Musterschule

The Musterschule is a gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main. It was founded on 18 April 1803 by Wilhelm Friedrich Hufnagel as a Realschule and is Frankfurt's second oldest higher school after the Lessing Gymnasium. It received the name Musterschule due to being an experimental and progressive school based on Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi's educational ideas. In accordance with this tradition, the school has been named a "center for music education and gifted education" by the Hessian ministry of culture. Since the 19th century, it has been renowned throughout Germany and abroad as a progressive Realgymnasium. The Musterschule is a neighbour of the Philanthropin, the renowned Jewish school founded by Mayer Amschel Rothschild, which is found on the other side of Eckenheimer Landstraße.HistoryThe school was founded as a private school, after Wilhelm Friedrich Hufnagel, Friedrich Maximilian von Günderrode and Simon Moritz von Bethmann had collected funds for this purpose. Its first teacher was Friedrich Vertraugott Klitscher (1772–1809), a supporter of Pestalozzi. The school initially had nine pupils and was located in Rotkreuzgasse 6. From its foundation the school was coeducational and thus had both male and female pupils. The initial tuitition fee was 15 Gulden, from 1807 25 Gulden.