Schnepfenthal Salzmann School

Located on the northern slopes of the Thuringian Forest, the school is in Waltershausen in the district of Gotha, near Castle Reinhardsbrunn.

The linguist and theologian Christian Gotthilf Salzmann founded the school in 1784, with the intention to focus on languages, practical work and physical exercise. Salzmann was an influential theorist in childhood education, and his treatise 'Elements of Morality' was translated into the English language by the 18th century British feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft. In the book Child of the Enlightenment,[4] Rotterdam University professors Arianne Baggerman and Rudolf Dekker stated:

"We know a lot about the ideological basis of Salzmann's school, because he outlined it in a detailed prospectus published in 1785. He began by stating that for the last fifteen years, people had been waking up to the fact that much of the 'wretchedness and misery' in the world had been caused by a misspent education. Like the other philanthropists, he was keenly aware of being an innovator. He chose the village of Schnepfenthal because, he said, it was 'not situated so close to the city that it could be badly influenced by it, yet it was close enough to allow the pupils to associate with upright, enlightened and cultivated people'."

The support of the Freemasons of Gotha and the patronage of Leopold III, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau were also integral to the founding of the school.[5] Leopold III was a noted liberal and social reformer, who also supported the founding of the first Jewish newspaper in Germany.[6]

Since its early days, the school was internationally known as a pioneer in education and was visited by many pedagogues and intellectuals including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Christoph Martin Wieland.[7][8] The husband of Queen Victoria, Albert, Prince Consort, was frequently sent there as a boy to play with the students.[9]

Some of the people who have taught or studied there include [10]

• Christian Carl Andre, leading 19th century European naturalist and pioneer of the biological concept of heredity whose vision paved the way for the research of Gregor Mendel, the founder of modern genetics[11]
• Hans Domizlaff, the only disciple of the artist Max Klinger; Germany's first guru on advertising and public branding; instrumental in helping Carl Friedrich von Siemens establish Siemens as a mass market consumer brand in the 1930s[12]
• Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths, founder of modern gymnastics whose ideas were adopted by schools and universities throughout Britain and the United States in the 19th century
• Edward C. Hegeler, wealthy German-American industrialist and philanthropist; founded The Monist, one of America's oldest and most important journals on philosophy[13]
• Christian Paulsen, law professor, politician and Danish nationalist[14]
• Carl Ritter, founder of scientific geography; co-founder of the Geographic Society of Berlin; mentored explorers such as America geographer and Princeton professor Arnold Guyot, China explorer Ferdinand von Richthofen, and Africa explorer Heinrich Barth
• Ferdinand Springer, businessman who inherited a four-employee firm and with his father Julius Springer built it into the world's largest publisher of science, technology and medicine journals; Springer Science + Business was acquired by BC Partners in 2013 for €3.3 billion.[15][16][17][18]
• Herbert Beerbohm Tree, English actor-manager, was educated at the school[19]

• Landesgymnasium für Hochbegabte Schwäbisch Gmünd, in Baden-Württemberg
• Internatsschule Schloss Hansenberg, in Hesse
• Landesschule Pforta, in Saxony-Anhalt
• Landesgymnasium St. Afra, in Saxony

• Website of the Salzmannschule Schnepfenthal