Just in time for Steinmühle’s traditional fall festival, the scaffolding had been removed from the main building, and the historic half-timbered structure shone in new splendor—renovated inside and out! The event held at the end of every September is not only a crowd-pleaser for the Steinmühle boarding school, but also always a day full of challenges—for students and teachers alike.

The school grounds were filling up rapidly on Saturday afternoon, even before the official kickoff at 3 p.m. Parents, relatives, and friends of Steinmühle gathered in the schoolyard, inside the buildings, and at the boarding school’s sports facilities to learn more and marvel at the activities the students had put together this time.

Boarding school students baked 55 cakes

Of course, food plays a special role at a celebration like the Fall Festival. The boarding school students have always been in charge here: preparations begin as early as the Friday before. There’s a flurry of activity in the dorm kitchens, and the aroma of fresh cake fills the living quarters. A total of 55 cakes, baked by the boarding students, end up on the sales counter set up between the main building and the administration building.

In no time at all, all the treats were sold out on Saturday, and the more than 2,500 visitors flocked to the barbecue stand, the beer tent, and the wine tent. The boarding school students also worked and served at these stations, with occasional help from volunteers. Everything tasted great, which explained the large crowds of people who weren’t deterred by the overcast weather or the rain that came later.

A celebration for alumni, too

The Steinmühle Fall Festival is always a celebration for alumni as well. Some of them travel from far away to spend a pleasant time at the place where they went to school, enjoying each other’s company and reminiscing. A “10-Year High School Graduation Reunion” took place in the tea room. But there were also visitors who had graduated from the “Mühle” long, long before that.

An atmospheric celebration with drinks at dusk that lasted until 1 a.m. left its usual marks the next morning. Here, too, boarding school students step in on Sunday at 10 a.m. sharp to clean up, return the dishes, and take down the decorations. With the support of the teaching staff, the grounds are tidied up as if nothing had happened. After all, classes begin promptly at ten past eight the next day for everyone.

 

Now, as our new building nears completion, the extensive renovation and expansion work on the school’s main building can begin. To the delight of principals Björn Gemmer and Bernd Holly and Managing Director Dirk Konnertz, construction manager Jochen Schröder delivered the official building permit. Demolition work on the entrance area, including the school office, will begin as early as the fall break. This view will soon be a thing of the past.

Steinmühle participated in the 5th Hessian Sustainability Day with two projects.

Led by Friedhelm Wagler, the first group set out to determine how much packaging waste is generated when shopping at various grocery stores in Marburg. They investigated this question by baking two different cakes based on two cake recipes. Afterward, they calculated the waste balance for each individual store.

The second group built a raft on “Sustainability Day.” They used returnable bottles as floats, which they screwed under screen-printing plates so they could then view the banks of the Lahn from the water. As part of the “Engagement” project, the students plan to become “plastic pirates” on the water, searching for washed-up and discarded trash and finding new uses for it wherever possible.

Students from class 10b—namely Talea Funk, Paul Kappeler, Sebastian Koch, Shawn Li, Nils Merte, Sandro Pfuhl, Max Rosenkranz, Chiara Weber, and Philipp Zoremba—took an active part in carrying out the raft project.

The raft project was led by Ines Vielhaben and Carmen Bastian, with active support from Christian Schäfer, a counselor at the Steinmühle boarding school.