Staatliches Landschulheim Marquartstein

Staatliches Landschulheim Marquartstein is a Gymnasium with a science and technology and a language branch. One quarter of the 850 pupils lives in the boarding school while the rest comes from the area around Marquartstein in the Chiemgau.Hermann Harless founded the boarding school in 1928. From 1928 till 1958 the school was located in the Marquartstein castle and then moved into the new castle (Neues Schloß).HistoryHermann 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.