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We have very limited information on individual Czech schools at this time. These individual school portraits provide a great deal of informatioin about both fashio and education trends over time. We have not found many named schools, but we have found seberal sgool images that are dated.
The Smiricích School is pictured on the previous page in 1922. Smiricích is a Czech village about 120 kilometers east from Prague. It seems a typical Czech village school. The boys seemed dressed similarly to German children.
This class is a group of primary boys in 1926 (figure 1). Quite a few of the boys wear sailor suits. Most of the boys wear ankle socks, but two wear long stockings and another wears three-quarter socks. Notice the short cropped hair on many of the boys. There seem to be two teachers, one of whom wears a straw hat, which indicates that the
season must have been late spring or summer. Perhaps one of the men is the principal or head of the school. The warm season is probably the reason for the popularity of ankle socks. The children seem to be very young, about 6 or 7 years.
This class with a female teacher was taken in 1929. Here the boys are older--about ten or even eleven. The sailor suits seem to have disappeared, but many of the boys are wearing short trouser suits. One or two seem to have on cardigan sweaters buttoned all the way in front with neckties. The hosiery seems to be divided between knee socks and long stockings (black). One boy has his long stockings rolled down to his ankles, and another boy wears what look like ankle socks (or perhaps knee socks that have been pushed down). The haircuts are longer. Only one or two boys have cropped hair.
These are children at an unidentified Czech primary school. The children here are probably first or second graders. The portrait was taken in Prague during 1931. The children seem to be about 6 or 7 years old. All the children, both boys and girls, seem to be wearing long stockings with hose supporters. Notice the girl in the first row, the last on the left, whose supporter clasps are showing at the hem of her dress. Most of the stockings are beige or tan, but the boy in the first row, fourth from the right, wears the older style black stockings. Czech school clothes during the 1930s seem to be very similar to German styles. Notice the relative informality of the dress--no neckties for the boys and very few suit jackets. All the boys wear open collars.
This is a class photo from a Czech school of unknown name or location. The photo was taken in 1934, only a few years before the country was invaded by the NAZIs. Since it was taken outdoors in front of the school and no outdoor wraps are required it is probably autumn or early spring. If it were summer, we would expect some of the boys to be wearing knee socks rather than long stockings. It is pretty clearly a secondary school. Note that many secondary schools in Czechoslovakia, Germany, and other European countries were before World War II single gender schools. They look to me like boys just becoming teenagers or younger teens, probablyaboutv12-14 years of age. Some of the boys standing in the back look a bit older than the boys sitting in the first row, but this may just be my imagination. The dress looks very similar in style to what we would find in a German secondary school or gymnasium. The boys are generally rather formally dressed with suits and shirts with neckties; also some of the boys wear open-necked white shirts with Schiller collars. The style of trousers is somewhat varied.
This photograph shows a group schoolboys in Kynšperk nad Ohří (Königsberg an der Eger). Czech towns historically have both Czech and German names. The Czechs have a long association with the Germans. The Czech Republic borders on Germany and Austria. Bohemia (the major part of the Czech Republic) was for several centuries ruled by the German-speaking Hapsburgs. Today the German names are falling into disuse. This Königsberg should not be confused with the better known Königsberg at the time in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad). It is a small town in the Sokolov District, Karlovy Vary Region now in the Czech Republic. It is as the name indicates located on the Ohře (Eger) River. The photograph was taken in the late-1930s (about 1937-38 according to the source). This is a town school. Kynšperk nad Ohří is a small town and this and a girls school were probably the only primary schools in town. City schools as in Germany were commonly single-gender schools. The boys look to be about 6-years old and are just beginning school. This was right before the German invasion a few months before the outbreak of World War II (1939). Kynšperk is now in the Czech Republic. Notice the woolen overcoats, the various kinds of school caps. and the universal short trousers worn with long stockings. In this photo only one boy seems to be wearing additional ankle socks. There look to be some older boys behind them. For some reason the boys are parading through town, apparently in form (grade) order.
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[The 1880s]
[The 1890s]
[The 1900s]
[The 1910s]
[The 1920s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Long pants suits]
[Knicker suits]
[Short pants suits]
[Socks]
[Eton suits]
[Jacket and trousers]
[Blazer]
[School sandals]
[School smocks]
[Sailor suits]
[Pinafores]
[Long stockings]
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