Usingen Castle

The Christian-Wirth-Schule (CWS), housed in the castle, is named after the Prussian state director and member of parliament Friedrich Christian Wirth, who earned merit through his commitment to establishing Usingen as the district town of the Usingen district.

In addition to the actual castle building, further annexes have been built in the former castle garden. The school is a grammar school with special musical promotion and has approximately 1,400 students. Every two years, at the end of November, the Winter Festival takes place, to which former students and teachers are invited.

As early as 1851, the castle was used as a school. At that time, a teacher training institution for Protestant seminarians was established as a precursor to today's Christian-Wirth-Schule. During the First World War, the castle was used as a military hospital. In 1922, after a dispute about the school type, the first "Aufbauklasse" (preparatory class) was established. Since 1950, the school has offered classes from the 7th grade onwards. In 1960, the "Förderstufe" (orientation stage) was introduced. In the 1970s, students and teachers long resisted the plans of Minister of Culture Ludwig von Friedeburg to compulsorily establish a comprehensive school. In 1976, the CWS was merged with Hauptschule and Realschule into an additive comprehensive school. However, the individual school types remained intact and were only organizationally combined. According to the SPD state government, this was intended to be a preliminary stage for the formation of an integrated comprehensive school. With the state election in Hesse in 1987, however, the CDU prevailed and was able to enforce its demand for school freedom (i.e., the freedom of choice between comprehensive school (here the ARS in Neu-Anspach) and a differentiated school system (here the CWS / KLS in Usingen). With the school year 1988/89, the grammar school section became an independent school again.

The CWS has been extensively expanded in several stages. After student numbers rose massively in the 1970s, additional classrooms were housed in pavilions in the school garden in the mid-1980s. With the abolition of the "Förderstufe" in Hesse, additional 5th and 6th grades were introduced. The associated space requirements made extension buildings unavoidable. Thus, the toilet building in the schoolyard was demolished and a new building was erected, which was connected to the old central building by a bridge. The former science classrooms were newly accessed by the addition of a staircase. A new building with classrooms was built in place of the pavilions. Sports facilities were also massively expanded. While sports lessons used to take place in the former princely stables (disrespectfully but accurately called "Bruchbude" by the students), a new gymnasium was built at the end of the 1980s, and 15 years later, a second modern sports hall was built below the Taunusbad.

In March 2010, the new canteen with a small auditorium was opened.