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This is class of boys (aged about 10 to 12) from the Heinrich Heine School in Salzwedel, Germany, a town in Saxony-Anhalt at the junction of the Dumme and Jeetze rivers. The photograph was taken in October 1948 just after World War II. The class contained a number of very poor boys--their poverty made worse, of course, by the devastated condition of Germany in the postwar years. The commentator, who doesn't give his name, appears in the picture. He is the boy wearing the striped pullover in the second row just behind the boy wearing very short pants and long stockings with supporters ("Strumpfhalter" as the commentator calls them). See the enlarged detail of the second attached photo. His striped sweater was a gift from his Aunt Erna, who
had emigrated to the United States. The commentator, writing in 2004, mentions that the teacher of the school, Karl-Heinz Frank (he stands on the right), is still alive and was recently commended for his 50-year career as a teacher.
The Heinrich Heine School is in Salzwedel, Germany, a town in Saxony-Anhalt. The town is located at the junction of the Dumme and Jeetze rivers. After World War II, the village fell in the Soviet occupation zone of wht would become Communist East Germany.
I'm not sure just what kind of school it was. My guess is that the school is a primary school. Such schools, however, were not commonly named.
After Goethe and Schiller, Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), was Germany's greatest poet. It is somewhat surprising that the school was named at all, an especially after Heine because he was born a Jew. He converted to Christianity, but of course the NAZIs defined Jews primarily in racial terms. Heine was among the authors whose books were omcluded in the NAZI book burnings (1933). It seems unlikely that the school would be named after Heine in the NAZI era. Many of his poems have been set to music by composers like Schumann, Schubert and Mendelssohn. Interesting Heine's father was an involved in the texttile industry. He imported British textiles from Leeds and Manchester.
The commentator, writing in 2004, mentions that the teacher of the school, Karl-Heinz Frank (he stands on the right), is still alive and was recently commended for his 50-year career as a teacher.
The class portrait here was taken in October 1948, a few years after World War II. This was a very tense time in Germany. Economic conditions were still poor after the War. In additions the Soviets had cloesd land and rail links to Berlin and President Truman had launched the Berlin Air Lift. There was great fear at the time of another war.
This is class of boys (aged about 10 to 12). I'm not sure just what class it was, in part beause we do not know the type of school. A reader wrires, "When I look at the boys sitting in the first row it seems to me that many of them are ready to jump. They don't look relaxed and happy to be photographed. Of course, at that time people did not smile as much as now at the camera, but in this picture they just look uncomfortable
and tense." Yes I think they do, but I'm not sure why. A reader writes, "I think I agree about your comment on the failure of the boys to smile. I suppose 1948 was a grim time for them. The commentator (the boy in the striped pullover) particularly emphasizes the poverty, and many of these lads may have come from very deprived
circumstances. Also German schools were no-nonsense institutions, or at least many of them were. So, yes, you are probably right. I recall being in Germany in 1946 (two years earlier than the photo) and encountering the sense in the German populace of humiliation and hopelessness. Boys used to follow me around the streets to get the
cigarette butt that I would throw away. Not a happy time at all. There was the sense that the Nazis had entirely betrayed the country into devastation and yet the natural resentment of foreign occupiers (British, French, American, and especially Russian) was there too. Many of the Germans I met were full of self-hatred, but they couldn't
entirely conceal their dislike of the occupying nations either. I was at the Nurenburg trials very briefly as a guard, and when Goering committed suicide only a few minutes before his trip to the gallows, there was ill-concealed jubilation in the streets. It was understandable, I think, given that terrible time."
The class looks to include a number of very poor boys--their poverty made worse, of course, by the devastated condition of Germany in the postwar years.
The commentator, who doesn't give his name, appears in the picture. He is the boy wearing the striped pullover in the second row just behind the boy wearing very short pants and long stockings with supporters ("Strumpfhalter" as the commentator calls them). See the enlarged detail of the second attached photo. His striped sweater was a gift from his Aunt Erna, who had emigrated to the United States. (Germans at the time were lucky to have relatives in America who could send them packages like that.)
This photo has a considerable amount of historical importance, I
think--particulalry in as much as one of the boys, now grown up, comments
in considerable detail about it.
The commentator also mentions the "military Schirmmutzen" (notice the caps of the third boy from the right in the front row and also of the third boy from the left in the middle row).
The writer points out that his own "striped pullover sweater came from a Care Package sent to him from his Aunt Erna in America to which she had moved in 1921. Her care packages usually contained clothing, chocolate, and other necessities. And she also sent postcards from Yellowstone National Park, some of them inscribed with Bible verses.
Very few of the boys seem to be wearing neckties although several have
buttoned their shirts up to the neck.
The variety of the boys' dress is worth noting. Some of the boys wear
long trousers, while others wear shorts with either knee socks or long
stockings. The boy in the first row at the extreme left wears
very long knickers gathered at the ankle.
Also notice the prevalence of the popular belt buckles, worn by schoolboys, that
originally had the NAZI swastika emblazoned on them but that by 1948 had been removed. Apparently the insignia was detachable.
The commentator remarks interestingly on the clothing of the boys in the photograph, mentioning particularly the fact that many boys of that time wore long stockings with garters. We see only two boys in the photograph wearing long stockings, but others are apparently hidden in the back two rows. Long stockings were
popular in Germany during this time, partly because it was cheaper for mothers to dress boys in shorts and stockings than to buy long trousers for them. The writer seems to be referring particularly to the boy at the center of the first row whose short pants are very short and show the stockings help up with supporters with a bit of bare leg showing near the hem of the pants. You can also see the garters (Strumpfhalter) of the
next-to-the-last boy in the front row (at the extreme right). One of the lads in long stockings seems to wear ankle socks on top of them, perhaps for additional warmth or because his shoes are a bit too large.
The writer, noting the poverty of his own background, recalls that he was very deprived as a boy as regards his shoes. His first shoes, he tells us, were made of straw. Then he acquired wooden shoes a bit later, which he points out that we can't see because his feet are hidden as he stands behind the boy with the long stockings at the center of the picture.
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