Look for the mix-and-match school complex: an older red-brick building with classic window frames on the left, connected to a newer peach-and-silver modern wing on the right.
Alright, you’re standing at the Franz-Ludwig-Gymnasium, or FLG if you want to sound like you’ve got a locker inside. What you’re seeing in front of you is basically Bamberg’s education story in architecture: tradition on the left, practical modern upgrades on the right… because even Latin needs decent stairwells.
This is a language-focused, humanistic high school, which in Germany means the classics aren’t just a decorative idea. We’re talking real Greek and Latin-languages that have a special talent for humbling teenagers and adults equally. The school started life on October 1st, 1890 as the “New Gymnasium,” Bamberg’s second academic high school. And “new” wasn’t just marketing. Back then the older gymnasium mainly served Catholic boys. This one, by order of the ministry, opened its doors wider: girls could attend… and so could Protestant and Jewish students. In 1890, that was a pretty serious statement-less “everyone’s welcome” slogan, more “we’re actually changing the rules.”
Now, the 1930s and 40s were the stress test. In 1938 the Nazis reshaped gymnasiums into so-called “German secondary schools.” A lot of traditions got bulldozed-intellectually, culturally, and tragically in human terms. But here’s a striking detail: this school was the only gymnasium in all of Upper Franconia that managed to keep the humanistic track alive through that period, still teaching Greek and Latin. That meant when 1945 arrived and Germany had to rebuild its institutions, this place didn’t need a total academic reinvention… it had stubbornly kept a thread of continuity.
By the early 1960s the school physically expanded-new construction filled in space between the main and rear buildings. And in 1963 the curriculum expanded too: alongside the traditional humanistic route, students could choose a modern language track-Latin, English, French. Two years later, in 1965, the school took the name Franz Ludwig von Erthal, a prince-bishop from the 1700s known as a reformer who pushed education and social improvements. Naming a school after him is Bamberg’s way of saying: we like our history… but we prefer it when history funds schools.
Over time, the place kept evolving. In the 1970s it adopted the then-new upper-level course system. In 1979 it also became a training site for future teachers-starting with German, history, and civics, and later adding more subjects. And because languages are kind of the school’s love language, offerings grew far beyond the basics: Spanish joined in, and at times even electives like Russian, Italian, and Chinese popped up. In 1998, they added yet another path with English as the first foreign language-because the world was shrinking, and homework was expanding.
One last bit of local flavor: until 1999, students from the archbishop’s boys’ seminary-the “Ottonianum”-were closely tied to this school. Also, for decades every headmaster was a classicist… which is either a fun coincidence or proof that Latin teachers eventually run everything.
When you’re ready, Schönleinsplatz is next-just walk west for about 4 minutes.
