Paintings, drawings, and prints have been on display on the climbing walls of the Marburg Volksbank Climbing Gym since the end of March. These small works of art are located behind the Plexiglas panels that were formerly used for route signage and explore themes related to climbing and the mountain world.

Ines Vielhaben, an art teacher at Steinmühlen, came up with the idea for this unusual exhibition. Since the climbing gym opened, she has been spending a large part of her free time there.

Together with the 10th-grade students in the “Drawing and Illustration” elective course, Ines Vielhaben began working on the paintings a few months ago. Her former students from the advanced art class and an art student from Flensburg, who was completing her internship at the Steinmühle, were also inspired by the idea of an art exhibition for the climbing gym.

Jose, who is in charge of bolting the routes in the climbing gym, is delighted by the variety of designs and artistic techniques: “This gives the individual sections of the wall a new character.” The artworks shown here represent a selection and are by Nora Hepting (10c), Jana Vollhardt (10a), Hannah Eichstädt (former Steinmühlen student/graduated in 2017, advanced art course), and Ines Vielhaben.

The bands and ensembles at the Steinmühle offer a wide variety of musical performances. Visitors got to see how this mix can come together to create an entertaining evening at “Bands on Stage” on Monday at the Forum.

The AG Band from grades 5 and 6 kicked things off. Their performance featured vocals combined with various instruments: violin, saxophone, piano, and guitar, along with two drummers and a bassist. The group played and sang under the direction of Frank Wemme, performing “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Firework.” The saxophone ensemble from the Marburg Music School, led by Jörg Eichberger, entertained the audience with rhythms ranging from swing to Bach: The wind players earned enthusiastic applause for their performances of “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” “Charleston,” “Solitude” by Duke Ellington, and the Bach Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major.

The Hamilton Project, led by Talea Funk from Class 10b, is one of the program highlights that have been part of the musical evenings at Steinmühle for some time now. Various singing roles have been cast, including not only the protagonist Alexander Hamilton but also his wife, his sister, rivals such as Thomas Jefferson, and others. The audience heard four songs from the musical of the same name.

The band Fynn Konnertz & Tom Herfert & Friends is known for their impressive performances on saxophone, guitar, keyboard, bass, and electronic drums. The surprise guest appearance by Daniel Sans and Rosie Boebel during the Spandau Ballet song “Through The Barricades” drew additional applause.

Vocals, saxophone, trombone, euphonium, piano, two guitars, bass, and drums came together in the StoneMill House Band, led by Frank Wemme, for the songs “Smooth” and “Levitation.” Before the same band brought the evening to a musical close with “Clocks” and “Feeling Good,” the jazz ensemble (vocals, saxophone, trombone, euphonium, guitar, bass) performed the catchy numbers “How Long Has This Been Going On?,” “Work Song,” and “Hanky Panky.”

The absence of the boarding school band—which always spreads good cheer—likely had similar causes to the fact that some rows of seats in the Forum remained empty: The wave of colds and flu seems far from over. Meanwhile, the boarding school provided refreshments during the intermission through the Tea Room Club. WU Sound & Light, led by Werner Eismann and Sam Kempkes (Class 11d), provided the appropriate lighting for the event.

Great joy for Michael Neirich’s team: Our Competition Class II soccer players have once again won the district championship this year on the artificial turf field in Kirchhain. This year’s two opponents were the Georg-Büchner-Schule in Stadtallendorf and the Freiherr-von-Stein-Schule in Gladenbach. The fact that these two teams faced off—resulting in a scoreless draw—already put us in a very strong position. Highly focused, our students in grades 8 through 10 took the field for their first match against Stadtallendorf in Game 2. A convincing performance, highlighted by a hat trick from Jakob Reinhard, ultimately resulted in a well-deserved 3–0 victory. This meant that a draw against Gladenbach in the tournament’s final match would be enough. In this match, the Steinmühlen players didn’t show their best soccer; both teams played nervously, and so it wasn’t until three minutes before the end that Adrian Bruchmann tapped in a cross from Jakob Reinhard to make it 1–0. A lapse in our defense then led to the 1–1 equalizer in the final minute. Shortly afterward, however, the prudent referee Sam Kempkes blew the whistle to end the game.

This means that Steinmühle has once again qualified for the regional tournament on April 18 at Georg-Gassmann Stadium in Marburg. Very strong opponents await us there, especially the team from Gießen. Unfortunately, we’ll likely be the underdogs that day, since the entire 9th-grade team (eight players from that grade were on the field today) will be on a school trip.