Group of (ex)students with their Mütze (cap) in front of the Lambertikirche, Münster, Germany, 24 May 2015Last weekend Gillian and I spent a few days in Münster, Germany, where on Sunday morning we watched all over town young and older men (not women !) with rather conspicuous caps walking around, and actually congregating at the St. Lambert's Church (Lambertikirche) in the centre of town for what we thought was a special church service. These caps are really characteristic. Some of them have a brim in front, others not, but for the rest they seem pretty uniform and they are certainly very colourful. Student fraternities, or Studenten-verbindungen, are still wide-spread in Germany and other (former) German speaking countries. Many of them date back to the early 19th century. Students who join these fraternities often remain in contact with each other throughout their lives. The caps (Mütze or Deckel) constitute an important part of their traditional outfit (Couleur), only worn, so we may assume, at important communal events. For more information, see http://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studentenm%C3%BCtze 

Willem Vogelsang, 30 May 2015