Zilinder

A not so important question about "fashion".
Why don't the Yekkes wear the "zilinder" (top hat) nowadays? The Chassidim still use their spodiks and shtreimels etc.
Especially since the alter Yekkes tell with pride, that they married with a zilinder on the head...

Meir

Michael wrote: The Chassidim applied kedushoh to the hat worn by their first leaders, the hat that was worn in Poland in the 18th century.

Actually, there is a little kedusha to those hats. They were chosen in that shape to be slightly different than the gentiles. A Zylinder was something the gentiles wore as well.
Since the Bnei Yisroel were exceptional in that they did not change their distinctive dress, was there such a thing in Ashkenaz, before the Era of Enlightenment, before the ghetto walls came down?

MPerlman