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Old School of Wismar, Northern Germany – continuously used as a town school for almost 600 years until its destruction after a bombing raid on April 15, 1945.

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  1. Old School of Wismar was an outstanding example of Brick Gothic with an exquisite brickwork. What started as a monastery school has become a chief educational institution of the city for most of its history. After 1881 it was mostly turned into a museum, however parts of the school were still used for arts lessons. The town of Wismar has survived most of the war without destructive carpet bombing raids, however on the night of April 14/15, 1945 ten RAF Mosquitoes conducted a precision low level bombing of city’s landmarks – primarily churches, and Old School was unlucky to catch one of the heavy bombs intended for the nearby St.Mary church, and was completely destroyed. There are plans to reconstruct both the St.Mary church and Old School eventually.

    Color photo of the front gable

    Boys coming back from School, 1900s

    Side view of Old School during its renovation in 1875

    View over the so-called Gothic Quarter of Wismar, which shows Old School was dwarfed by the nearby St.Mary Church

    View of one of the former classrooms, turned into a museum

    Another classroom turned into a presentation center

    Colorized picture showing the view from the back

  2. Ah, yes. The ol’ American path to democracy and liberty!

    It would only have been complete if they built a Starbucks over it.

  3. I can’t imagine the overwhelming loss preservationists and lovers of historic architecture much have experienced during that war.

  4. Some confusing perspective here haha