St. Thomas School of Leipzig Thomasschule zu Leipzig Schola Thomana Lipsiensis | |
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Location | |
Hillerstraße 7 04109 Leipzig Germany | |
Coordinates | 51°20′13″N12°21′36″E / 51.33694°N 12.36000°E |
Information | |
Type | Public Boarding School |
Religious affiliation(s) | Lutheran. (From 1212 to 1539 Catholic; Lutheran since the Protestant Reformation) |
Patron saint(s) | Thomas the Apostle |
Established | 1212 |
Founder | Augustinians |
Superintendent | Burgomaster Prof. Dr. phil. Thomas Fabian (University of Applied Sciences), Alderman for Youth, Social, Health and School |
Principal | Michael Rietz |
Chaplain | Christian Wolff |
Staff | 70 |
Grades | 5 to 12 |
Gender | coed, Boys' choir |
Age | 10to 18 |
Number of students | 700 |
Language | German |
Classrooms | 37 |
Campus | Forum Thomanum |
Campus type | Urban |
Colour(s) | Green and white |
Newspaper | Kasten Journal |
Graduates (2007) | 87 |
Alumni | Old Thomaner |
Alumni | Thomanerbund |
Chair | Christoph M. Haufe |
Choir | Thomanerchor |
Cantor | Andreas Reize |
Website | thomasschule |
St. Thomas School, Leipzig (German : Thomasschule zu Leipzig; Latin : Schola Thomana Lipsiensis) is a co-educational and public boarding school in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1212 and is one of the oldest schools in the world.
St. Thomas is known for its art, language and music education. Johann Sebastian Bach held the position of Thomaskantor from 1723 until his death in 1750. His responsibilities included providing young musicians for church services in Leipzig. The Humanistic Gymnasium has a very long list of distinguished former students, including Richard Wagner (1813–1883) and many members of the Bach family, including Johann Sebastian Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788).
From the 800-Year Anniversary Celebration in 2012 the Thomanerchor and St. Thomas School has been part of Forum Thomanum, an internationally oriented educational campus.
St. Thomas School was founded in 1212 by Margrave Dietrich von Meißen (1162–1221) making it among the oldest schools in Europe. It was run as schola pauperum, meaning a free school intended to benefit the poor, by the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. The St. Thomas Church was founded with the school. The St. Thomas School is first mentioned in documents dating to 1254.
In 1539 the city of Leipzig took over ownership of the school. All members (Thomaner) of the boys choir (Thomanerchor) attend the school along with other pupils. The Thomaner live in the school's own boarding school, Thomasalumnat.
The school's first building was in the present courtyard of the St. Thomas Church. In 1553 an outbuilding was built there. During Johann Sebastian Bach's time as Thomaskantor these buildings were extended; in 1829 they were reconstructed. In 1877 a new building was erected in the Schreberstraße to meet a shortage of space. In 1881 a new building for the boarding school was finished.
The school was used as a barracks by a Freikorps unit during the Kapp Putsch. The staff had little sympathy for Friedrich Ebert's government. [1]
During the Nazi era the school continued its normal curricula. The school endured the bombings of the night of 3 December 1943 with only the gym and the buildings across from the boarding school being destroyed. The then-rector, Günther Ramin, decided to move the choir boys to the Königlich Sächsische Fürsten- und Landesschule Sankt Augustin school in Grimma. Because of this, and because most of the older students were enlisted, the University of Leipzig was allowed to use the school's building for its own purposes. The rector's decision to move the choir boys was proved right during the bombings of 20 February 1944 when the school's buildings were destroyed. After that, the remaining pupils attended 41. Volksschule on the Hillerstraße. At some stage, the choir boys rejoined these pupils at Hillerstraße.
In 1973 the school moved into a new building in the Pestalozzistraße (now Telemannstraße), but the boarding school remained in the Hillerstraße. The new communist regime in East Germany tried to make an exemplar atheist school out of St. Thomas school, but the church's influence was immense.[ citation needed ]
After the German reunification in 1990 the pupil's numbers increased. Since 2008 the school offers its students mathematics, natural sciences, music, and linguistic courses.
In September 2000 the school moved into the restored original building on the Hillerstraße. In 2008, there were 485 pupils and 67 teachers. Prior to 1973, all the Thomaskantors were also teachers at the school and the president of the choir was also the school's rector. Since 1973 those roles have been separated.
Cultivating classical languages is an old tradition at St. Thomas School. All students study Latin as their first or second foreign language, including the Qualification in Latin (Latinum). Combined with the modern language English the pupils learn fundamental foreign language skills. Although there are offered advanced courses (Leistungskurse) in those subjects. Interested students are welcome to take the First Certificate in English (FCE). The tradition of the school and its roots in European culture are the motive for providing Ancient Greek classes from 8th grade as well as a Qualification in Greek (Graecum). Also St. Thomas offers Romance languages, like French and Italian.
