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The 1940s was a very difficult time with World War II occurring during the first half of the decade. War devwstated much of Europe. Switzerland was one of the few countries to avoid the War, but the economy was impaired. Switzerland was a trading nation and its normal markets were disrupted. This meant that less money was available to Swiss families for consumer products like Switzerland. We see Swiss children wearing clothes similar to those in neighboring France and Germany. The children wear short pants with knee socks during the warmer months. Children in rural schools might come to school barefoot. CHIldren both boys and girls in French-speaking areas commonly wore pinafores. We see some German speaking girls weaing pinafores, but it was not nearly as common as in the French spealing areas. During the winter, long stockings were very common. We see some boys wearing knickers rather than short pant in the colder months. Thecfull cut plus-fours seem the most popular style. LOng pants were not very common except for the older boys in secondary school. Only a minority of the children went on to secindary school, especially the more advanced ones beyond Sekundar.
This was the Villa Saint Jean, a private Catholic school located at Fribourg. It was founded by Les Marianistes--a Catholic order. Apparently the Marianistes were expelled from France by the secular French Republic. The Marianistes as a result established a boardinf school in nearby Switzerland. There was no school uniform, but there was a dress code and the boys wore suits of their own chosing..
This is a a group of 10- or 11-year olds from Leimbach School in the city of Zurich. The photo was taken on March 11, 1940 when the weather was still quite chilly. One boy in the front row has already changed into knee socks and therefore has bare knees, but the other children seem to be mainly in long stockings. One girl with a pinafore wears knee socks with her dress. but the other girls (like most of the boys) are in long stockings. Mostly they also wear sweaters. The trees are green, but I suspect the tree in the bckground is an evergreen, not desiduous, since it is only March 11th. The children's teacher is Frau Hefti, who stands at the rear on the right. Notice the hair styles. At least four of the girls wear pigtails. The boys' hair is normal length for the 1940s but not cropped very short. Two girls wear pinafores but they are not the dominant style. Two boys sitting in the front wear hiking boots, but most of the children are wearing low-cut city shoes.
We notice a class of 5th graders, about 10-11 years old, taken at Uster School, in Uster a town in the Zurich canton. The photo waw taken on March 2, 1940 when the weather was still chilly, so the boys whose legs we can see are all wearing long stockings with supporters--mostly and tan shades. These are cotton stockings, probably, rather than wool, although of heavy texture. Woolen stockings tended to be replaced in the late 1930s and 1940s by mixtures of cotton and synthetic yarns to avoid the discomfort of scratching tender legs. You can see Frau Wegman, the teacher, standing at the rear. The boys and girls are obviously in their classroom, but they are turned around in their seats to face the back of the room for purposes of the photograph. One boy has his legs through the open back of his seat--wearing a pullover sweater with a zipper half way down his chest, short trousers, and dark brown long stockings of a ribbed texture. Notice the ornamental buttons on the shorts of the boy sitting next to him at the left and his additional ankle socks, worn over tan long stockings, for additional warmth for his feet. The girls wear pinafores which seem to be obligatory.
Hombrecthtikon was a town near Zurich in the Zurich canton. The photos were taken at Hombrechtikon School in Hombrechtikon. Swiss scholls did not normally have names unless there was more than one comparable school inthe town or village. These children are in the 6th-year class, which would make them about 11-years old. The teacher, standing at the back on the right, is Herr A. Moser. The class portrait was taken on February 27, 1941. The happy faces reflect very little sense that World War II was by then in full progress. Nearly all the boys wear pullover sweaters but a few wear suit jackets. Most of the boys wear short trousers with long stockings--some black, others dark tan or brown stockings. Notice that many of the boys wear hiking boots, a few with additional woolen ankle socks on top of the long stockings for extra warmth. One boy sitting on the ground (at the left) wears a short pants suit with sweater underneath. Another boy, second row left, wears a belted jacket that seems to be made of canvas or some non-woolen material. The majority of the boys wear pullover woolen sweaters, some with zipper opening half-way down the chest. Many of the girls wear pigtails. One boy, second row right, has cropped hair while most of the other boys wear their hair parted. One brave girl in the second row wears knee socks, but nearly everyone else has on long stockings, probably worn with stocking shirts (or Strapsleibchen).
This is a class photo of 5th graders (mostly 11 years olds) at the only primary school in Oberglatt, Switzerland, in Zurich canton. The picture was taken on November 19, 1941. The young teacher, wearing a bow tie and standing in the rear, is Herr B. Dunki. Nearly all the boys wear sweaters, somme with zippers that open
part of the way down their chests. Some of these have collars. Many of the boys wear short trousers with long cotton stockings held up by hose supporters. Notice the rubber-button of the garter clasp on the
boy sitting on the ground in front at the far left. Some of the boys wear rather full plus-fours in place of shorts and long stockings. A few of the boys are wearing suit jackets but mostly without neckties. These are prosperous-looking children from Swiss middle-class families, who look rather untouched by the war that was going on around them. Notice the girls' pigtails tied at the ends by white ribbons. It was a chilly day in November so the boys and girls have winter clothes on although they can be comfortable out of doors without overcoats or
outer jackets or gloves. Notice the long stockings of the boys in front. In one case the stockings are of smooth texture while in another case they are heavily ribbed. The school has the same name as the town since there is only one primary school there.
