Unidentified Berlin Sports Clubs


Figure 1.--Here we have a boy's group in a Grman sports club. The shirt logo suggests a Berlin group. I'm not sure how to date this photograph, but would guess the 1920s. I'm also unsure about the sport, but would guess gymnastics. The black long stockings seems unusual for a sport's club. Black long stovkings by the 1920s had become primarily worn for formal occassions and not for sport.

Here we have a group of boys that is surely part of a German sports club. The shirt logo suggests a Berlin group. I'm not sure how to date this photograph, but would guess the 1920s. I'm also unsure about the sport, but would guess gymnastics. The black long stockings seems unusual for a sport's club. Black long stockings by the 1920s had become primarily worn for formal occassions and not for sport. A reader writes, "I think the long black stockings are less unusual in Germany for athletics than would be the case in other countries, because such stockings were such an ordinary feature of schoolboy's normal dress during the 1920s. We also note a group of Swedish boys doing calisthenics with knee pants and black long stockings a few years earlier."

Sports Clubs

Here we have a group of boys that is surely part of a German sports club. We are guessing that this is the junior division of what was a sport's club primarily for adults. Sport's clubs were probably the major institution offering athletics and sports for boys an young men. I believe that this was an essentially male institition.

Location

The shirt logo suggests a Berlin group. The symbol for Berlin is a rampant bear. A reader asks, "I am also interested in the symbol on the shirts." It looks like the Berlin symbol to us.

Chronology

I'm not sure how to date this photograph, but would guess the 1920s.

Sports

I'm also unsure about the sport, but would guess gymnastics. A reader writes, "To me it could be either gymnastics or boxing. I could not tell the difference from these uniforms."

Uniform

Some of the shirts and long sleeves and most short sleeves. The boys wear matching short pants. The black long stockings seems unusual for a sport's club. Black long stockings by the 1920s had become primarily worn for formal occassions and not for sport. A reader writes, "I think the long black stockings are less unusual in Germany for athletics than would be the case in other countries, because such stockings were such an ordinary feature of schoolboy's normal dress during the 1920s. We also note a group of Swedish boys doing calisthenics with knee pants and black long stockings a few years earlier." Another reader writes concerning the photograph here, "I noticed a feature that is worth commenting upon about the image here (figure 1). It is, however, rather difficult to see. At least two of the boys seem to be wearing suspender waists to support their black long stockings. Notice that the fourth boy from left (standing) seems to have white suspender straps over his white T shirt. You can see the straps even more clearly on the first boy sitting in the first row (first from the left). These straps do not seem to be holding up the white short trousers (which are secured by black belts). They apparently are worn to hold up the boys' stockings, continuing down the front underneath the shorts so as to from garters. The straps are hard to see, being white, but they are quite visible on at least two of the boys. But what about the others without visible suspender straps? Two possibilities occur to me. Pehaps they wear Leibchen underneath their white T shirts, or maybe the same kind of suspender waist with the straps worn beneath rather than over their shirts. Most of these boys seem to be about twelve or thirteen years old. Some older German boys did wear front-buttoning Leibchen for long stockings, but we know that other boys, especially teenagers, resorted to more grown-up garter belts or, alternatively, "Tragbunden," the German term for suspender waists. "







HBC





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Created: 10:38 PM 10/29/2006
Last updated: 7:58 PM 10/31/2006