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We are Salem

What makes our boarding school so special

About Salem there are many exciting stories, anecdotes and countless different ideas about real life in our boarding school. This does not surprise us, because a boarding school is a mysterious place for many people, and no matter how well one researches from outside, some questions always remain unanswered.

 

We have and convey entrepreneurial spirit

Many of our students already have the entrepreneurial spirit in their blood and bring it into our school community. Others only develop it in Salem and enrich our community with their social and cultural interests, and yet others shine with their technical and manual skills. Our mentors, tutors and teachers support and encourage each student individually, and in a multinational community an enormous variety of ideas and projects are created with entrepreneurial spirit.

All students have countless opportunities to try themselves, to find their passion, to critically question and to think outside the box every day.
In this way, children and young people in Salem learn quite intuitively to be courageous, to take responsibility for themselves and others and to face new challenges with confidence.

Philipp Kraiss
Final year 2000
Co-Founder & CEO of mymuesli GmbH

Violetta Betsch
Final year 2012
Doctor
Kurt-Hahn-Award 2013 for
MPAP - Multipurpose Aid Parcel

Patrick Birkle & Florian Langer
Final year 2015
Founders and CEOs of Emote Reality

We offer development opportunities like no other German boarding school

With over 500 students from more than 40 nations of the world, Salem is the largest and most international boarding school in Germany. Size and internationality alone are of course not a sign of quality, but we can offer all conceivable Abitur and IB courses. Salem is also unique in terms of on-site instrumental lessons, the number of extra-curricular activities and projects, sports and services (fire brigade, THW, Red Cross, DLRG, nautical services, etc.).  

Since the school was founded 100 years ago, our emergency and social services as well as our extracurricular activities have developed in a contemporary way. Thus our equipment, but also the training of the responsible adults, has been constantly optimised and new exciting social and environmental projects in Germany and overseas have been launched.

We combine state-of-the-art facilities with a unique historical setting

Years 5 - 10 live and learn at our founding location Schloss Salem, a former Cistercian monastery with a history of almost 900 years. This wonderful place offers a lot of space and inspiration for our educational and non-educational activities. Over the past four years, more than 20 million euros have been invested here to ensure optimal living and learning conditions for the students. With the participation of the alumni and parents we created:

  • a multi-functional assembly hall with permanent stage
  • a new MINT centre
  • a second sports hall and a new sports field with floodlights
  • three new boarding school wings and a modern learning centre with library

Years 11 & 12 live and learn at Schloss Spetzgart and on the Härlen campus, which has been awarded architecture prizes, and which together form Salem International College. This also includes their own harbour on Lake Constance in the immediate vicinity in order to be able to take full advantage of all conceivable water sports opportunities.

Here are a few impressions of our locations:

We are living tradition

Schule Schloss Salem was founded in 1920 by Prince Max von Baden, Kurt Hahn and Dr. Karl Reinhardt and became the nucleus of numerous other school foundations as well as educational initiatives with international appeal within a few decades, which are still effective today:

International Baccalaureate
When the International Baccalaureate (IB) was founded in 1968 under Hahn's influence, staff of the above-mentioned United World College designed its extra-curricular elements. Thus CAS (Creativity, Activitiy, Service) became an essential compulsory component of the IB - a reflection of the Salem ideal of commitment, self-awareness and social service. Over 5,000 schools worldwide now offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma as an international degree / university entrance qualification.

United World College (UWC)
Kurt Hahn developed the idea of United World Colleges after the terrible experiences of the Second World War and the Holocaust. Following on from Salem's special pedagogy, the aim was to bring together particularly gifted and capable young people from all over the world in order to overcome the Cold War between East and West. Today there are 18 United World Colleges where scholarship holders from more than 120 countries study together for two years and live for two years before finally passing the IB.

Duke of Edinburgh's International Award
Founded by Kurt Hahn and his former Salem pupil Prince Philip, the "Duke" is an international youth programme aimed at young people between the ages of 14 and 25, offering them opportunities for self-realisation, adventure, social commitment and the development of personal interests.

Round Square
On the occasion of Kurt Hahn's 80th birthday in June 1966, Jocelin Winthrop-Young, one of his first students, companion and then head of the boarding school in Salem, initiated the founding of an international association of schools. They should work according to Hahn's pedagogy and work together as a network. These are now 50 partner schools on five continents.

Outward Bound
In 1941 Kurt Hahn and Laurence Holt founded "Outward Bound" as a further development of Hahn's short-term schools. It became an international pioneer of challenging experiential education and enriching outdoor trainings with more than 6,000 participants per year today.

ZiS Study Trips
In 1956 the exchange programme of the French Fondation Zellidja was transferred to Germany on the initiative of the then headmaster of Salem, Georg Wilhelm Prinz von Hannover.

We are a friendship network

The Salem community does not end with schooling. Instead, every pupil has the opportunity to join the Altsalemer Vereinigung (ASV). In this largest organised alumni association in Germany, more than 4,000 Altsalemers now gather together to cultivate and enjoy their friendships up to a ripe old age at regular meetings.