Some Secret Santa gifts can really touch your heart—that was certainly the case in Dr. Claudia Röder’s 5th grade C class. It wasn’t just a matter of accepting the gift and calling it a day—no! Lucia Albert wrote an entire poem to thank Santa Jakob Claar for her Secret Santa gift.
We think that’s a wonderful gesture! By the way, what the gift was remained a secret. It must have been something special—in whatever way!
Along with the high school graduation celebrations, the Christmas party is the most important and wonderful celebration at our boarding school every year. As the year draws to a close, the students from grades 5 through 13 look back on the past year together with their parents. To kick things off, everyone gathers in the Forum to enjoy various performances.
Once again, the young people themselves presented plays, film segments, poetry slams, and musical performances. The two hosts skillfully guided the audience through the varied program, which offered the audience both a glimpse into the artistic and musical activities at the Steinmühle and a taste of our talents.
A great atmosphere throughout the evening
Later, during the exquisite multi-course meal in festively decorated rooms, the atmosphere remained very positive. The sumptuous meal was accompanied by lively conversation, and later that evening, the party got underway in the tea room, where everyone celebrated and danced together until late into the night.
A big thank you for the wonderful celebration goes to the educational team led by boarding school director Anke Muszynski, as well as to all the students and kitchen staff who contributed to the evening’s success. House Director Michel Hermens and Jan from the boarding school student group captured some photographic highlights for us:
Year after year, the winter concert at the Steinmühle Forum is a musical highlight in December. In a festive atmosphere, students from nearly every grade level showcase their impressive talents and put on a varied evening of entertainment that delights the audience.
Once again this year, it quickly became clear that all the performers were playing at an exceptionally high level. At the end of the event, Tobias Karlein, a member of the school administration team, explicitly highlighted this, thereby paying tribute to the young artists’ achievements.
The evening kicked off with Wind Instrument Class 5, conducted by Andreas Jamin, performing the well-known Christmas classic “Jingle Bells,” which got the audience in a lively mood for the evening. Next up were Juna Bamberger (Class 6) and Sophie Raven, who delivered an impressive performance of “Autobahn” by Benedikt Brydern.
A finely tuned interplay
Annica Bartsch (Class 12) once again provided a special highlight, performing Meghan Trainor’s “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” as a duet with Mio Bender on piano and thrilling the audience with their chemistry. Equally captivating was the performance by Mathilda Lambach (Class 13), who, accompanied by Elias Haas on the cello, performed Johann Sebastian Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041 (1st movement: Allegro moderato) and impressed the audience with their finely tuned harmony.
At the piano, Toshi Beato del Rosal (Class 12d) then impressed the audience with Shota Kageyama’s “An Unwavering Heart” and Go Ichinose’s “Midnight Theme,” demonstrating great expressiveness and technical mastery. Eleventh-grader Gojus Kanes presented another powerful piano piece: Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Piece, Op. 1, which came across particularly impressively in his performance.
A vibrant interpretation of the works
Sophie Menzler (Class 8b) then captivated the audience with her infectious enthusiasm, performing Vittorio Monti’s “Czardas” as a duet with Mio Bender and enthralling the audience with her lively interpretation. Mingzhou Yan (Class 13c) then captivated the audience with his piano performance of Frédéric Chopin’s Ballade in G minor, providing another musical highlight.
The grand finale was provided by the 6th-grade wind ensemble and the concert band, conducted by Stephan Reissig. Their joint performance brought the concert to a spectacular close and created a memorable ending.
Strong Community Involvement
Overall, the winter concert proved to be an impressive event in which, under the organizational direction of Ulrike Wilmsmeyer, instrumental music and vocal performances of the highest caliber carried the evening along, once again demonstrating the musical diversity and great dedication of the Steinmühle School and Boarding School community.
(Heinm)
We received the following report about the 5th-grade Christmas party from Ronja Heckmann, Dr. Claudia Röder, Laura Haller, and Leonie Zapf:
On the afternoon of December 8, the 5th-grade class from Steinmühle gathered with their parents at the Forum to enjoy a cozy celebration of the pre-Christmas season together. For the occasion, the wind ensemble class, led by Andreas Jamin, had rehearsed and performed three songs—everyone was thrilled at what the group was able to do after just seven rehearsals!
Choral Music and Piano Music
Afterward, the 5th-grade choir, conducted by Daniel Sans, performed several more songs. “Feliz Navidad” in particular inspired the parents in the audience to sing along and clap along, while Felix Tondorf accompanied the choir on the piano. The audience was then treated to another moving piano piece performed by Greta Bamberger.
Learning About Christmas Traditions
As the final item on the program, Class 5c presented “Christmas Around the World” by interviewing children from Romania, Armenia, Spain, and Colombia about the Christmas traditions in their countries.
The rest of the time was spent enjoying the children’s punch that was served, the Christmas treats everyone had brought, and relaxed conversations. While Christmas classics played in the background, children could also make stars and candy “moose” in the craft corner organized by the parents. The festive atmosphere was enhanced by the numerous Santa hats on everyone’s heads and the creative decorations on the tables, which the children had made in advance during art class.
All in all, it was a very pleasant afternoon that ended with “Fröhliche Weihnacht” and “Jingle Bells,” putting everyone in the right mood for the holiday season.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Marburg Food Bank this year, the Steinmühle high school’s advanced art class created five large-format photographs for the Food Bank’s new facilities. The documentary photography project “Hände geben – Hände nehmen” was created with the collaboration of Cilia Evelbauer, Janice Houdek, and Nele Schultheis as part of Ines Vielhaben’s art class; Vielhaben made it possible for the photos to be mounted on Aludibond through her own donation. The works were recently presented to Bernd Holly, the former principal of Steinmühle. Since his retirement, he has been volunteering at the Marburg Food Bank.
