29.8.2025

This week, we became a member of the "We Friends of the Cathedral’s secondary school" association in Fulda. Not only did the founder graduate from high school there 40 years ago and fondly remember that time, but it's also Fulda's oldest school and its only humanistic secondary school.

Wikipedia: "In 748, Sturmius founded a monastery school in Fulda Monastery, from which the Cathedral’s secondary school later developed. Rabanus Maurus (780–856), the current patron saint, was initially a student, later a teacher at the monastery school, and from 822 to 842, abbot. Under his leadership, Fulda became an important center of the Carolingian Renaissance initiated by Charlemagne. In the course of the Counter-Reformation, the school was run by the Jesuits as a secondary school from 1572 onwards. In 1734, Prince Abbot Adolph von Dalberg founded the University of Fulda (Adolph University), and in 1773, a princely secondary school was established. After secularization, these educational institutions were dissolved in 1805 by William Frederick of Orange-Nassau, and instead, an academic lyceum and secondary school was founded, which became a humanistic secondary school from 1835 onwards. Due to constant changes in political affiliation in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Gymnasium in 1835 was run as an electoral school, from 1866 as a royal school, and in 1918 as a state school. In 1945, it was renamed the State Cathedral secondary school and, since 1948, the Rabanus-Maurus School. In 1968, the school moved from the building of the former University of Fulda in the city center to a new building in what is now the school district.

Since 1835, the school has been run as a humanistic grammar school. Humanism is derived from the Latin word "humanitas," which translates as "humanity." It is based, in general, on a mentality that assumes that human beings are capable of finding a better way of life through their own efforts. It proposes a social ideal that should enable every person to develop their own personality to the fullest. Humanism also refers, in particular, to a broad educational movement of the Renaissance that drew on ancient ideas and emphasized the optimal development of human abilities through knowledge and virtue. The humanistic approach to life stood in contrast to the traditional medieval view of humanity, which was strongly focused on God and the afterlife.

The Cathedral’s secondary school has over a thousand students, emphasizes the importance of ancient languages for cultural education, and offers Latin as a first foreign language starting in 5th grade and Greek starting in 8th grade.

We look forward to further collaboration.