Ratsgymnasium Bielefeld

The Ratsgymnasium Bielefeld, founded in 1293 by Count Otto III. of Ravensberg as a Latin school, is a secondary school in Bielefeld in the district of Mitte.

The Ratsgymnasium Bielefeld is the oldest school in Bielefeld. The current state-city gymnasium traces its origins back to the Latin school of the Marienstift, whose founding document is dated July 14, 1293; the school is explicitly mentioned in it. The Ratsgymnasium, which has borne this name since 1964, is a classical-language gymnasium. In the centuries prior, names such as “Gymnasium” or “Municipal Gymnasium” were officially common. The Ratsgymnasium offers Latin as a core subject starting from the Sexta, which is the 5th grade, with English also being taught starting from the Sexta. The school is located at the edge of the historical old town of Bielefeld next to the Kunsthalle and its park. The oldest part of the current school building is the Grest’sche Hof, built in the style of Weser Renaissance, whose core walls date back to the late 13th or early 14th century, and on its northern side, there is a memorial plaque honoring Franz von Meinders. The earliest predecessor building of the school was located at Papenmarkt near the Neustädter Marienkirche on a property that belonged to the Stift's freedom. Since the city of Bielefeld gradually became Lutheran from the 16th century onwards without major conflicts, the school has maintained its tradition uninterrupted since 1293. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was assumed that the school was founded in 1558, which can be seen as an attempt to place the school within a distinctly Lutheran, Prussian tradition. Previous school anniversaries, most recently the 425th anniversary celebration in 1983, referred to the year 1558.

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