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Germany like France had highly academic schools. Extra-curicular activities were limited. There were gym classes and some limited sports. We know virtually nothing about the 19th century. We have some insight into the 20th century and images from the photographic record. I am not sure just how attention was devoited to gym/physical education in German schools. I assume most gymnassiums (secondary schools) of any size had gyms for physical educations classes. Before World War II, most German secondary schools were single gender schools. I am not sure if there was a difference in the gym program at these schools. One might think thst the boys' gymnasims gave more attention to gym than the girls' schools, but we have no actual data on this. Nor do we have much informnastion on the actual program. We think activitives like gymnastics were given more attention than sports. Children really interested in sports like football would join sports clubs. Girls commonly wore middy blouses and bloomers with long stockings in the early 20th century. Boys wore knee pasnts and long stockings. After World War I we see the children gradually wearing less restrictive gasments.
Germany like France had highly academic schools. Extra-curicular activities were limited. There were gym classes and some limited sports. I am not sure just how attention was devoted to gym/physical education in German schools. I assume most gymnassiums (secondary schools) of any size had gyms for physical educations classes. We do not yet know, howver, much about the programs. A reader writes, " I've read a number of accounts of German boys who grew up during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s who were forced to participate in PT (not games/sports). Some of these boys who wore Strapsleibchen with long stockings were embarrassed about undressing in locker rooms and the like, which implies that they were reqired to
participate in physical exercise as part of their high school or gymnasium training."
We know virtually nothing about the 19th century. We have some insight into the 20th century and images from the photographic record. Before World War II, most German secondary schools were single gender schools. I am not sure if there was a difference in the gym program at these schools. One might think that the boys' gymnasims gave more attention to gym than the girls' schools, but we have no actual data on this. Nor do we have much informnastion on the actual program. We think activitives like gymnastics were given more attention than sports. Children really interested in sports like football would join sports clubs. Girls commonly wore middy blouses and bloomers with long stockings in the early 20th century. Boys wore knee pants and long stockings. After World War I we see the children gradually wearing less restrictive garments.
Under the third Reich (1933-45), of course, there was tremendous emphasis on physical health and exercise for both boys and girls. We are unsure to what extent this affected school gym classes.
Most of what we see in the photographis record seems to be Hitler Youth activities some of which appears gto have been conducted on school grounds. We are not yet sure just how this was organized.
A German reader tells us about his experiences after World War II. "After the War, I lived in a city (0.5 million population) with extensive damage, primarily from Allied air raids. In the Gymnasium (1945-54) we had two hours a week "Sport" (physical education). The sports hall of our building was destroyed. During te summer we pursued gymnastics and ball games (primarily football) in the school yard or athletics, running and ball playing in the sports field of a sports club. Duing the winter there were a very limited number of halls (unheated) available at other school buildings, there we did gymnastics. And, alternating, in one of the three or so indoor bathing halls swimming for an hour. The hall was not much heated so we returned to the warm shower room as often as possible." Our reader also tells is, "Now, schools have a sporting hall with regular education, villages have indoor and outdoor baths. It is even possible to have sport as a special area in the finishing gymnasium grade included in the Abitur ("Sportabitur", not taken too serious if a pupil wants to go to an university!)."
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