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Here we see and unidentified school portrait. We would gues that this is a class in the the first or second year of a secondary school. We are not sure why there are two teachers here. Perhaps there were two classes at this grade level. The children wear many common styles from the early 1930s. While the image is undate, we are fairly sure that it is an image from the early 30s, although we can not be positive. We see boys wearing just about ever garment and style that was popular in the 1930s except for caps and coats which they are not wearing. We note many interesting aspects of this school portrait. Hopefully our German readers will have even more insights.
This class of older boys, about 11-13 years of age, wear suits and sweaters with short pants and kneesocks. These older boys do not wear sailor suits or smocks.
Boys at this boarding school wear sweaters, short pants, and kneesocks. There shorts are cut shorter than in the 1920s. For some reason they wear their belts over their sweaters.
We are not sure about the name of this school, but we have found a class of first year children taken in 1931. There is a board that reads, "Herrn Oberl. Lallatin aus Dan Kabarkeit von seinen 1931 entlassenen Schülern". We are not entirely sure what that says. Something like, "Mr. Oberl. Lallatin from Dan Kabarkeit of its 1931 dismissed pupils." The teacher is apparently Herrn Oberl. Lallatin. Is Dan Kabarkeit a town in Germany. The children look to be the younger boys at the school.
Here we see a chool class in the 1930s. The photograph is not dted, but we would guess the early 30s. We are not sure why kind of school it was, but we would guess it was a secondary school like a gymnasium. It could be a primary school, but e think a secondary school is mor likely. It is an all boys class. The boys look to us about 11-12 or ever 12-13 years old. They would thus be some of the younger boys at the school. The boys mostly wear sweaters, but a few boys wear suits and one boy wears a sailor suit. Almost all wear short pants, most with long stockings. We suspect that most of the boys would have worn knee socks in warmer weather. One boy wears knickers.
The Lessing Gymnasium is one of the oldest and most respected secondary schools in Germany. It is the oldest surviving school in Frankfurt am Main, one of the largest German cities. (Similar schools were called grammar schools in England. I am not sure what the school was called when it was founded.) The school was founded in 1519 by the merchant dominated city council. Similar schools were being founded at this time in other European countries, especially the northern countries of western Europe. The historians among us will recognize the date. Europe was changing rapidly in the early-16th century as the developing economy was creating more demand for young people who could write abnd do sums. And the school was founded 2 years after Martin Luther nailed his '95 Thesis' on the church door igniting the Reformstion which rapidly spread throughout Germany. This created even more emphasis on literacy and education. The school is still operating today as a gymnasium. The gymnasium program places a considerable emphasis on foreign languages. This begins with Latin and English in 5th grade, children of about 11 years of age. The students in the 7th grade the pupils choose between French or Ancient Greek. The school also offers a fine arts program, an area thst has been expanded in recent years. It has several orchestras and choirs. A nice photo of German High School students (10th grade, which is about 13-14 years old). The portrait we have is tentatively dated 1937, but we think was taken a few years earlier. The boys wear a variety of school clothes, mostly with short trousers and long stockings but a few with "Kniebundhosen" (literally knee pants), which in German means knickers that come just to the knee--not the baggy or longer style knickers).
Here we see a boys' class in 1933 Bavaria. The school was the St. Gunther Volksschule of Rinchnach, a Catholic confessional school located in the Bavarian Forest of southeast Germany. The teacher was Herr Braunfofer. This is obviously a primary class of "Buben" (= boys) about 6 or 7 years old. The details are interesting, both the class furniture and the slates the boys use. We see this type of desk-benches commonly used into the 1940s. The slates were used for class work rather than paper. This is why the boys have sponges and cloths in many photographs because the slates needed to be wiped off for the next exercize. The boys at the right for some reason do not have slates. We are unsure why, perhaps the boys were moved around for the photograph. The overwealming impression, however, is the very large number of boys in the class. Any teacher would take one look at this class and ask, "How in heaven's name did Herr Braunfofer teach all those boys?" There are probably more than 50 boys in that class. We are not sure how common such large classes were in the 1930s. The boys are very informally dressed. The boys wear short trousers, mostly with long stockings. One or two boys wear sailor suits, but the others wear jackets of various kinds--none of them with dress shirts or neckties. Some boys wear dark-colored open-necked shirts.
We note images from the Hermsdorf School in the 1930s and 40s. I don't think that this was the name of the school, but rather the town where the school was located. I do not know where Hermsdorf is in Germany. I'm not even sure that the school had a formal name. It looks to be a primary school with children up to about 14 years of age. The only information we have about the school at this time is the available school photographs. Onr photograph suggests it was a boys' school. Apparently the younger children were taught in single gender classes. Presumably there was a separate class for the younger girls. Notice the class here is coed and much smaller. I'm not sure why the class for the older children was so much smaller.
This photograph was taken in the mid-1930s. Three boys wear their Hitler Youth uniforms. They are prominabtly placed in front, a clear recognotion of their status. The girls wear dresses, many with pigtails. It looks like a single class at the school. The photograph is undated, but has to have been taken in 1933 or later because of the hJ uniforms. We think it was fairly early in the NAZI era, because of the uniforms. Two boys are wearing ties rather than scarves. This only occurred early before the uniform was more standardized. Thus we think the photograph was probably taken in 1934.
