This year’s Cultural Evening took place on November 26. It featured a particularly varied program this year.

There was a radio play—by Ms. Fries’s 7th-grade class—self-written autumn poems illustrated with projected shadow puppets—also by Ms. Fries’s 7th-grade class—and a theater trailer—by Mr. Ullwer’s Q1 class—which offered a preview of an exciting performance coming this spring. Ms. Hohm’s bili 8 history class presented, in a very creative and humorous way, how Columbus came to discover America, Dr. Töhl-Borsdorf’s advanced chemistry class presented the story of Count Zeppelin both as a theatrical scene and as a scientific experiment complete with lots of noise and smoke, and two students from the current 9th grade class 9a, Sina Jeck and Janina Seip, presented an impressive video they had produced with great dedication last school year as part of an English project on racial discrimination in the U.S. under Ms. Wassum’s guidance. To round off the evening, the German honors class, led by Mr. Wagler, demonstrated how to imagine the dance that Goethe describes with great expertise in his epistolary novel *Werther* in a letter dated June 16. Also worth highlighting here are the outstanding musical performances of the evening, both of which were organized entirely by the students themselves: the band made up of students from Class 7b and the duo Alissa Thomas and Noah Herrmann. Both performances enchanted the audience and leave us hoping for a reunion—and the chance to hear them again—soon.

And we shouldn’t forget to mention the outstanding work of the technicians from “Sound and Light,” who probably broke a sweat a few times that evening.

 

On October 19, the fifteen unaccompanied minor refugees arrived at Steinmühle, accompanied by representatives from the youth welfare offices in Marburg and Frankfurt, as well as interpreters. The initial conversations focused on getting to know their new home and the staff there. The staff asked about the needs and wishes of the new Steinmühle students and were surprised to hear very soon: “A bike—that would be great!”

However, funding from the Youth Welfare Office did not seem possible. Fortunately, Principal Gemmer recalled the support and willingness to help shown by the Steinmühlen parents and launched a fundraising appeal via email.

It didn’t take long for the first positive responses to come in, once again confirming the great willingness of the Steinmühle parents to help. While the school administration gratefully accepted a few helmets and children’s bicycles donated by parents for the two 12-year-old students, an exceptionally generous offer from outside the school brought joy:

The company “Velociped Fahrradreisen” promised to donate 13 refurbished touring bikes that looked as good as new.

And Ms. Suntheim-Pichler promised to provide bicycle helmets on behalf of“Kaphingst.”

On November 5, 2015, Mr. Christian Rhode arrived at the Steinmühle schoolyard with his Velociped crew and 13 touring bikes. The bikes had been inspected at the workshop and fully refurbished. They were labeled with names, and the seat height and handlebar adjustment had already been customized for their future riders. Locks had also been provided.

After a few brief words of greeting and thanks, the bicycles found their young owners, who were delighted with their brand-new-looking bikes and immediately began getting to know them.

Road safety was also taken care of: Ms. Suntheim-Pichler from Kaphingst provided all new students with high-quality bicycle helmets, and Mr. Korbmacher from the Marburg Traffic Police invited them to a bicycle safety training session at the Großsportfeld facility.

Once again, the music department didn’t really have to worry about getting a wind instrument class off the ground for this fifth-grade class. In September, the instruments were handed out, and by now everyone has had a chance to get familiar with them. During the first “orchestra rehearsals” with Ms. Wilmsmeyer, the first melodious notes were already heard, suggesting that the first piece will soon be mastered.