History

The first references to a Latin school in Lingen date back to around 1570.

On 22 January 1680, William III of Orange established an "illustrious Latin school of the first rank" – this date is considered the founding date of the secondary school in Lingen.

In 1697, the school was expanded into the Gymnasium Academicum, a small university with professors and students, most of whom came from the Netherlands. The academic sceptre of this "Hohen Gymnasium" is still in the possession of the Georgianum today.

With Lingen's transition to the Kingdom of Hanover, the high school lost its importance; in 1819, the government decided to abolish it.

At Easter 1820, a new "co-educational" grammar school is established, where Protestant and Catholic pupils learn together – for years the smallest grammar school in the Kingdom of Hanover.

In 1830, the school was granted the status of a first-class grammar school with the right to award the Abitur school-leaving certificate, and in 1832, the first pupils took their final exams.

On 12 October 1859, the grammar school moved to a new building on Gymnasialstraße. King George V of Hanover was present at the inauguration; in his honour, the school was named "Gymnasium Georgianum".

In the second half of the 19th century, the number of pupils grew significantly; in 1880, the Gymnasial Turn- und Ruderverein (GTRV) was founded, which continues to shape the Georgianum's special sporting tradition to this day.

In 1930, the school building was expanded to mark its 250th anniversary, and a new gymnasium was built. The Nazi era left its mark, for example in political conflicts between groups of pupils and expulsions.

On 26 September 1958, the school moved to a larger building on Heidekampstraße in response to rising pupil numbers after the Second World War.

The school continued to grow in the 1960s: in 1968, the modern languages branch was spun off as a separate grammar school, the Johanneum, while the Georgianum continued as a classical grammar school.

From 1972 onwards, the upper schools of both grammar schools cooperated closely with each other ("Lingen model").

In the summer of 1998, the Georgianum moved to its current location on Kardinal-von-Galen-Straße.

On 1 August 2009, the Georgianum and Johanneum were merged again to form the Georgianum grammar school – with a broad linguistic, scientific, sporting and musical-artistic profile.

Today, the Georgianum is a modern secondary school located in the school centre on Kardinal-von-Galen-Straße. It continues its tradition dating back to 1680 and combines it with current educational priorities – from languages and STEM subjects to sports and music to gifted education.

Thanks to the merger in 2009 and the continuous expansion of the school centre, around 1,200 pupils from Lingen and the surrounding area now attend the school; the exact number varies from year to year.