Staatliches Landschulheim Marquartstein

History

Hermann Harless worked together with Hermann Lietz the founder of the German Landerziehungsheime für Jungen. In his concept education was not pure knowledge transfer, but had to deal with the student has a whole. Most of the Landerziehungsheime or Landschulheime were located far from the big cities to minimize the influence on the children.

Harless worked with Paul Geheeb at Odenwaldschule until 1920. Then he joined the Neuen deutschen Schule (New German School) of Alexander Sutherland Neill, who later founded the progressive Summerhill School. The "Neue deutschen Schule" had been founded by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze 1910 in Hellerau. After the closure of the school in 1923, Harless opened his own school in Marquartstein with 16 students in 1928. The concept of mixed classes and a boarding school for girls and boys at the same location was only undertaken by a few schools in Germany, such as Landschulheim Herrlingen. Due to a rising number of students, Harless was allowed to hold the Abitur tests at his private school in 1940. Normally, private school students had to take the tests at a nearby public school.

Hermann Harless was director of the school until the forced nationalization by the NS on May 1, 1943. The school's system of mixed boarding school with co-educational classes was left unchanged during the time of Nazi Germany. The boarding school for girls was closed by a ministerial decree in 1949. Due to low number of boarding pupils, the girls' branch was reopened in 1989.

Locations

From its foundation in 1928 until 1958, lessons were given at the Burg Marquartstein castle. The students attending the boarding school lived in 2 farms. The "Nockerhof", located in Marquatstein (boys) and the "Gut Sossau" in Sossau, about 10 km (6.25 miles) away from the initial school (girls). That obviously lead to some issues transporting the students to the school and back every morning and evening. With this problem and the fact that the castle was not initially built as a school, the entire institution eventually moved to the "Neues Schloss" (new castle), which is located about 430 m (0.27 miles) south from the old castle at the bottom of "Hochgern" mountain. The building was bought after 7 years of renting in 1965. It has been used as the primary building for lessons until in 1994, a new wing was added directly to the castle which, besides normal classrooms, contains specific areas for biology, chemistry and physics. The two building add up to a total of 29 classrooms which are still in daily use. In 2006, another four classrooms were added slightly above the castle-complex.

Further above the school-complex is the boarding school. For grades 5 to 10 there are two big, hotel-like buildings that are constantly watched by teachers. Slightly down the hill the school is located on, there's the "Schöneck" mansion, an old mansion that is used as the boarding school for male students above 10th grade. Next to the two big boarding school buildings, there is a refectory with a subterranean kitchen and a ceremonial hall where major school-related events are held at. It is also used as a theater-hall several times a year.

Since the entire complex is located at the bottom of a mountain, there is a constant gradient throughout the area which leads to some subterranean and semi-subterranean parts of the school.

Former pupils