We have a portrait of an uknowm German primay school taken in 1936. It is a large class and the children look quite young, probably their first or second year in school. We know it was taken in 1936 because the year is written on the back of the photo. The children wear a wide variety of clothing. At least three of the boys are wearing sailor suits. Many of the children are wearing a badge of some kind--some of them two badges. A few of the girls wear pinafores. The portraut was taken 3 years after the NAZIs seized power. We do not notice any NAZI symbols in the classroom. Hitler's portrait is not on the wall, although only one wall is visible.
This photo was taken in 1936 in Fredersdorf-Vogelsdorf, a village about 25 km east of Berlin. The photo shows the last grade class at the village school. It was a substantial brick building. The class has 24 children, 11 girls and 13 boys. They look about 12 years old. The girls wear rather long dresses. The bots wear shirts, some with sweaters or suit jackers. All the boys wear short pants. Only two boys thst we can see wear knee socks. Two boys in front wear sandals, open-toe sandals, and one is barefoot.
Here is a 1936 class of German children taken in Morsum, Schleswig-Holstein. This was a contested province on the northern border with Denmark. These boys and girls seem to be about 12 or 13. The crosses on the chests of three of the boys are additions to the photo, placed there by someone who wanted to single out the three boys, probably for purposes of identification. The boys all wear jumpers or long-sleeved knitted shirts with short trousers and long stockings.
This is a A younger class of German school children photographed in Wöbling, Germany, in 1936. These children look to be about 8 or 9,probably the last year in Grundschule/Volkschule. Again we notice that most of the girls wear pigtails. The boys are dressed quite informally, almost invariably in long-sleeved jerseys with collars or warm sweaters. All the boys wear short trousers with long stockings, mostly dark brown, but in a few cases black.
Here are some students at the Volksschule Barnsen in 1936. Barsen is a small town in lower Saxony. They look to be all boys, but there may be two girls at the back. The children are shown here with their recorders, leaning to play an instrument. This is a simple instrument that is used to teach music to young children. The fact that it was simple and inexpensive mkes it ideal for early childhood music instruction and is still widely used. The children are with this teacher. This is not a class group. Volsschule had much larger classes. It is interesting that music was being taught. Music of course is very important in Germany, but we are not sure just to wht extent music was part of the curruiculum. Our understanding is that the curriculum was very academic with few departures from the curriculum. What we do not know here is if this was part of the standard curriculum or an after school activity. Nor do we know what the rest of the class was doing while these children were doing music. We do not know if these children were selected or chosen. They look to be about 9-10 years old. They wear short trousers and long stockings except one boy who wears knee socks.
One of our readers has kindly sent us a portrait of her mother's First Year Grade class all lined up separately at school in 1937. It was rather a small class of 18 children. I believe that it is a school in Gladbach, a region in western Germany east of Cologne. The children would be 6-year olds. The fact that boys and girls were in the same class suggests it was a small school. This was often the case in village schools, although the background looks more like a city. The girls seem happier about school than the boys. Many of the girls have large hair bows. We think hair bows were more popular in the 1910s and 20s, but at least for the little girls, hair bows were still popular at this school in 1937. All the girls but one wear dresses. The dresses have varied detailing, but are all waistless dresses. One girl looks to be wearing a dress her mother knitted at home. She is one of the few girls who does not seem very happy. One girl wers a sweater and skirt. The wear long stockings or knee socks. Our reader's mother is on the far right. The boys mostly wear sweaters, although one boy wears a sailor suit. He has white knee socks and white mittens. The boys wear short pants and like the girls with knee socks or long stockings. High-top shoes were still common for younger children, especially the boys. There is an imposing building in the background, but I am not sure it is a school as there seems to be a fence or wall between the children and the building.
The Blankenburg Gymnasium was an academically selective boys secondary school. Boys finished primary school at age 10-11 years. At this time the academically clever boys entered gymasiums, rather like a British grammar school. Many of the boys here wear their Hitler Youth uniforms.
Here we see a German primary school class in 1938. This photograph was taken during the NAZI era, but just before World War II. It is interesting because of the variety of clothing worn. We don't know the location within Germany or the name of the school, but it was a school obviously for boys only. The boys seem to be about 10-11 years old. The class seems to be about evenly divided between boys who wear
short trousers and boys in long trousers. This seems to be a little unsusual in Germany, but it looks like the photograph was taken durung the winter. By the latec30s, some German parents were buying long trousrs for swinter wear. A factor here might have been the Hitler Youth winter uniform which was very long ski-type knickers. Long stockings seem to predominate with the short trousers, but one boy wears knee socks. The colors of the long stockings vary also--black, beige, and brown.
The Collegium Josephinum in Bonn was one of the most respected secondary schools in Germany. We have a photograph taken during 1939. Note the NAZI banner in the background. The boys are marching in the Corpus Christi procession in Bonn. the Collegium Josephinum was an academically selective secondary for boys (ages 13 to 18). The boys don't wear school uniforms, but they are dressed up for the religious feast day of Corpus Christi. They all wear suits with short trousers and mostly black long stockings. I do not know if the boys all wore long stockings to school as part of a dress code, but it was probably expected on a religious holiday. They don't wear neckties but rather open-necked shirts (Schiller collars). One boy wears tan long stockings, but the convention obviously called for black stockings. Note that one boy wears a sailor suit. Although the photo was taken in 1939 (Corpus Christi occurs in the Spring), the clothing is quite conservative--typical, apparently, of Catholic private schools. These boys are not dressed very differently from what we might expect a decade earlier. One of the features of dress for Catholic religious holidays and ceremonies in Germany and northern Europe was that boys were often mandated to have their knees covered, hence the long stockings (more formal than knee socks, which were also worn at the school for activities like hiking).
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