Student hat
The school cap was from the 1870s to the 1930s in Germany and Austria a headgear for students and in some cases pupils from secondary schools as high schools, upper secondary schools and junior high schools, but also by Mädchenpensionaten. The design was based on the couleur hats customary in student associations ( see also student hat ).
The hats were used to differentiate the students according to school and grade level, although there were strong regional or local differences in implementation. As a rule, the color of the hat was dependent on the grade level. With each transfer the student got a new hat color. Sometimes there was also the rule that the hat of an upper class (Obersekunda, Oberprima) only differed from the hat of the corresponding lower class (Untersekunda, Unterprima) by a silver strand .
The schools were distinguished by the colored stripes around the head. For example, a high school could identify its students with a stripe in the fraternity colors black, red and gold. Sometimes so-called strikers were also used. According to contemporary witnesses, this school marking also served as a discipline : pupils who committed pranks on the way to school or who attracted attention due to bad behavior had to expect that they would be reported to their school.
The question of whether schoolgirls should also wear student hats was initially controversial. In 1912, for example, pupils from the secondary school for girls in Bayreuth applied to be allowed to wear student hats as well. This was approved after a sample hat was presented, but it was not approved by the public. Finally, the Bavarian government intervened and officially asked the school what the purpose of this was. Only when newspaper reports announced that Kaiser Wilhelm II and Empress Auguste Viktoria had praised the hats there when they went to a girls' high school did the criticism fall silent.
The hats had to be bought by the students from a local hat maker at the beginning of the new school year.
In the course of their seizure of power in 1933, the National Socialists abolished the student hats as "eggshells of reaction" and "the product of class pretense".
The student hats have been forgotten today. There is practically no general literature on the subject. Only eyewitness reports and received original copies provide information about the various regulations for school hats. However, members of a school association still wear student hats at official school and association events.
Examples of color regulation
The color scheme was not standardized, so the colors varied both regionally and in town from school to school. The traditional color regulation of the Ludwig-Meyn-Schule in Uetersen provided the following color regulation for the individual grades in the 1920s :
- Untertertia : dark green cap cloth, blue-white-red ribbon
- Obertertia : dark green cap, white-black-white ribbon
- Untersekunda : purple hat cloth, blue-white-red ribbon
- Obersekunda : violet headscarf, white-black-white ribbon
- Underprima : wine-red cap scarf with a silver cord on top, blue-white-red ribbon
- Oberprima : wine red hat with silver cloth drawstring top, white-black-white ribbon
It is noticeable that the cap straps in the lower levels of the Tertia, Seconda and Prima were kept in the colors of the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein and the upper levels in the colors of Prussia . Furthermore, the special marking with a silver cord was only given to the primans.
The school was at this time a Aufbaugymnasium , whose pupil which the Sexta , Quinta and Quarta had appropriate grade levels already behind him when they were taken. Therefore color information is missing here.
The Saarlouis grammar school had the following rules:
- Sexta : green cap, two silver stripes on the bridge (= round edge of the cap between the peak and the top)
- Quinta : dark red cap, two silver stripes on the bridge
- Quarta : blue cap, two silver stripes on the bridge
- Untertertia : bright red cap cloth, two silver lining Steg
- Obertertia : light red cap, two gold stripes on the bridge
- Untersekunda : black cap cloth, two silver lining Steg
- Obersekunda : black cap, two gold stripes on the bridge
- Underprima : white cap, two silver stripes on the bridge
- Oberprima : white hat cloth, two gold stripes on the web
In addition, there were covers made of black oilcloth that could be pulled over the hat as protection in snow and rain; It is known from a high school graduate class (1927) that he had a hat made of white silk with a circle referring to the school embroidered on the top. But this was probably a private idea of the students and not officially prescribed by the school.
School hat in other countries
Since the nineties, pupils in high schools in Estonia have been wearing headgear again, which in appearance and function correspond to the German pupil hats that were common until 1930. In Denmark , Sweden and Finland high school graduates often wear a so-called student hat when they finish school and during the following summer (Denmark: studenterhue , Sweden: studentmössa ). These go back to the tradition of the student hat as well as that of the student hat. For more information see student hats in Scandinavia .
In Vorarlberg, a federal state in Austria, the student hats have been preserved to this day. There that Matura cap (in dialect "Maturakäpple") is called and is worn by the graduates of a higher education school (AHS, BHS). The colors are specifically selected by the respective classes.
literature
- Michael Freyer: History of school clothes. In: Max Liedtke (Hrsg.): Handbook of the history of the Bavarian education system. Vol. 4. Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn / Obb. 1997. pp. 273-299. ISBN 3-7815-0664-9
- Frank Kerner in: Work & Everyday Life. Industrial culture in the Ruhr Museum . 1st edition. Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-86335-821-1 , p. 243 .
Web links
- Report on school hats from Rastatt
- Report on school hats in Bischofsburg
- Report on school hats in Wuppertal
- Report on student hats from the former Helmholtz secondary school in Frankfurt am Main
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.rwg-bayreuth.de/home/?p=13111
- ↑ Hans Neis: The "Pennäler-Mützen" , In: 300 Years of Gymnasium am Stadtgarten Saarlouis , Saarlouis 1991, p. 70.