Figure 1.--Here we see two German boys, probably in the 1930s. As they are dressed similarly we woukld guess they were brothers. But brothers of the about same age would be more likely to have similar hair styles. Here the boys are dressed up wearing ties, but notice how scuffed the strap shoes are, suggesting that they are not dress shoes. A reader writes, "They might well be brothers. They have the same nose." HBC thinks the identical oufits mean that they surely are brothers, but the different hair style is rather surprising.

In sharp contrast to the photographs of boys wearing Lederhosen with hiking boots, we also see boys wearing strap shoes. Some of these photographs mat seem to be somewhat strange. This is because today Lederhosen are seen as a casual styleand and strap shoes as a rather formal style. Lederhosen can also be worn as a formal style. Strap shoes likewise have been worn both for formal occassions as well as a casual style of footwear for children. Wearing strap shoes as a casual style was quite common in Germany in the early 20th century. Thus we note both formal and casual images. One question we have about the strap shoes that we see in the photographs is color, but here the black and white photography provide us few clues. Here we see two German boys, probably in the 1930s (figure 1). As they are dressed similarly we woukld guess they were brothers. But brothers of the about same age would be more likely to have similar hair styles. Here the boys are dressed up wearing ties, but notice how scuffed the strap shoes are, suggesting that they are not dress shoes. A reader writes, "They might well be brothers. They have the same nose." HBC thinks the identical oufits mean that they surely are brothers, but the different hair style is rather surprising." Another reader writes, "Why not a brother and a sister?" This of course is possible. And we have seen girls wearing Lederhosen in the 1970s, but earlier this is very rare. I have never seen German girls wearing Lederhosen in the 30s. Also note the hands in pocket pose--this is more of a boy stance than a girlish one. Also note the bandaged knee, again more likely for a boy.

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Created: 10:14 PM 6/18/2007
Last updated: 10:55 PM 6/19/2007