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Many German boys beginning in the 1920s seem to have worn lederhosen to school, but this from available images appears to have usually been a minority of the boys in most classes. We have noted lederhosen being worn earlier, but we do not begin to see a lot of boys in school photographs wearing lederhosen until the 1920s. Often a few boys in many primary schools are wearing lederhosen by the 1920s. I'm not sure why lederhosen became more common for schoolwear at this time, but surely it had something to do with the war. Almost always boys wearing lederhosen to school wear them with the decorative halters. Wearing lederhosen varied regionally in Germany, being most common in Bavaria. Lederhosen continued to be worn to school through the 1960s, but are now not very common.
Many German boys beginning in the 1920s seem to have worn lederhosen to school. We have noted lederhosen being worn earlier, but we do not begin to see a lot of boys in school photographs wearing lederhosen until the 1920s. We believe that until the 1920s that lederhosen were not considered dressy enough for school. Perhaps they were not worn for the same reason that many American boys were not at first allowed to wear jeans to school. It is does become much more common in the 1950s. Often a few boys in many primary schools are wearing lederhosen by the 1920s. I'm not sure why lederhosen became more common for schoolwear at this time, but surely it had something to do with the war. Lederhosen continued to be worn to school through the 1960s. Many class photos show boys wearing lederhosen in the eraly 1970s, but their popularity declined during the decade--being worn mostly during the warmer months. Lederhosen are now not very common at German schools.
Lederhosen appear to have alwaus been worn by a minority of German boys, although we note quite a few boys wearing them in Bavaria. HBC draws this conclusion from available photographic record. We noted that in photographs of school children that lederhosen always appears to have been worn by only a few boys in any given glass. This seems to have been different in Bavaria, especially in country schools. A German reader reports, "I don't believe, that lederhosen were a very common school wear. Lederhosen may have been worn occasionally. Thus I believe only two or three boys in pictures of German school children can normally be seen wearing lederhosen. Sometimes none. Until the mid-1960s it was quite common for boys to wear short trousers--but only a minority wore lederhosen." This is a little complicated to access in group photographs as many boys had H-bar shorts, but that does not mean that they were Lederhosen.
A popular tradition in Germany was to photograph a child's first day at school. These portraits provide valuable time capsules of German school clothing. Subsequent school years are less commonly photoigraphed, but virtually every German child had his or her portrait taken thatv first year.n Before World War II we note many studio portraits. After World War II we note more snapshots. Also after the War we note quite a number of boys wearing Lederhosen for these first day photographs. This seemed much less common before the War, except perhaps in Bavaria. A good example is an unidentified boy in 1957.
Lederhosen were primarily worn to school by boys in primary school, but some older boys also wore them in secondary schools. Some younger teenagers wore them to school, but mostly it was boys in primary school. Photographs of German school classes show lederhosen most commonly worn by the younger boys. We have noted, however, some classs of older boys in primary school or even younger boys in secondary school with boys wearing lederhosen. This changed over time. Even bu the early 1970s yonger teenagers were weraring lederhosen to school, but the popularity of lederhosen declined substantially during the 1970s--especially for older boys.
We note changing conventions concerning the halter, both for general wear and for schollwear. Almost all of the early photographs of boys wearing lederhosen to school show them being worn with decorative halters. This seems to have been the common convention through the 1930s. This began to change in the 1940s. We note that by the 1950s that a number of boys, especially older school boys wearing lederhosen without the halters. We also notice Lederhosen more commonly being worn in other areas of Germany than Bavaria and being more commonly won as casual clothing. We are not sure just why age differentiation developed. We suspect that the older boys saw the halter as a kind of suspender shorts which were associated with younger boys. We see quite a few German boys wearing Lederhosen to school in the 1950s, especially in West Germany.
Wearing lederhosen to school, like wearing lederhosen generally, appears to have been most common in Bavaria.
A German reader reports, "I can remember wearing a grey lederhosen with halters without a flower motive around 4 years of age and later on a black lederhosen with black halters and an edelweis on it. Furthermore I wore a red and white [caroed?] shirt and stockings or socks. I was quite fond of wearing them, although I wasn't a Bavarian. I was around 8-10 years old. Sometimes I wore my lederhosen to school."
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