys uin suits and others wearing swaters. We note sweaters in many different styles, inckluduing pullovers with crew necks, Rugby-style half buttons, and cardigans. The sweaters came in a wide variety of colors and patterns. Younger boys woire a wide variety of suits to school. Many had jackets without lapels that buttoned to the collar. Corduroy seems to have been a popular material. Interestingly, sailor suits continued to be a popular style for boys, despite the bitter experience of the War,including older boys than wore sailor suits--both with short and long pants. The sailor suits seen after the War are almost all of very traditional design rather than the wide variety of styles seen before the War.Most German boys went to school during the 1920s in short pants, although by the 1930s older boys might wear knickers or even long pants. Letting a boy wear long oants diring the cild Winter months seems to have been more common for older than younger boys. Many younger boys wore short pants all year long. Even some younger boys by the 1930s might wear knickers or long pants during the winter, but short pants were more common except for the oldest boys. A few younger boys also wore smocks, at least in the late 19th and early 20th century. Here there may have been regional variations. Many younger boys wore long stockings, esoecially during the winter with short pants. Long stockings were even more common for girls. After about age 10 many boys began asking to wear socks instead, altough some boys still wore long stockings uo to about age 12-13, ratherly older boys. Kneesocks were also very common. Ankle socks do not appear to have been widely worn. We notice many German schoolboys in the 1920s wearing high-top boot-like shoes. This was less common by the early 1930s when low-cut oxford style shoes increasingly common. We do not notice boys wearing canvas tennis shoes. We do notice a few boys wearing scandals of various styles. Some look like British-style school sandals. We also notice a few boys wearing what look like srap shoes. wWe are not sure about the colors.





HBC-SU






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Created: 9:04 PM 8/5/2004
Last updated: 10:23 PM 9/8/2007