Figure 1.--This is the Edelknabenkorps from the city of Kaarst. The Edelknabenkorps 1951 Kaarst is the most famous detachment of the various shooting clubs in Germany.

HBU has never seen a boys' youth group ever wearing a uniform quite like this. It is clearly a uniform for dress wear. The boys would hardly play a wide game dressed like this. They appaear to wear a mid-19th century military-styled unifom, but with short pants and white kneesocks which were not worn until much later. It looks like the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) period. We are not positive why the uniforms are based on these styles. Perhaps this is when many of the groups were first oganized. Actually it was the caps and jackets that are styled lule the Franco Prusion War era. The short pants and white kneesocks look more like the mid-20th cntury.

The Uniform

HBU has never seen a boys' youth group ever wearing a uniform quite like this. It is clearly a uniform for dress wear. The boys would hardly play a wide game dressed like this. Many of the images we saw at first were all a 19th century Fanco-Prussian War. The uniform appears to be a mid-19th century military-styled unifom, but with short pants and white kneesocks which were not worn until much later. It looks, at least in part, a uniform like the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) period. We are not positive why the uniforms are based on these styles. Perhaps this is when many of the groups were first oganized. Actually it was the caps and jackets that are styled lule the Franco Prusion War era. The short pants and white kneesocks look more like the mid-20th cntury. Boys at the time of the Franco-Prussian War were beginning to wear knepants, but short pants and kneesocks were not common. A German reader writes, "I´m not very clear about, why the boys are wearing such a special uniform. I think it`s because of the long tradition of historical shooting clubs, espiacelly in the western part of Germany." HBU suspects that choosing a military-styled uniform for German youth is a politically contentious matter. Because of the terrinl things that the NAZIs did in WorldwarII, they obviously could not choose a WorldWar II style uniform. This may have even prevnted the use of World war I uniforms, because thy look in part like World war II unifoms. Thus the Frano Prussian uniforms was a syl hat did not have the political baggage of more modern uniforms. We have since seen a variety of other uniform styles. Some are based on other 19th century styles. Other in recent years have a much more modern look.

Franco-Prussian War (1870-71)

The Franco-Prussian War is the 1870-71, conflict between France and Prussia that permitted the unification of a united Germany under the Prussian kingdom, overwealming the more liberal traditions of some other German states. The War was largely provoked by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (the Iron Chancellor) as part of his carefully crafted plan to unify German under Prussian leadership. This result was a huge, poweful state imbued with Prussian militarism and with the power to aggressively persue the new Germany's imperial ambitions. This fundmentally changed the European power ballance. The resulting defeat of Louis Napoleon by the Prussians in 1870 brought the Third Republic to power in 1871. One of the reforms they introduced were smocks for schoolboys, part of the new Republican ideal to reduce the influence of class and privlidge. The two northeastern provinces of France, Alsace-Loraine, were ceded to Germany in the Treaty of Frankfurt. These were both border provinces and there were already large numbers of German-speakers in both provinces, especially Alsace. The population was, however, largely French orientened--even some of the German families. The loss to France was so heart-felt in France that it almost made another war inevitable. One impact on boys' clothing was that when the Third Republic in 1871 mandated smocks in French schools, Alsace-Loraine were no longer part of France.