Figure 1.--This is a page from a German illustrated text book for leaning French. It was published in Leipzig during 1937. The dictionary showing children's clothing give some idea of what is seen as typical clothes for German boys at the time rather than French. It calls the younger boy's jacket “modele veste d'alpiniste” - “Alpine style jacket” and the older boy's cap is called "La casquette d'ecolier" ( Schoolboy cap).

A HBC reader has provided us a pictorial dictionary for Germans learning French. The words are in French, but the clothing depicted are primarily German. The book is entitled, Duden Francais - Dictionnaire Illustre and was published in Leipzig in 1937. Thus it gives a few of German fashions as well as school scenes. It does not, however, provide the German words for the pictures depicted, only the French terms. The costumes depicted though are German clothes of the mid-1930s. This is obvious on some pages such as the one on the Army. Our reader writes, "I've been reading through it. The book is very interesting in what they depict, not only fashion but school supplies, cars, amd much more." Hopefully HBC can provide the English and German equivalents as well as an assessment of the German clothes depicted.

Planche 12: Children's Clothing

The dictionary calls the younger boy's jacket “modele veste d'alpiniste” - “Alpine style jacket” and the older boy's cap is called "La casquette d'ecolier" ( Schoolboy cap). A HBC reader points out, "Referring to the caption (figure 1): if 'modèle style alpiniste' really is what this textbook called the Alpine style jacket it was a poor teaching aid indeed. The French noun alpiniste means mountaineer and may be used for an anybody climbing any mountain range. The equivalent of alpine (pertaining to the Alpine Region) is alpin (male ) or alpine (feminine). Thus an Alpine style jacket is une veste modèle alpin or une veste style alpin or une veste type alpin."

Planche 164: Contrasts

Planche 230: Youth Groups

This page is labeled "La jeunesse" or youth. It shows Boy Scouts, the Hitler Youth, the Wandervogel, and activities at youth hostels. For some reason the German youth are referred to as National Socilist Youth rather than the Hitler Youth. At the time there was no longer a Wander Vogel organization. It had been adsorbed into the Hitler Youth. I'm not sure why it was included here. Perhaps it was for historical reference or perhaps the editor had been a Wandervogel boy. We are not sure about the Youth Histels. We know that the youth hostels were taken over by the Hitler Youth. We are not sure how they were operated. We assume that boys were less free to wander about on their own to use them as the Hitler Youth promoted group activities, but we have little acyual information. Here the page provides information on both uniforms and activities.

Planche 231: School

Planche 238: Children's Play

Planche 307-307: Salutations