We see a photo at the well-known Schmidshof School in Switzerland, taken in 1941 during World War II. The school is located in Weinfelden, Switzerland, very near the German border in the northeast of the country and famous as a banking and railroad center. The town is very old. The Schmidshof School may be a private primary school, altthough I'm not certain. Weinfelden is the capital of the Thurgau canton. Only three children are shown here. They are all first graders, which means that they are approximately 6 years old. The class surely larger than this, however. We don't know why only three children were singled out for the school photograph. The boys wear short trousers with zipper front jackets and long woolen stockings. The girl wears a cotton dress, also with long stockings. There appears to be foliage in the background behind the wall where the children are sitting, so the weather must have been fairly clement (probably either Spring or Fall). The long stockings were standard wear for school children in the the 1930s and 1940s in Switzerland, often worn even in seasons when the weather was not frigid.
This is the Glattfelden Secondary School in Glattfelden, Switzerland, a village in the Zurich canton. The photo was taken on November 19th, 1942, in the middle of World War II. There are two teachers, Herr Jean Thalmann (in the bow tie) and Herr Leuthold (in the four-in-hand tie). The class seems to be of mixed ages, which may account for the fact that two teachers appear in the same photo. Some of the children are at least 12 and maybe even 13, while others look younger, perhaps eleven. Two girls in the second row look as though they could be as young as ten. Most of the boys wear long stockings with short trousers, but at least two of the boys wear knee socks. One boy (front row) seems to have on baggy knickers or plus fours. Many of the girls wear pinafores, but not all of them. We see a few suit jackets among the boys, but most of them wear sweaters with shirts underneath. Some of the boys wear boots (like the boy with bare knees sitting at the extreme right), while others wear low cut dress leather shoes (like the two boys with long stockings sitting or kneeling at the extreme left in front). Most of the children, both boys and girls, seem to wear brown long stockings rather than black or tan. Notice the zipper sweaters that open to half way down the chest. The boy kneeling on one knee at the left illustrates how long stockings had to be to cover the leg when the style was for rather brief short trousers. Notice that the shorts no longer seem to have the ornamental buttons that were common in the 1920s and 1930s.
This photo was taken during the winter, January 27, 1943 at the Freie Schule, Rämistrasse (figure 1). in the city of Zurich. The children are 8th graders, about 12 years old. Some of the girls wear pinafores. One girl has a rather unique sweater with a slit for her belt. Many of the boys are warmly dressed in sweaters and woolen knickers (plus-fours) worn with woolen knee socks. At least one of the boys wears short trousers, a suit jacket, and long brown cotton stockings held up by supporters (probably attached to a Strumpfhemd or "stocking shirt", also referred to often as a Strapsleibchen--an undergarment with four elastic garters attached to the bottom). His shorts expose just a bit of his white underpants when he is sitting on the floor. The girls wear long stockings as well and usually have pigtails, a common style for Swiss and German girls of the period. Their teacher, standing in the rear, is Herr Stiefel. This was a "Free School" or public school of which there were several in Zurich. It is simply identified by the street on which it was located, Rämistrasse. These children are probably in their final year of primary school.
This is a portrait of a primary class at the Kolbrunn School taken December 10, 1943. The teacher is Herr Staub. These children are third graders (8 years old). The girls wear pinafores. The boys wear mostly sweaters, short trousers, and long stockings--black, tan, or brown. One of the boys in the front row wears socks rolled down over the tops of his high shoes. It is clear that the boy at the extreme left, front row, is wearing a Strapsleibchen or bodice with supporters attached. This photo was taken in the midst of World War II, but there is no sense of stress on the faces of the children, and there seem to be no serious clothing shortages in Switzerland. By this time the danger of a NAZI invasion had largely past.
At a Swiss nursery school in a French caton about 1943-45, all of the children are wearing smocks. The Swiss refer to it as an "infant school" rather like a nursery school or kindergarten. Classes for these younger students include both boys and girls. The children are about 6 years old. The school clearly required all of the children, boys and girls to wear smocks. The children wear a variety of styles and colors of smocks. Clerarly there was no rule in the style which was up to the individual parents. Boys wear a variety of clothes--although all wear short pants. This photograph appers to have been taken in the spring, I'm not sure what the boys would have worn during the summer.
At a Swiss primary school in a French caton about 1943-45 many, but not all of the children wore smocks. All the children at this school are boys. These boys are about 8-9 years. Boys at the school had to wear smocks to age 10, but some older boys wore them as well. Almost all the boys wear smocks, but there are a wide variety of smock styles, shoes, and socks. Al of the boys wear short pants, although that was not a school rule. Presumably the school requires the boys to wear smocks.
