(Based on information provided by Kaethe Marx and others.)
The beautiful ethnic costume of our Donauschwaben/German Hungarian ancestors stands out as one of the most readily recognizable symbols of our cherished heritage. While much admired and appreciated, most of us aren’t aware of all the finer points of this unique type of fashion ware. Please read on as we navigate the complexities of our wonderful and colorful Tracht.
Ladies’ Ware
BLOUSE/SHIRT (BLUSE) The ladies’ blouse or shirt is made of white cotton and has short, fancy sleeves and a round neckline.
VEST (LEIBCHEN) Covering the blouse is a vest made of velvet, silk or linen and decorated with delicate seams, lace or ribbons with a low, curved neckline. Buttons or hooks & eyes tie the usually black colored vest together.
SCARF (HALSTUCH) A large and colorfully patterned scarf made of silk, silk brocade, taffeta or linen give our Tracht a dramatic flair. Scarves come with fringes or are cut into a triangle with two complementary parts.
OUTER SKIRT (OBERROCK)1 The skirt consists of four or five different sections of material and is made of silk, atlas, linen, batiste, or silk brocade. They are single or multi colored with a dazzling array of finely patterned flowers, polka dots, or stripes in gathered or pleated folds.
UNDER SKIRT (UNTERROCK)2 To give the outer skirt a high degree of puffiness, the under skirt is heavily starched, pleated and ironed. In addition, gathered or rolled materials may also be worn underneath. Made of linen or cotton, the under skirts are usually one color with a patterned, flowered, or checkered design. They might also be hand embroidered with a lace or serrated bottom hem.
APRON (SCHÜRZE) This is often black and made of silk, taffeta or linen with either a lace border or lace insets. A ribbon tied in the front or back holds the apron in place.
HEAD COVERING (LÄNDER)4 Made in a variety of colors, the head coverings were silk, linen or lace with embroidered flowers or other decorative elements.
SHOES (SCHUHWERK) At the bottom of our list and at the bottom of every Tracht are the shoes! Usually black, they are made of leather or velvet with a low heel and a buckle.
Men’s Ware
SHIRT (HEMD) – Contrasting the women’s beautifully complicated Tracht, is the far more conservative looking ethnic costume worn by our men. The shirt proves the point: straight forward in design, made of linen or cotton and appearing in any color you like as long as it is white!
VEST (LEIWL) Always black in color, the vests have a long row of decorative silver buttons.
PANTS (HOSE) –These are made of black colored linen, cotton or some other substantial material with straight and narrow pant legs.
HAT (HUT) – Sitting wide and low on the head with a fashionable dent in the middle, our men’s hats were mostly black and were worn with or without colorful trim.
SHOES (FUSSZEUG) Men wear boots or regular shoes that are (not surprisingly!) black in color.
by Hans Martini
[Published at DVHH.org 12 Nov 2007 by Jody McKim Pharr]
EDITOR’S NOTE: This was republished here at ughclub.us with permission of Hans Martini and Dennis Bauer. A version of this in both English and German was included in the souvenir books from the 1990s and 2000s era Trachtenfests.
- Martini’s description of the colored outer skirt is common but not typically worn by our club. Emily Fricker notes in 2011: “Although there was a charming variety of different costumes or “trachts,” we have chosen the white pleated skirts, white blouse, black vest, various colors shawl and black apron that our founders chose in the early days of our club.” ↩︎
- See footnote 1. ↩︎
- This Tracht is from John Blank’s hometown and was originally from Julie Proll. The head covering Nichole wears belonged to Eva Martini from the Trenton Donauschwaben. In 2025 Nichole gave the it to her granddaughter Kathleen Martini. ↩︎
- Though this varried from village to village typically head coverings were worn by married women with younger girls having their hair in braids. “The Banat Germans” by Nikolaus Engelmann states: “The hair style, incidently,, is one of the most outstanding marks showing the differences in the origins of the individual villages…Besides the ‘Steckzopf’, there were other hair styles such as the ‘Krinzelzopf’ and, in some places the ‘nest’ which was artfully bult up from a number of braids. The tighter and prettier the braids, the prouder mother and daughter could be.” ↩︎
L to R: Yvonne Schiller, Susi Hartmann, Frank Schiller, Lisa Fricker, Joseph Hartmann, Werner Fricker III, Janet Malofiy, & Johnny Blank.
