Figure 1.--Here we see a postcard of a German boy wearing Lederhosen with a Schiller collar shirt. Note that the Lederhosen are done as kneepants. The card seems to have been mailed in 1918. Click on the image to see the message on the back. We do not yet know what it says.

1910s Trends

I do not notice Lederhosen being a distinctively boys' garment in the 1910s. At least we so evidence of this in the photographic record. We do see some portraits of boys wearing Lederhosen as part of folk costumes, byt we see adult men weaung identicak outfits as well. Boys wore lederhosen in the 1910s, but they seem more common with older than younger boys. We do not note many images of younger boys boys wearing them, except as folk costumes. The Lederhosen that we note are commonly cut att knee level and made rather as kneepants. They often had the three buttons at the leg hem. Lederhosen in the 1910s were still largely confined to Bavaria in Germany. We do not see boys commonly wearing them outside of Bavaria.

Postcard

This card is an absolute mystery. It has a very German (Bavarian or Tyrolean) image, a boy in lederhosen. However, what's written on the back is not German, except for what Mizzi writes "Beste Grüße unbekannterweise" (which means: (best) greetings unbeknownst, from Mizzi). There also seems to be a name at the bottom, something like Bartrib? Branc. I don't know what language has been used, I think it is Serbian or Croatian. We are almost certain that the postcard was published in Germany. High-quality color printing seems much less likely in countries like Serbia or Bulgaria. There were Germans living throughout central and eastern Europe. We suspect that this card may have been sent by or to someone in those German communities. Possibly a Croatian or a Slovenian might be making a trip to Germany. And of course Austria-Hungary over ran Serbia during the War and thus it could have been sent from or to Austria or elsewhere in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Another possibility is World War I military personnel. Austro-Hungarian and German forces were active in the Balkans during the War. Unfortunately the post car does not have an address, stamp or most mark. Presumably it was sent in an envelop and not postmarked. Although we are not certain, it seems to have been sent in 1918. We note 918 written at the top of the back. A reader writes, "The handwriting is definitely cyrillic, and the language slavic, but I can barely make out whole words. If the language is Serbo-Croatian it would be Serbian rather than Croatian, as the main difference between the two is which alphabet is used. Might be Bulgarian... " Hopefully our HBC readers will have some thoughts here or be able to dechiper the message o the back.

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Created: 12:56 AM 3/2/2006
Last updated: 2:02 AM 3/2/2006