Green’s Dictionary of Slang

German bands n.

the hands.

1910		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 3 Aug. 4/1: Putting his 'German' ('German band' hand) into his 'sky' ('sky rocket' pocket) he finds he has left his 'I'm so funny' (money) at home.
1917		W. Muir Observations of Orderly 225: A man’s arm is his ‘false alarm’; [...] his hand, ‘German band’.
1919		Truth (Brisbane) 28 Sept. 2/3: [H]e would be too fat and lean to let even his own that the other get her German bands on his Oscar Ashe.
1927		Hartlepool Northern Dly Mail 28 Jan. 5/5: I heard a coffee stall customer ask [...] for a ‘Once or twice of Sexton Blake, please’ and the proprietor said, ‘Will you have it in your German or the linen draper?’.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May: Her Story in Hamilton (1952) 132: German bands – hands.
1932		‘P.P.’ Rhy. Sl. 11: Keep yer ‘German’ off my ‘sky’ or you’ll find yerself in a ‘Harvey’.
a.1945		L. Payne private coll. n.p.: Hands German Bands.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 184: I’ll only use my right German band.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 106: His ‘German bands’ [are] his hands.
1967		Took & Feldman Round the Horne 22 May [BBC radio] She’ll vada me and smile, / I’ll understand and in a little while / She’ll hold my German band, / And though it seems absurd.
1971		J. Jones Rhy. Cockney Sl.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 9: She held out her German band at the same Harry Lime she was detweeding herself.
2002		M. Coles More Bible in Cockney 132: Paul stretched out his German band.