Fruntimmersskolan i Viborg (Swedish for: 'The Women's School in Viborg'), also called ''Töchterschule'' (German for: 'The Daughters' School'), was a

Girls School Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...

in Viborg in Russian

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, active from 1788 until 1937. It was the first school for females in Finland,Gustav Dahl: Fruntimmersskolan i Viborg 1788-1905: några anteckningar om Finlands äldsta flickskola. Viborg: n 1905 and the first public secondary girls' school in the Nordic countries.

History

The school was founded in 1788 in the then Russian city of Viborg as a German school for boys, with a separate class for girls. The model was the

Petrischule Saint Peter's School (russian: Петришуле, german: Sankt-Petri-Schule), often referred to as Petrischule (the German transliteration of its Russian name) is a secondary school in St. Petersburg. It is one of the oldest educational instit ...

in Saint Petersburg. In 1805, the girls' school was given its own administration and the German name Töchterschule. From circa 1800, it came to be regarded as a teachers' training seminary for female teachers, and women who were active as school teachers around Saint Petersburg, Southern Finland and the Baltics were often trained at this school or one of its equivalents in the area. The school was reorganised in 1842 as ''Fruntimmersskolan i Viborg''. It was known by a Swedish name because the Swedish language was the language of the elite in Finland. After the foundation of this school, several similar schools for girls were founded around Finland modelled after it, such as those in Fredrikshamn,

Kexholm Priozersk (russian: Приозе́рск; fi, Käkisalmi; sv, Kexholm) is a town and the administrative center of Priozersky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the northwestern shore of Lake Ladoga, at the estuary of the northern a ...

and

Nyslott Savonlinna (, , ; sv, Nyslott, lit=New Castle) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and a Municipalities of Finland, municipality of inhabitants in the southeast of Finland, in the heart of the Saimaa lake region, which is why the city ...

. These schools were all founded in parts of Finland which belonged to Russia at the time. The first state secondary schools for females in Finland, founded in

Åbo Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, city and former Capital city, capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura (Archipelago Sea), Aura River, in the region of Southwest Finland, Finland Proper ...

and Helsinki in 1844, were modelled after this school. The first principal of the ''

Svenska fruntimmersskolan i Helsingfors Svenska fruntimmersskolan i Helsingfors ('Swedish Women's School of Helsinki') or only Svenska fruntimmersskolan ('Swedish Women's School') was a Girls' School in Helsinki in Finland, active from 1844 to 1974. Alongside its equivalent in Åbo ( fi ...

'', Amelia Ertmann, was a former student of the Fruntimmersskolan i Viborg. A new building was begun in 1882 and its 125th anniversary was celebrated in 2007.

References

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Other sources

* https://web.archive.org/web/20140714220809/http://www.uppslagsverket.fi/bin/view/Uppslagsverket/Flickskolor Educational institutions disestablished in 1937 Defunct schools in Russia Defunct schools in Finland Organizations based in Vyborg Educational institutions established in 1788 Girls' schools in Europe Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Leningrad Oblast