Figure 1.--Here we have an unidentified German boy with his Zuckertute on thefirst day of school (figure 1). All we know about the portrait is that it was taken in 1927. The boy here wears a sailor capwitha little different suit than we generally notedf by 1927. He wears a collar buttoning jaclet with an Eton-like colla and knee pants that do not match the jacket. He also wears white long stockings and rather unsusual buckle shoes. We are guessing here that his mother was very fashion conscious. We have also thought that it was a little mean to send these children to school with these cones, but not allow them to dig into them until they came home. We are not entirely sure wjhen these first day portraits were taken. Did mother drag them to the photographic studio after school? Or perhaps the next day or so. We are guessing that the cones had been cleared out by the time the portrait was taken.

Here we have an unidentified German boy with his Zuckertute on the first day of school (figure 1). All we know about the portrait is that it was taken in 1927. The boy here wears a sailor cap with a little different suit than we generally noted by 1927. He wears a collar buttoning jaclet with an Eton-like colla and knee pants that do not match the jacket. He also wears white long stockings and rather unsusual buckle shoes. We are guessing here that his mother was very fashion conscious. We have also thought that it was a little mean to send these children to school with these cones, but not allow them to dig into them until they came home. We are not entirely sure wjhen these first day portraits were taken. Did mother drag them to the photographic studio after school? Or perhaps the nexst day or so. We are guessing that the cones had been cleared out by the time the portrait was taken.

The Boy

Here we have an unidentified German boy. Unfortunately we do not have the boy's name or know anything about him. We would guess, however, looking at how he is dressed that he cme from a substantial middle-class home and that his mother was very fashion concious.

Chronology

The one thing we know about the photograph here is that the portrait was taken in 1927.

Studio Portrait

This is clearly a studio portrait. We have thought that it was a little mean to send these children to school with these cones, but not allow them to dig into them until they came home. We are not entirely sure when these first day portraits were taken. Did mother drag them to the photographic studio after school? Or perhaps the nexst day or so. We are guessing that the cones had been cleared out by the time the portrait was taken.

Zuckertute

In Germany, there is a charming custom of presenting a cone full of "goodies" to a child on their first day of school. I'm not sure why it was a cone, but the available images show boys with cones. It may include candy, school supplies, clothes, etc. One of the names for the cone is "Zuckertute" and the celebration is known as "Schulanfangfeier". Images from the early 20th century show that this was a very popular custom. I do not know if it is still in vogue. They varied in size and were decorated in various ways. Some of the cones are nearly as large as the boy. The boys were photographed with their Zuckertutes, often in a photographic studio. I don't think that the bpys actaully took the Zuckertutes to school, but here I am not sure. A German reader writes, "HBC uses Zuckertüte for it, a term I'm less familiar with, but it's also used. These Schultüten are common since the late 19th century, they first were hanged on Christmas trees, besides other equipment, later they were used as special present to sweeten the first day at school."

Clothing

The boy here wears a sailor cap with a little different suit than we generally noted by 1927. He wears a collar buttoning jaclet with an Eton-like colla and knee pants that do not match the jacket. He also wears white long stockings and rather unsusual buckle shoes. A reader writes, "I think the boys stockings are light tan and not white because the collar is white and it looks different." I'm not sure white stockings will look precisely the same as a white collar, but our reader may be correct. If the stockings are a fawn or light brown thy certainly seem a very light shade. Another reader writes, "I agree with the other reader. The boy here is wearing light beige rather than white stockings. Notice the difference between the white color of the boy's collar and the slightly darker stockings."

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Main German first day individual boy page]
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Created: 12:35 AM 8/16/2006
Last updated: 12:36 AM 8/16/2006