Figure 1.--Many of our German Schülermütze school cap photographs or individual portraits which do not show that it was a school established style. Here we have a cabinent card portrait of class group with their teacher clearly showing that the school established the cap as a uniform item. Other the boys are wearing their own clothes, various knee pants suits. Notice the small size of the cap. We are not sure about the color, but it clearly was not black. The boys are younger secondary boys about 13-years old. The portrait is not dated, but given their clothing and the syule of the noiunt, we would guess it was taken in the 1900s.

We have seen more information when amateur photography and the snap shot provide us more informal images (1900). Germany did not have school uniforms except for a few military cadet schools, thus we see boys wearing these Schülermütze caps with what ever the popular styles of the day were. This included sailor suits. The sailor suit was a very popular school garment, especially for younger boys and pre-teens. Many of the boys wearing these caps with sailor suits were younger boys wearing them as a school style and not as a cap designated by a secondary school. Here there were some excetions as some younger teens wore sailor suits to their secondary school. The caps we see in the late-19th and early-20 century see small caps with small brims and peaks. As our archiveis limited for this period, we are not entirely sure how prevalent these small-style caps were. While we do not have much information from the 19th century. We have a great deal of photographic evidence from the early-20th century. They were still being worn in Germany in the 1930s before World War II. The caps we see in the 20s and 30s are larger than what we see at the beginning of the century. They also look to be mostly black. There was no one single style, but they were all similar. While this was a German school style. We see these caps in Eastern European and Central European countries influenced by Germany. We do not have a chronological fix on this, but we see a good many examples in the inter-War era. While these caps We do not see very many during the War, but believe they were worn. We no longer see them after World War II (1945). his qas quite a sharp break in tradition. We are not entirely sure why they were disconinued, perhsps because they had a military look.

The 1900s

We have seen more information when amateur photography and the snap shot provide us more informal images (1900). Germany did not have school uniforms except for a few military cadet schools, thus we see boys wearing these caps with what ever the popular styles of the day were. This included sailor suits. The sailor suit was a very popular school garment, especially for younger boys and pre-teens. Many of the boys wearing these caps with sailor suits were younger boys wearing them as a school style and not as a cap designated by a secondary school. Here there were some excetions as some younger teens wore sailor suits to their secondary school. The caps we see in the late-19th and early-20 century see small caps with small brims and peaks. As our archiveis limited for this period, we are not entirely sure how prevalent these small-style caps were. While we do not have much information from the 19th century. We have a great deal of photographic evidence from the early-20th century.

The 1910s

The 1920s

The caps we see in the 20s and 30s are larger than what we see at the beginning of the century. They also look to be mostly black. There was no one single style, but they were all similar. While this was a German school style. We see these caps in Eastern European and Central European countries influenced by Germany. We do not have a chronological fix on this, but we see a good many examples in the inter-War era.

The 1930s

The military-style peaked caps were still being worn in Germany in the 1930s, at least the early-30s. This suddenly changed after Hitler was appointed Chancellor (January 1933). Interestingly among the manu NAZI targets early on was the traditional militry-style school cap. NAZI officials denounced the Schülermütze as an 'egg shell of reaction' (Eierschalen der Reaktion) and a divisive 'well spring of class feeling' (Ausgeburt des Klassendünkels). One German source tells us, "Das Ende der Schülermütze kam dann sehr schnell nach 1933 in der Nazi-Zeit. Die Mütze passte nicht mehr in die Volksgemeinschaft, sie war nun als „elitär“ verrufen. So drängte der Schulleiter darauf, dass sie nicht mehr getragen wurde." (The end of the school cap came very quickly after 1933 in the NAZI period. The cap no longer fit into the new NAZI visision of the national community, it was now labeled 'elitist'. The headmaster urged that it no longer be worn.) This surprising development related to the working-class social orientation of the NAZI Party and Hitler's desire to oursue a social revolution and create a new classless German Volk. The reason that the Schülermütze got tided up in this assault Germany's substantial social class system is that for the most part it was secondary schools that adopted these caps as a kind of school uniform. At the time it was mostly middle-class children that continued their education breyond primary school. Relatively few working-class children attended secondary school. Thus the Schülermütze was a kind of badge of middle class exclusivity. The NAZIs were in essence correct that it was elitist. It was something like the Enhlish children being attending private schools ir being accepted by a grammar school and wearing the school uniform showinhg what school they attended. We are not entirely sure just how quickly the Schülermütze disappeared from German n schools. It was notimmediately apparent that NAZI diktats carried real weight. And Germany did not have a centralized education system. Education was he province of the states (Landen). Many of our German school portraits are undated. Thus while we see boys wearing these caps in the 1930s, we are not sure just when they were taken and how quickly the caps disappeared from German schools. Germany had one of the finest education systems in the world. The schoolsm parents, alunmi and the voys were extremlu prous of their schools. Normally there would have been considerable resistance to doing away to such a long established and well recognized symbol of their schools. It was, howeverm very clear by 1934 that the NAZIs were in charge and coulkd bot be opposed on any signficant issue. We suspect that by 1935 they were no longer commonly worn, but we can not yet confirm that.

The 1940s

We no longer see these caps during World War II in the 1940s. The last of these caps we see are in the mid-30s because thet were discouraged by the NAZIs. WI was quite a sharp break in tradition.

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Created: 4:08 PM 4/16/2017
Last updated: 4:08 PM 4/16/2017