school cone
schultüte

At first the practice of the school cone, which did not spread to other parts of Germany at this time, was to not give the bag to the kids directly.

Marked with the students' names, they were taken to the school by parents or godparents and in a ritual, reminiscent of the Mexican piñata, hung on a metal "Schultüten-Baum" (School cone tree) from which each child had to pick their cone, without breaking them.

The tradition of the "Schultüte" leads back to approximately 1810, to Saxony and Thuringia in Germany.

The only custom that has changed in the later half of the 20th century is that fewer sweets seem to appear in the Schultüte, with more practical gifts such as crayons and pencils, small toys, CDs, books and even articles of clothing replacing the traditional chocolates and candies.

In an episode broadcast on 6 September 2004, Raab showed a clip, originally destined for a news broadcast, of a 28-year-old Turkish mother Nil S. holding a Schultüte (a cardboard cone, typically full of sweets, traditionally given to children in Germany on their first school day).