I remember it clearly as if it were just yesterday. It was a cold, wet Monday morning in September. I stood on the Schlossplatz with the other children in my class and waited for the doors to the palace church to open for the service. The school principal, Ms. Eyting, was an extremely resolute person with very clear ideas about what was right or decent. She looked at us sternly and none of us dared to make a peep. Finally her eyes fell on my classmate Marita. You could actually see her eyes widening in anger. She stood in front of the little girl and looked down dismissively. Then Ms. Eyting began to fuss over Marita's clothing and brush it down in the tone of voice that brooked no contradiction that we all so feared. The girl was actually wearing pants! “No pants when you go to service!” Ms. Eyting exclaimed angrily. She insisted on Marita having to appear neatly dressed for lessons and church. So she should go home as quickly as possible and reappear in her skirt. I saw Marita fighting back tears. Also other girls, who had been put in trousers due to the weather conditions, were now mercilessly sent home, with the proviso, of course, that they would be back in time for the start of the service. Marita's father was employed at the publisher of the newspaper Wilhelmshavener Rundschau at the time. And because the matter annoyed him so much, he went public with it, which caused a huge media response. Magazines like the Spiegel and the Stern reported, and even television got involved. Although personal rights and the rights of parents were clearly being encroached upon, politicians back took cover. Neither the Varel city council nor the minister for education wanted to comment clearly on the matter. But at the end of the 50s powerful parts of society were still strictly conservative. Fortunately, that was about to change.

The so-called “Varel Pants War” which gained nationwide public awareness in 1957, was a typical example of the atmosphere in the early Federal Republic of Germany. People who began their careers during the Nazi era held many important positions in politics and society. Although they served the new democracy just as much as their former masters, they were by no means carriers of a liberal-democratic ethos. In many cases, after overcoming the catastrophe of war and dictatorship, people thought they could simply carry on as before. This also included resorting to supposedly proven ideas of order, e.g. that a girl in pants was something that contradicted social convention, or as it was called at the time: “decency”. A real change in these conditions only began in the 1960s and 70s, when a majority in society was finally ready to “dare to be more democratic”. The “Varel Pants War” remained in the memory of many contemporary witnesses because it manifested itself in a particularly ridiculous and at the same time outrageous way, an exaggerated and invasive small-mindedness.