Schule Schloss Salem celebrates 100 years plus three!
Last month Schule Schloss Salem held belated celebrations
for its 2020 centenary, delayed due to the pandemic.
Along with students, staff, alumni and board members, VIP guests
included the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried
Kretschmann and Margrave Bernhard of Baden and his wife
and family. The Margrave’s grandfather was one of the
school’s founders and Bernhard of Baden is also the school’s
patron.
In April 1920, Kurt Hahn and Prince Max of Baden (among
others) founded the school with the idea of bringing young
people from all over the world together. Following World
War 1, the idea was to create a new intellectual and
academic elite to learn from each other and find solutions to
the world’s problems. One hundred years later, these ideas
are still as relevant as they were in the 1920s.
Salem’s founding aim was to implement a new and better
kind of education. In the 1930s its co-founder Kurt Hanh
defined seven principles of education including giving young
people the chance to discover themselves and face
challenges; putting pursuit of common good before personal
ambition and making time for silence. Salem pupils are
passionate about democracy and have a tradition of being
open minded and fostering international understanding.
“Schule Schloss Salem was founded in a time of uncertainty
and the idea behind the foundation was to reflect on
citizenship and to see it as the centre of education,” said
Henrik Fass, the school’s principal. “One hundred years later,
those foundations are still relevant. Today’s celebration is an
opportunity to pause and reflect on the founding idea of this
school and how we can carry it into the next century.”
The May 26th celebrations also included two more
anniversaries: the 40th anniversary of the Kurt Hahn
foundation, and the tenth anniversary of Salem Kolleg on the
shores of Lake Constance.
