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Schultüte:

Welcome Back To School

Images of 'Schultüten', sometimes also referred to as 'Zuckertüten' bring back fond memories to anyone who started primary school in Germany and Austria at about the age of six. This tradition dates back to the early 1800s and is still going strong. To celebrate the first day of school, parents or grand-parents present children with beautifully decorated cardboard cones filled with toys, chocolates, sweets, school supplies and other surprises. 

 

Here are pictures of eighteen of our interviewees with their Schultüte (plus two bonus ones of archive director Dr Bea Lewkowicz and archive researcher Kristin Baumgartner).

 

This year, 2020, is different to other years. Children are returning to their schools after a five-month break (due to Covid-19) and they will have to get used to a new kind of school life. The ‘Schultüte’ tradition reminds us that we can celebrate going back to school, while acknowledging the anxieties and worries which pupils and their parents will be facing.   

Inge Ader

Inge Ader

IA: First day of school, 1924, with Schultüte. "The first day in school and I had a Schultüte with sweets. I was very proud. I was six years old."

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Interviewee Experience:
Domestic Service
Maria Ault

Maria Ault

MA: First day of school, 2n May 1939, Maria with her school cone

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Interviewee Experience:
Kindertransport
Leslie Brent

Leslie Brent

LB: First day of school, 1931. "This picture was taken in 1931, when I was very nearly six years old, showing me going to the school for the first time. The Germans have this rather endearing custom of giving children on their first school day a huge cone full of goodies of one kind or another, including sweets and biscuits and that sort of thing. And it makes the first day of school something rather special."

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Interviewee Experience:
Kindertransport
Bunce Court School
British Military
Frank Bright

Frank Bright

FB: First day at school (Jewish Reform Gemeindeschule in Joachimsthaler street), Berlin, 1935. "The - sort of cardboard tube was filled with sweets, which was meant to make the first day at school sweeter. I don’t know why, because I rather liked the idea. I didn’t need it to be made sweeter, but I probably had the sweets after all. I would be six-and-a-half years old."

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Interviewee Experience:
Early Pre-War Emigration to Czechoslovakia
Slave Labourer
Concentration Camp Survivor
Hannelore Cohen

Hannelore Cohen

HC: First day of school, Chemnitz, ca 1936. "This is me aged 5 when I started school in Chemnitz and the cone I am carrying was called Zuckertutte. It was filled with sweets and other things used for school, pencil cases etc."

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Interviewee Experience:
Kindertransport
With Foster Family
Charles Danson

Charles Danson

CD: With Schultute on Knesebeckstrasse, Berlin, 1927

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Interviewee Experience:
Early Pre-War Emigration to Britain
Pioneer Corps
British Military
Prisoner of War
Abraham Feldman

Abraham Feldman

AF: With Schultute on first day at the Carlebach School, Leipzig, 1933

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Interviewee Experience:
Early Pre-War Emigration to Britain
Gisela Feldman

Gisela Feldman

GF: Gisela (right) and sister Sonja Knepel, first day of school, Berlin, ca. 1930. "I’m on the right and on the first day at school our mothers met us with this little sort of witches’ hat full of sweets. And it was taken in Berlin."

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Interviewee Experience:
Domestic Service
MS St. Louis
Eva Figes

Eva Figes

EF: Eva’s first day of school with her Schultüte, at entrance to Tiergarten, Bahnhof am Zoo, April 1939

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Interviewee Experience:
Came With Parents or Close Family
Margot Harris

Margot Harris

MH: "Mein erster Schulgang. [My first day of school]", with Schultüte, Jewish school, Kassel, 1936

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Interviewee Experience:
Came With Parents or Close Family
Bob Kirk

Bob Kirk

RK: With Schultüte, first day of school, 1930. "This is a photograph of me on my first day at school with the traditional Zuckertüte – a dunce’s hat full of sweets - standing in the playground just outside our flat."

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Interviewee Experience:
Kindertransport
With Foster Family
British Military
Lia Lesser

Lia Lesser

LL: With Schultüte on her first day of school, Teplice-Šanov 1937

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Interviewee Experience:
Kindertransport
Sir Nicholas Winton transport
Czechoslovak State School, Llanwrtyd Wells
George Loble

George Loble

GL: George with Schultüte, age six, Bamberg, 1932

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Interviewee Experience:
Came With Parents or Close Family
Max Milner

Max Milner

MM: First day of school. "Me, Maximilian Meisner, now Max Milner, on my very first school day in 1925, outside Jewish Primary School in Berlin, Fasanenstrasse."

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Interviewee Experience:
Early Pre-War Emigration to Britain
Pioneer Corps
British Military
Meta Roseneil

Meta Roseneil

MR: Meta holding a school cone (Schultüte) on her first day of school, Frankfurt am Main, 1937

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Interviewee Experience:
Came With Parents or Close Family
Klara Sharp

Klara Sharp

KS: With Schultüte on her first day at school, Joachim Friedrichstraße, Berlin, 1928. "This is my first school day. I was six years old, in Berlin."

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Interviewee Experience:
Emigration to Shanghai
Japanese Internment
Stella Shinder

Stella Shinder

SS: With Schultüte, age 6, first day of school, Chemnitz, 1934. "It was customary in Germany for a child to get a huge bag of- filled with sweets and chocolates to help them on their way on their first day at school."

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Interviewee Experience:
Early Pre-War Emigration to Czechoslovakia
Came With Parents or Close Family
George Summerfield

George Summerfield

GS: With twin brother Peter & their Schultüten

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Interviewee Experience:
Came With Parents or Close Family
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