Student exchange programs and stays in Europe and in Anglo-America are possible.
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was a German composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was the second child and eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. Despite his acknowledged genius as an improviser and composer, his income and employment were unstable, and he died in poverty.
Johann Adam Hiller was a German composer, conductor and writer on music, regarded as the creator of the Singspiel, an early form of German opera. In many of these operas he collaborated with the poet Christian Felix Weiße.
The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig (German: Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig) is a public university in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn as the Conservatorium der Musik (Conservatory of Music), it is the oldest university school of music in Germany.
The St. Thomas Church is a Lutheran church in Leipzig, Germany, located at the western part of the inner city ring road in Leipzig's central district. Martin Luther preached in the church in 1539. It is associated with several well-known composers, especially Johann Sebastian Bach, who was its Thomaskantor from 1723 until his death in 1750. The church holds his remains.
Georg Friedrich Kauffmann was a Baroque composer and organist from northern-central Germany who composed primarily sacred works for the organ and voice.
The Thomanerchor is a boys' choir in Leipzig, Germany. The choir was founded in 1212. The choir comprises about 90 boys from 9 to 18 years of age. The members, called Thomaner, reside in a boarding school, the Thomasalumnat and attend the St. Thomas School, Leipzig, a Gymnasium school with a linguistic profile and a focus on musical education. The younger members attend the primary school Grundschule Forum Thomanum or Anna-Magdalena-Bach-Schule. Johann Sebastian Bach served as Thomaskantor, director of the choir and church music in Leipzig, from 1723 to 1750.
Montgomery Rufus Karl Siegfried Straube was a German church musician, organist, and choral conductor, famous above all for championing the abundant organ music of Max Reger.
Wilhelm Rust was a German musicologist and composer. He is most noted today for his substantial contributions to the Bach Gesellschaft edition of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Günther Werner Hans Ramin was an influential German organist, conductor, composer and pedagogue in the first half of the 20th century.
Kurt Georg Hugo Thomas was a German composer, conductor and music educator.
Klaus Mertens is a German bass and bass-baritone singer who is known especially for his interpretation of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach for bass voice.
Georg Christoph Biller was a German choral conductor. He conducted the Thomanerchor as the sixteenth Thomaskantor since Johann Sebastian Bach from 1992 to 2015. He was also a baritone, an academic teacher, and a composer. Active as Thomaskantor after the German reunification, Biller returned the Thomanerchor to its original focus on church music. He was instrumental in the new buildings for the choir's boarding school, the Forum Thomanum, and in the celebration of its 800th anniversary in 2012.
Gustav Ernst Schreck was a German music teacher, composer and choirmaster of St. Thomas School, Thomasschule zu Leipzig, in Leipzig from 1893 to 1918.
Erhard Mauersberger was a German choral conductor who conducted the Thomanerchor as the 14th Thomaskantor since Johann Sebastian Bach. He was also an academic teacher and composer.
Thomaskantor is the common name for the musical director of the Thomanerchor, now an internationally known boys' choir founded in Leipzig in 1212. The official historic title of the Thomaskantor in Latin, Cantor et Director Musices, describes the two functions of cantor and director. As the cantor, he prepared the choir for service in four Lutheran churches, Thomaskirche, Nikolaikirche, Neue Kirche and Peterskirche. As director, he organized music for city functions such as town council elections and homages. Functions related to the university took place at the Paulinerkirche. Johann Sebastian Bach was the most famous Thomaskantor, from 1723 to 1750.
Gotthold Schwarz is a German Bass-baritone and conductor. Based in Leipzig, he started as a member of the Thomanerchor and has conducted the Gewandhausorchester. Between 2016 and 2021, he was the 17th Thomaskantor after Johann Sebastian Bach.
Clemens Flämig is a German conductor and Stadtsingechores zu Halle. In 2016, in the course of a selection procedure, he was shortlisted alongside Markus Teutschbein for the 17th Thomanerchor after Johann Sebastian Bach.
Regina Werner-Dietrich is a German operatic soprano and vocal pedagogue. She is professor emerita of classical singing at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig.
The Forum Thomanum is a music educational campus developed from 2002 in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany, as the new home of the Thomanerchor which was founded in 1212. It was conceived in 2002 by Georg Christoph Biller, then Thomaskantor, and others, to provide an internationally oriented innovative campus for a future of the traditional choir which was defined until then by Thomaskirche and Thomasschule.
Bernhard Friedrich Richter was a German church musician in Leipzig, holding the position of Thomaskantor interim in 1892–93. He was also a Bach scholar.