Alsfeld teaches!Opening of the first secondary school in Alsfeld

Alsfeld’s school tradition goes back at least to the 13th century. As early as 1270, a Latin school was mentioned on the church square opposite the Walpurgis Church, and a new school building was erected there in 1508. Despite significant reforms in the school system in the 16th and 17th centuries, however, this type of school declined for various reasons.

Everywhere higher schools are founded, which want to impart more “real and practical knowledge”. With the governmental decision of 1837 the previous form of Latin school came to an end.

Subsequently, the idea of a Realschule as a public higher school gained increasing support. Thanks to the efforts of Mayor Gerhard Jakob Ramspeck and some committed Alsfeld citizens, the Grand Ducal Ministry of the Interior decreed on April 17, 1860, that a Realschule be established in Alsfeld.

The place of instruction was to be the lower floor of the second rectory in Schnepfenhain. The ceremonial opening took place on January 7, 1861. In 1907/08 the school was upgraded to a “full institution”, i.e. an upper secondary school, and in 1909 it was able to overcome its previous spatial constriction with a stately new building on Schillerstraße.

Since 1956, the grammar school has borne the name “Albert Schweitzer School”. NH