Nurnberg American High School 2.63

Nürnberg American High School was a Department of Defense Dependents Schools system school located near Nürnberg Germany. One of DoDDS original five high schools in Germany, the school served the children of American military, government and civilian personnel from 1946 until its closing in 1995.HistoryIn October 1946, only a year and a half after the Allied forces defeated the German Third Reich, American dependents of high school age in the Nürnberg area began school in a former private residence in Erlangen, a university town nearby.The freshmen met in the dining room, the sophomores in the living room, and the juniors and seniors had classes upstairs in bedrooms, according to Ed Thompson, who was there as a freshman student. About 70 students were enrolled. After Thanksgiving, classes were moved into the Science Building at Erlangen University.Though textbooks and supplies were hard come by, the faculty of eight and a teaching principal offered the core curriculum of the time. The students responded to their straitened circumstances by writing a constitution for their student council, organizing student assemblies, and holding a number of dances, including that staple of American high schools, the junior-senior prom. Beginning in January 1947, the students had a weekly mimeographed newspaper and ended the year by publishing a mimeographed yearbook. During the spring some students had an unusual educational opportunity in that they took field trips to sessions of the Nürnberg War Trials. In June, all the seniors in the five high schools in Germany (about 100) were given a cruise down the Rhine, a tradition that was to continue for several years. Eight students graduated that first year in a combined ceremony with Munich American High School held at the Haus der Kunst in Munich.