Most Germans will fondly remember the Schultüte, a cone shaped cornucopia filled with sweets, treats and toys given to them when they entered elementary school. Einschulung, the first day of school, is considered a rite of passage for a child, the start of one’s academic life, and it’s celebrated by the presentation of gifts, the snapping of photos, and then the exploration of what the school cone holds.
Looking for “Schultüten” treats from Germany? Visit our sister site The Taste of Germany.com for a selection of gummies, marshmallow kisses, cookies, whole grain cereals and breads, energy drinks with fewer calories and so much more!
Where the tradition started
The history of the Schultüte dates back to the year 1810 in the Germanic regions of Saxonia and Thuringia. Here, wealthy, privately-schooled children received large hand-crafted, cone-shaped bags filled with sweets and toys to celebrate their first day of school. (Public schooling became first mandatory in the 1920s). The Schultüten ceremony spread all over Germany in the following decades. In 1910, Carl August Nestler from Wiesa in Saxony began to mass-produce beautifully designed cones. The company is still operating today. These days the Schultüte is given to students of all ages, from elementary school to doctoral candidates in university, by family, friends or partners as encouragement for the long academic road ahead.
Buy or Make Your Own Schultüte
In total, more than 700,000 of them are sold every year in Germany. You can find them at most school and office supply stores in July and August. In North America and around the world, ready-made Schultueten can be found om Etsy, Amazon and other online arts-and-crafts stores.
If you want to be creative, why not make one on your own? Simply get a large sheet of colored poster board. Lay the poster board on a flat work surface with the shorter side facing you. Roll the board into a large cone and tape it at the outside seam with packing tape. Cut the top straight across the upper part of the cone, just below the uneven edges. Decorate the board (based on your child’s interest) with glitter, stickers, pictures of the family, or sparkling jewels. Use two differently colored tissue papers and cover the edges of the cone, folding the tissue papers tightly over the top. Tape the tissue along the inner edge of the cone. Pad the inside bottom of the cone with crumbled tissue paper.
Fill the Schultüte
Now it’s time to fill the cone with just the sweets, treats, school supplies, and the toy your little one will most enjoy. Some fun things to include in the cone: pencils, crayons, erasers, watches, yo-yos, hair ties, gum and stuffed toys. Then, as in the German tradition, fill the cone to the top with some authentic German treats. It’s a sweet tradition that North American students are sure to appreciate!
Consider including a selection of the following sweet treats:
- Ahoj Sweet Prickly Powder from Stuttgart: Put the powder on your tongue and feel the tingle.
- Gummies and Chewy Candies from North Rhine Westphalia: Hans Richter from Bonn, the city along the Rhine South of Cologne, invented the gummy bears in the 1920. Today you can choose from over 120 shapes and flavors, even authentic German “Make Your Own Gummies” Kits.
- Milka German Chocolate Bars from Baden Württemberg: The famous chocolate brand symbolized by a purple cow.
- Marshmallow Kisses from Saxony: The unique thimble-shaped confection, filled with fluffy, whipped egg white and covered in dark, milk or white chocolate is a “must-have” for the first semester in school.
- Leibniz Butter Cookies from Lower Saxony: Cookie baker Hermann Bahlsen, a cookie producer in the Hannover, Lower Saxony, launched his iconic butter cookie in the 1890s. The name Leibniz comes from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a 17th century mathematician and philosopher who is one of the fathers of the Enlightenment and numerous inventions. What an apt treat for your future scholars!
Yummy additions to a nutritious diet for students of all ages:
- Whole grain breads from Westphalia: No bread staples offer as much whole grain fiber, nutrients and healthy energy as the “Pumpernickel” or “Vollkornbrot” made in Westphalia. This type of moist, grainy bread is a century-old baking tradition from that region. Perfect for young athletes who want to excel in endurance or long dustance sports.
- Organic and Natural Muesli Cereal from the Odenwald: Muesli, a Swiss invention, is a breakfast cereal full of whole grain oats, spelt, wheat kernels, nuts, dried and fresh fruits and, depending on the variety, sweetened with dark chocolate. Keeps your students’ stomachs filled with protein, good carbs and fats, vitamins and minerals, without too much sugar.
- Animal-Shape Organic Noodles from Baden Württemberg: When the students come home for dinner or need a quick snack in the afternoon, why not put a smile on their face with organic egg pasta in the shape of animals.
- Soup Mixes with Alphabet or Number Noodles from Knorr and Maggi: Add the aforementioned animal pasta and some chicken bits to delicious and easy to make soups with letters and numbers from the worldwide available brands Knorr and Maggi. A chicken-noodle soup is a perfect stomach warmer and “brain-pleaser”
during fall and winter and there is no harm in “learning” while eating.
More to Explore:
Back to School with Lots of Energy.
Meals that Kids Can Cook
To all new students in the United States and Canada, we wish you ‘viel Glück und Erfolg‘ (much luck and success) in the year ahead!
