SPAMCONSUMER

Xaver’s School-Cone Project [German: "Schultüte"]

October 16th, 2009

It`s a long time tradition in germany for kids who attend to first grade to carry a “cone” on their first day at school filled with sweeties.

There are kids who are fine with the cones you could get at the stores, there are some kids who prefer to create them on their own and then there are kids who have a very special idea of their cone.
In this case Xaver wanted to have a space cone with robots and spaceships on it. Getting a blank body and a few hours later a pretty unique cone was ready for first day of school.
It was sprayed first for space look and then being attached with cut-out rubber characters.

What is a School Cone?

A “Schultüte” (or School Cone, even though the word “Tüte” translates more as “bag” from German), often also called Zuckertüte (”sugar bag”, especially in Eastern Germany) is a paper (and later plastic) bag in particular.

When children in Germany set off for their first day in school upon entering first grade, their parents and/or grandparents present them with a big cardboard cone, prettily decorated and filled with toys, chocolate, candies, school supplies, and various other goodies. It is given to children to make this anxiously awaited first day of school a little bit sweeter.

History of the Schultuete

The first day of school is especially sweet and memorable in Germany. On this day each child entering the first grade receives a large cone decorated with paper and ribbon. Inside they find small gifts, school supplies, and lots of chocolate and candy. Often the entire family, including the grandparents, accompanies the child to school. Some of the cones dwarf the five- and six-year-olds.

The tradition of the Schultuete, also called the Zuckertuete or sweet cone, seems to have originated in the eastern cities in Saxony and Thuringia about 200 years ago. They were originally provided by the child’s godparents and hung from a tree in the schoolyard. Children were told that when the “fruits” on the tree were ripe enough to be picked, then they themselves were ready for school.

In Germany, the first day of school has long been acknowledged as a special occasion with customs that have been documented back to the middle ages. Depending on the region, it may have taken the form of a special church service, at the conclusion of which the children may have been led in a procession to the school, or they were presented with cookies that had been baked in the shape of letters or the pieces of slate that, until well into the middle of the last century, where used for the first tentative tries at writing legible letters and numbers.

The custom of the “Schultuete” proper goes back to about 1810, to Saxony and Thuringia at Germany’s easternmost borders, where sweets were given to the children on this day. The first documented report of the cone-shaped Schultuete proper comes from the city of Jena in 1817, closely followed by reports from Dresden (1820) and Leipzig (1836). It started in the bigger cities but spread quickly to the small towns and villages, soon becoming an institution all over Germany.

Spreading from city to city and then eventually to all of Germany, the Schultuete has always been representative of the times. During the period before WWI the face of the last emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II often adorned the cones. Under Hitler, the cones were given a uniform size symbolizing the equality of those within the “Aryan” race. One woman I know who grew up in the GDR describes how her parents bought special “west” candy for her Schultuete from hard currency stores allowed to sell products from West Germany. Today many parents buy cones pre-decorated with their children’s favorite cartoon or book characters.