The Bäretswil School was located in the town of Bäretswill. There were two schools there in 1944. One with the same name as the town, the other known as the Oberglatt School. We do not know if these schools still exist. Now there is a Kinfderkaten, primary, and secondary school at Bäretswil. We note various portraits at thec Bäretswil School. Bäretswil is a municipality in the district of Hinwil in Zürich Canton. We know virtually nothing about the town at this time. Perhaps our Swiss readers will be able o provide some information.
We note a Swiss school photo from the village of Kilchberg in the Zurich canton. There was only one school there so the school name is the same as that of the village. The class portrait was taken March 25, 1944 over a year before the end of World War II, but these well dressed children, who are about 12 or 13 years old, seem to show no signs of deprivation. The girls all wear long stockings, and the girl at the right in the first row is wearing argyle long stockings, which I don't think I have seen before in Europe--very sporty. Perhaps we should have a link here to patterned long stockings, of which we have other examples (but mostly, I believe, in America). I think this is clearly a secondary class, given the age of the students, but I suspect that in Kilchberg one school served for both primary and secondary students. The boys are mostly in the baggy knickers with knee socks that were popular during the 1940s and 50s in Switzerland, at least in colder winter months. We see this in other European countries, but it seems particularly prevalent in Switzerland. One boy, however, is wearing long stockings with short trousers and a sporty sweater. Notice the woolen ankle socks that he wears on top of the long hosiery with the tops turned down over his boots--a style we see a lot in Switzerland for mountain hiking and additional warmth for the feet.
This is a primary school class (4th grade) taken in Zolikon, Switzerland, on November 21, 1946. Zollikon is a community in the Kanton Zürich, bordering on the city of Zürich, so it is now almost a suburb. November, 1946, of course, was a year after the end of the war in Europe. Switzerland was one of the few countries to escape devestation, but was not unaffected. These boys seem to be boys from good middle-class families. Apparently boys and girls were taught separately at this school. Notice the abacus they used for math. The boys are well dressed, but warmly for the beginning of a Swiss winter. Their teacher, Herr B. Wieser, is standing in the back wearing a double breasted suit with a sweater underneath. The boys are all wearing pullover sweaters with short trousers (except for two boys who are wearing very blousy plus-fours). Plus-fours were a popular alternative to short trousers worn with long stockings in Switzerland--and, like short pants and long stockings, sensible for outdoor activities like hiking in the mountains. Two boys on the left have bare knees and wear knee socks or, in one case, what look like three-quarter socks. The other boys wear long tan or beige stockings.
Bauma is a village in the Zurich canton. It must be fairly small because there is only one public school there with the same name as the town. The picture was taken on November 17, 1947. The children seem to be about 10 years old (4th graders, probably). Their teacher was Frau M. Egli, standing in the back row. Most of the children seem to be wearing long stockings, both boys and girls. But one boy kneeling in the front row wears plus fours with knee socks. The girls wear pinafores for the most part, but the boys wear pullover sweaters and short trousers. Two of the boys are wearing suit jackets. Notice the boy in the second row, fifth from the right, who is wearing short trousers that are a little too short to cover the gap between the tops of his brown cotton
stockins and the hem of the trousers. He is obvious wearing supporters.
Another Swiss class--this one from the town of Stäfa. Stäfa is a village in the Zurich canton, but not
in the city of Zuruch. The portrait was taken January 8, 1948. Interestingly despite the Winter time frame, it does not look very cold on the day the photograph was taken. we do not even see any smow. No one is wearing an overcoat, but the boys all wear nice warm sweaters. The children probably just came out from their classroom for few minutes. They look to be 10-year oldsk. The school name is the same as the village, probably because there was only one school located there in 1948. The teacher with horn-rimmed classes at the rear is Herr W. Keller. Notice that even in the 1940s, most teachers were men. Most of the boys wear short trousers with long stockings and Strapsleibchen. The long stockings are in part seasonal. We also see a few wear plus-fours with knee socks. The girls wear pinafores which presumablywas a school rule.
This school photo, taken at Ottenbach, Switzerland, in Zurich canton, is dated October 24, 1949. The school has the same name as the village, apparently because there is only a single public school there. Since the season is still autumn, most of the boys wear knee socks with their short trousers, but since winter is approaching one
boy wears plus-fours and another wears beige long stockings with his shorts. From this boy's sitting posture, you can see how long the stockings of the 1950s were knitted, almost completely covering the legs and held in place with garters attached to a Strapsleibchen or stocking shirt. These children seem to be about eleven years
old--sixth graders, probably. Most of the boys wear pullover sweaters but a few have on just shirts. Notice the boy on the right in the front row with his sleeves rolled up. The variety of hosiery in this photo is interesting. One boy wears white knee socks while most of the others wear dark grey, blue, or brown socks. Some knee socks have stripes around the tops and turn over with cuffs(like those commonly worn in England) while others just seem to have knit-in elastic that keep them up. The teacher standing in the rear with horn-rimmed glasses is Herr M. Jost. One boy, standing in the second row at the far right, is wearing a white apron, presumably because of lab work that he was doing just before the children were gathered for the photo. One boy with bare knees has scraped his knee playing and has an adhesive plaster over it. This school obviously took good care of their children's health.
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