Sailor hats were commonly worn by younger school boys in the early 20th century. We have noted both broad-brimmed hats and the floppy soft caps. We although many boys also wore an army-style peaked cap, although these were sometimes worn with sailor suits as well. I'm not sure what older boys wore. One study explains that school caps showed through colour the school type the pupil belonged to (today Gymansium, Realschule etc). They also showed grade he was in, and even his progress, by different coloured ribbons around their caps. The colours of a Gymansium at Jena (to which the brother of the author went to) were also mentioned. [Ossowski and Rösler] We have noted boys in the 1940s and 50s wearing a kind of ski cap. It was the winter uniform cap worn for the Hitler Youth. Unlike other Hitler Youth uniform items, it continued to be popular after the War.
Berets are generally seen as French boys' headwear. We have, however, note numerous images of German boys wearing berets as well. We are not real sure jut how common they were for school wear. We think they might have been worn more for dressibg up than schoolwear. Even so we see a few nostly younger boys wearing them to school. They were worn with a variety of outfits, including sailor suits. We think that they were somewhat regional, bring more popular in the west closer to France. We rarely see them afyer World War II.
Flat caps were a major style in America for three decades, but it as far as we can tell, not a major style in Germany for school boys. I think it was more a working man's cap. We see a few boys wearing them, but as far as we can tell, flat caps were not very common school headwear. The examples we have seen are from the 1920s. We notice a boy just starting school wearing one. We are ot sure about the age conventions. We tend to have more first year portraits because it was such a common convention to take a child's portrait wgen they first began school.
The kepi was of French origins. It translates as "small cap". In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, the French had enormous prestige in military circles. It was a style widely worn by soldiers in the mid-19th century. Americans will recognize it as the caps worn by Civil War soldiers. It was worn by German soldier at the time in conflicts like the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and Franco-Prussian WAr (1870-71). Many American military schools used the kepi as part of the uniform. We suspect the same was true in Germany. Here there were very few militry schools. We suspect that some regular state schools used the kepi, but our archive of 19th century German school impages is very limited. So we do not know how common it was. Miitary styles changed by the end of the century. We very rarely see krpis in the 20th century. One rae exceptionwas an unidentified German school in the 1910s.
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We although many boys also wore an army-style peaked cap, although these were sometimes worn with sailor suits as well. I'm not sure what older boys wore. These may be, however, popular cap styles rather than caps required by schools. German boys have not worn uniforms like boys in England. Some schools, however, required boys to wear caps as early as the 1880s. Bavaria's (Mad) King Ludwig in 1880 founded a second classical school of higher education ("Gymnasium") in
and named the the "Royal New Gymnasium". Reports suggest that the 270 boys in the school were proud of their scarlet school cap. One study explains that school caps showed through colour the school type the pupil belonged to (today Gymansium, Realschule etc). They also showed grade he was in, and even his progress, by different coloured ribbons around their caps. The colours of a Gymansium at Jena (to which the brother of the author went to) were also mentioned. [Ossowski and Rösler]
The standard British school cap was not a major style in Germany, but we note a few boys wearing them. We see more boys in other countries, but we do see a few German boys. We note a fe boys, both before and after World War II. An example is an unidentified boy in 1937. We are not sure they were worn as a school uniform item, but this is a possibility. We note boys who seem to have been given these caps when they began school. We believe that this was a private school.
Sailor headwear were commonly worn by younger German school boys. The age varied somewhat based on the varing conventuins for sailor suits over time. We note even younger teenagers at times wearing sailor suits. It was the younger boys, however, that were most likely to wear the sailor headwearto school. We do not yet have much information on the 19th century. We see quite a few boys wearing sailor headwear to school in the early 20th century. The sailor suit and sailor headwear is often seen in the first day portraits commonly taken. We often notice sailor suits in class portraits, but here the boys are not commonly wearing their caps. Sailor headwear was commonly worn with sailor suits, but this was not always the case. And in some instances we note sailor headwear without saiilor suits.
We have noted both broad-brimmed hats and the floppy soft caps. Both might have streamers, but streamers were most common with the wide-brimmed hats. The wide brimmed hats were worn by younger boys before World War I (1914-18). The soft caps were worn before and after the War.
After the War sailor suits continued to be worn, but with soft caps. After the War the styles worn were almostly exclusively the styles actually worn by German sailors. We note both white and dark caps. We assume the dark caps were navy blue.
We have noted boys in the 1940s and 50s wearing a kind of ski cap. It was the winter uniform cap worn for the Hitler Youth. Unlike other Hitler Youth uniform items, it continued to be popular after the War. These caps were called Schirmmütze.
We note Germany boys wearing various styles of knitted stocking caps during the Winter.
We notice girls and younger bots in primary school wearing tams to school. good exmple is Ferdinand Hahnzhog about 1900-05.
Ekkehard Ossowski and Winfried Rösler. Ed., Kindheit: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven zu einem Forschungsgegenstand.
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