Kloster Berge school

Kloster Berge school
Location
Magdeburg Germany
Information
School type	Gymnasium
Opened	mid-16th century
Closed	1810
Pupils	c.150

The Kloster Berge school or Berge monastery school was a gymnasium at the Kloster Berge (Berge Abbey or Berge Monastery) at Buckau on the outskirts of Magdeburg, Germany which was founded in the mid-16th century and during its heyday from 1660 to 1806 was known for the quality of its education.

Both Thietmar of Merseburg in the 10th century and Herkus Monte in the 13th are said to have been educated at the monastery.

However, the first clear mention of boys being schooled there dates to 1563, and the actual school was founded as part of the re-establishment of the monastery beginning in 1559, after the Schmalkaldic War. During this period, in 1565, it also ceased to be a Benedictine abbey and became Lutheran like the city of Magdeburg. The formal opening of the school was therefore in 1565, as a Lutheran foundation. The school opened with 12 pupils, all on scholarship. At the outset, the teacher was paid 20 Thalers, 2 shirts, a pair of shoes and a pair of slippers per year plus bed and board. Instruction appears to have been restricted to the medieval trivium and quadrivium, and took place in the cloister of the parsonage until one schoolmaster hanged himself there and it was moved to a specially built round tower.

In 1625 Magdeburg was stricken by plague, parents withdrew their children, and the school was closed. The monastery was sacked and destroyed during the Thirty Years' War. The school was re-established in 1660 with 6 pupils and although an unsuccessful court case was brought against the abbot in 1665 for excessive disciplining of 3 unruly pupils, starting in 1686 it was enlarged and reorganised as a gymnasium, preparing pupils for university study with a curriculum of religion, mathematics, history, geography, rhetoric, logic, poetry, moral philosophy, ars humaniora and fine arts, and came to be regarded as one of Germany's best schools. It reached its height of fame in the mid-18th century, under Abbot Johann Adam Steinmetz. The school was particularly known for its instruction in ancient and modern languages. At that time the school had 40–50 new pupils a year and a total student body of over 150, and noble families from all over the Holy Roman Empire and beyond sent their sons to be educated there.Goethe visited the monastery and praised the school and Steinmetz.

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