Goethe-Gymnasium is a gymnasium (secondary school) named after notable Frankfurt native Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). It is situated in the Westend of the city of Frankfurt am Main in Germany, near the Hauptbahnhof. It is currently the only state funded school in Germany that offers students the option of taking International Baccalaureate examinations. The Goethe-Gymnasium offers Japanese as a third foreign language, which is rare in Germany.

History

The Städtisches Gymnasium was founded in 1520, and split into the Goethe-Gymnasium and the Lessing-Gymnasium in 1897. Thus, both schools descend directly from the city's oldest school. The school building was severely damaged by bombing in 1944. The new building designed by the architects Zitter and Kempf was dedicated in 1959. In 1969, the Goethe-Gymnasium became the first school in Hesse to offer bilingual lessons in German and English.

Curriculum

Students can study numerous languages, including English, French, Latin, Russian and Japanese. The bilingual stream offers additional subjects taught in English, such as history, geography, philosophy, biology and social sciences. Further, students can choose to study Latin or French at the same time as English, beginning in grade 5, which is exceptional among state-funded secondary schools in Germany. The Goethe-Gymnasium has been an International Baccalaureate World School since January 1972. Students can choose to take IB exams in addition to the traditional

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

. Students can join the school's choir, chamber choir, flute orchestra, and two symphony orchestras. The school owns a cottage in Oberreifenberg, the Taunus mountain range, and it is a tradition for students to spend a week there twice a year. The school's orchestras spend their intense rehearsal periods there and final year students go there to study for their exams.

School exchange visits

The Goethe-Gymnasium operates a program of exchange visits with partner schools in the following countries: * England (

Anglo European School Anglo European School is a self-governing, co-educational international academy school situated in Ingatestone, Essex. It is a school for boys and girls of all abilities, with 1,306 pupils aged 11 to 19. It was the first state school in Britain ...

Ingatestone Ingatestone is a village and former civil parish in Essex, England, with a population of 5,365 inhabitants according to the 2011 census. Just north lies the village of Fryerning, the two forming now the parish of Ingatestone and Fryerning. Ing ...

) * France * United States * Russia * Japan * India * Kosovo * Morocco

Notable alumni

* Hans Bethe, physicist *

Michel Friedman Julien Michel Friedman (; born 25 February 1956 in Paris) is a German author, former CDU politician and talk show host. From 2000 to 2003 Friedman was vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and president of the European Jewish ...

, politician *

Richard Goldschmidt Richard Benedict Goldschmidt (April 12, 1878 – April 24, 1958) was a German-born American geneticist. He is considered the first to attempt to integrate genetics, development, and evolution. He pioneered understanding of reaction norms, gen ...

, geneticist *

Erich Klibansky Erich Klibansky (28 November 1900 in Frankfurt am Main – 24 July 1942 near Minsk) was headmaster and teacher of Jawne, the first Jewish Gymnasium of Rhineland in Cologne. Life Klibansky, who came from a family of rabbis originally located in Li ...

, headmaster *

Thor Kunkel Thor Kunkel, a German author, was born in Frankfurt am Main on 2 September 1963. Kunkel claims to have spent his youth associating with drug friends and American soldiers stationed in the then West Germany. In 1981, on a scholarship to the United S ...

, author *

Kurt Lipstein Kurt Lipstein QC (19 March 1909 – 2 December 2006) was a German-born legal scholar. Of Jewish descent, Lipstein emigrated after the Machtergreifung. Lipstein was a renowned specialist in Roman law and conflict of laws within private internationa ...

, legal scholar * Leo Löwenthal, sociologist * Richard Plant, professor of German and author *

Christine Schäfer Christine Schäfer (born 3 March 1965) is a German operatic soprano. Biography Schäfer was born in Frankfurt. She studied from 1984 until 1991 at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin, where her teachers were Ingrid Figur, Aribert Reimann and D ...

, soprano *

Britta Böhler Britta Böhler (17 July 1960 in Freiburg im Breisgau, West Germany) is a Dutch lawyer in international law and human rights, and a former member of the Dutch Senate for the GreenLeft Party. She was born in West Germany and became a Dutch citizen ...

, lawyer and member of the Dutch Senate

References

External links

*http://www.gg-ffm.de/ {{Coord, 50, 06, 40, N, 8, 39, 31, E, display=title, region:DE-HE_type:edu_source:dewiki International Baccalaureate schools in Germany Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Educational institutions established in 1897 1897 establishments in Germany Schools in Frankfurt