As it does every year during the Christmas season, the School Garden elective course (WU) is offering its homegrown products in the Steinmühle teachers’ lounge. WU Director María Ramos: “The products are very diverse. Currant jam from the garden, quince chutney, oregano salt, as well as beeswax candles from the Altenschlirf Living-and-Working Community, individually decorated matches, lavender sachets, and beautiful Advent wreaths.” Potential customers are the teaching staff, with purchases made on a donation basis.
WU sends its proceeds to its Tanzanian partner school, “One World School Kilimanjaro.” María Ramos: “This allows us to support projects there, including the chicken project, which provides Tanzanian students with eggs and meat.”
Last school year, WU was able to donate 250.00 euros to One World School. The students hope to exceed that amount this year.
A year ago, they had discovered the joy of working in the Christmas bakery for the first time and handed out packages of homemade cookies. This year, Class 7b, together with their teacher Nina Kvashko (left), once again began baking cookies for a good cause. The students then sold the delicious cookies and raised a total of 225 euros, which they donated to the parents’ initiative for children with leukemia and cancer.
The organization, based on Marburg’s Steinweg, supports sick children and their siblings—who often receive less attention and are therefore referred to as “shadow children”—through various activities and gifts. For the symbolic presentation of the funds, Eva Christ, representing the parents’ initiative, came to the Steinmühle and expressed her gratitude as she marveled at the proceeds from this campaign.
To help 5th-grade students develop a sense of space, time, and dimensions, math teacher Malte Klimczak launched a project to create a planetary nature trail—right on the Steinmühle school grounds!
How long is 15 million kilometers?
How long is a meter? How long is a kilometer? And just how vast—almost beyond our imagination—is a distance of 15 million kilometers? —It’s impossible to visualize this, but even the youngest students at Steinmühle High School can get a sense of it: Along a 300-meter-long stretch, the planets of our solar system were to be placed at the correct distances from the Sun.
A small group chose “their” planet
Working in small groups, the girls and boys set up a station in the schoolyard for a planet of their choice. Geography quickly came into play: How big and heavy is the planet? How far is it from the Sun? And how long would it take to get there from Earth?
Using this key information, the students then designed an information board and a model of the planet—the artistic aspect. Using the scale—where one meter in the schoolyard corresponds to 16 million kilometers in space—they then calculated where each planet should be located in the “schoolyard solar system.” This required mathematical skills.
Explaining the Solar System in Five Minutes
To help people understand these very large numbers and their significance in terms of distance and time, illustrative comparisons were made: how many times one would have to circle the Earth, how many years one would spend traveling by car, and so on.
Since even younger children can develop a basic understanding of this, the young experts from Grade 5 presented their planet project to the students in Grade 4 at the Steinmühle Bilingual Elementary School. The fifth graders mastered the challenge of explaining the topic as clearly as possible in just a few minutes with flying colors. The fact that preparing for this presentation had taken several school hours beforehand was quickly evident in the quality of their presentation.
This fantastic project, which not only drew on interdisciplinary knowledge but was also implemented across grade levels and school types, must be considered a complete success. Creative, challenging—and yet accessible even to the youngest students at Steinmühle.
The sun—which is often mistakenly referred to as a planet but is actually a star—certainly seemed to be in a good mood on the day of the event. It cast its wintery rays over the Steinmühle grounds.
Angela Heinemann
What an incredible achievement: For the first time in Steinmühle’s history, our U18 girls’ basketball team has made it to the state finals in Gelnhausen. In the regional tournament, the team defeated Usingen and thus qualified for the state finals, according to school sports director Marcel Kalb.
Emilia Schneider, Samrawit Wulf, Nike Hütte, Malin Häußermann, Sophia Kirschning, Fenja Schlegel, Anna Thies.
We offer our heartfelt congratulations on this magnificent achievement and will continue to keep our fingers crossed for you!
On Tuesday evening, the students in the introductory religion course swapped the classroom for the lecture hall: As part of the student preparatory program, Bene Hohmann’s class visited the Catholic Theological Seminary at the University of Marburg.
The evening offered the Q1 students an exciting look behind the scenes of academic theology. After an initial orientation led by enthusiastic students who guided us through the building and told us about their daily life at the university, the main event of the visit began.
From the Biblical Fall to Modern Narcissism: Insights into Theology
The focus was on the lecture by PD Dr. Florian Klug, a professor of dogmatic theology in Marburg and Vienna. He spoke about a topic that is traditionally difficult to grasp: original sin.
Dr. Klug presented original sin not as a historical event, but as a theological attempt to interpret humanity’s inclination toward evil. The connection to the present day was particularly fascinating: Dr. Klug interpreted original sin as a kind of collective narcissism—the constant exaltation of one’s own ego as the cause of separation from goodness. The students took advantage of the opportunity to ask questions, which led to a lively and engaging discussion.
A resounding success and a taste of college life
The students were thrilled by this glimpse into university life. The evening was not only relevant in terms of content—it also fit perfectly with our Christology unit in Q1—but it also provided the young adults with valuable guidance.
Conclusion: An all-around successful evening that not only imparted knowledge but also—hopefully—sparked an interest in further academic education among the young adults!
Benedikt Hohmann
Do you have questions about the school?
School Administration & Management
Björn Gemmer & Dirk Konnertz
Phone: 06421 408-20
Do you have questions about the boarding school?
Boarding School Administration & Management
Anke Muszynski & Dirk Konnertz
Phone: 06421 408-0
Do you have questions about the school?
School Administration & Management
Björn Gemmer & Dirk Konnertz
Phone: 06421 408-20
Do you have questions about the boarding school?
Boarding School Administration & Management
Anke Muszynski & Dirk Konnertz
Phone: 06421 408-0
