page_title: Gymnasium (Germany)
section_title: Dress code
hierarchical_section_title: Gymnasium (Germany) / Dress code
caption_attribution_description: English: Heinrich-Böll-Gymnasium (Ludwigshafen), Germany
context_page_description: Gymnasium, in the German education system, is the most advanced of the three types of German secondary schools, the others being Realschule and Hauptschule. Gymnasium strongly emphasizes academic learning, comparable to the British grammar school system or with prep schools in the United States. A student attending Gymnasium is called a Gymnasiast. In 2009/10 there were 3,094 gymnasia in Germany, with c. 2,475,000 students, resulting in an average student number of 800 students per school.
  Gymnasia are generally public, state-funded schools, but a number of parochial and private gymnasia also exist. In 2009/10, 11.1 percent of gymnasium students attended a private gymnasium. These often charge tuition fees, though many also offer scholarships. Tuition fees are lower than in comparable European countries. Some gymnasia are boarding schools, while others run as day schools; they are now predominantly co-educational, and few single-sex schools remain.
  Students are generally admitted at 10 years of age and are required to have completed four years of grundschule.
context_section_description: Generally, gymnasia have no school uniforms or official dress codes. However, students may be expected to dress modestly and tastefully. Some gymnasia offer branded shirts, but students are allowed to choose whether or not to wear them. For specific school events (like the Abitur ball) students attending them may be expected to wear formal dress, usually consisting of dresses for women and blazer and tie for men, but even this is no longer the case for every gymnasium.
  In the past, Gymnasiasten wore a traditional cap, marking them as a gymnasium student. The colour of the cap differed by gymnasium and grade. In case of the Ludwig Meyn Gymnasium in Uetersen, for example, in 1920:
  Untertertia-students wore green cap with a blue, red and white cord
  Obertertia-students wore a green cap, with a black-and-white cord
  Untersekunda-students wore a violet cap with a blue, white and red cord
  Obersekunda-students wore a violet cap with a black-and-white cord
  Unterprima-students wore a red cap with, a blue white and red cord
  Oberprima-students wore a red cap with a black and white cord
  After the Machtergreifung of the Nazis, the gymnasium cap was banned for political reasons. Literature describing student caps was burned.Students received new clothing from the League of German Girls and the Hitler Youth. gymnasium students were forbidden to wear clothing that identified them as members of their school. Now, it is no longer illegal and these caps are again being sold however, few ever wear one.
  At some schools, when graduating, students receive an Abitur T-shirt, which is printed with the name of the school, the year of graduation and a slogan.
caption: Students at the Heinrich-Böll-Gymnasium (Ludwigshafen) can wear a t-shirt that says "Reading endangers stupidity" (it resembles the German warning label on cigarettes)
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-TZ5", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:12:02 09:07:38", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "199", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9820", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4148", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "33/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:11:29 12:36:49", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:11:29 12:36:49", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "86/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Flash", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "47/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1804", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1513", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "9679", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "28", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}