 |
 |
 |
The first mention of a school in Handschuhsheim was in the orphanage rules dating from 1588 in which it was stated that the boys living in the orphanage (not the girls) had to attend the village school. At the time, this village school was Protestant (“Reformed”), in accordance with the religious affiliation of the majority of the inhabitants. A Roman Catholic teacher was mentioned for the first time in 1636, and, after an agreement was reached in 1650 between the Prince Electors of the Palatinate and Mainz, guaranteeing equality of Roman Catholics and Protestants, there were both Protestant and Catholic schools and teachers in Handschuhsheim.
(photo: Tiefburg archives)
Both religions had their schoolhouses near to St.Vitus Church, which had been used as a simultaneum church by both religions since 1650. The Protestant schoolhouse was always the larger of the two because there were always more Protestant pupils than Roman Catholic ones. The Protestant school on this site was extended several times or even rebuilt. The last new build was in 1862.
Schools used to be run by the church, but this changed in 1877 when the so-called community school was introduced in Baden. The Catholic schoolhouse was in a very poor state and so now Catholic children also attended the Protestant schoolhouse. It soon began to burst at the seams, at times with 400 children being taught in four classrooms!
Due to disagreement over finances between the authorities and the church, it took until 1896 before the construction of a new community school in Kriegsstrasse started. As soon as the new school opened, it was already too small and rooms in the old school still had to be used. Many children from Handschuhsheim had to walk to school in neighbouring Neuenheim. This situation came to an end in 1957 when the new Heiligenberg School was opened in Berliner Strasse.
Nothing remains of the former Catholic school in this street and square, but the Protestant schoolhouse built in 1862 has almost the same outward appearance today. It became a nursery in 1959 and then a private residence in 2005. (bm)