← Back to the rankingDeutsch-Französisches Gymnasium Freiburg
Freiburg, Germany · est. 1972 · State
Illustration · Freiburg
The Deutsch-Französisches Gymnasium Freiburg, in French the Lycée franco-allemand de Fribourg (DFG/LFA), is a public binational secondary school opened in September 1972 on the basis of the 1963 Élysée Treaty. It is maintained by the city of Freiburg, the state of Baden-Württemberg and the French agency AEFE; it has a dual leadership of a German head and a French deputy head, and its teachers are German state employees and French educators. About 850 students from German, French and mixed families attend, living in and around Freiburg, in France and in Switzerland. The course lasts eight years, grades 5 to 12: in the first cycle the German section (grades 5-9) and the French section (6e-3e) run in parallel, with more subjects taught jointly and in the partner language each year; from grade 10 classes are fully mixed, and half the subjects are taught in French by French teachers and half in German by German teachers. The final exam is the joint Franco-German Abitur (Deutsch-Französisches Abitur), which carries the rights of both the German Abitur and the French baccalauréat. French students take the brevet with a Franco-German option at the end of 3e. The school has a boarding house.
Key facts
Programmes
French programme · National programme
Languages of instruction
German, French
Languages taught
English, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Chinese
About the fees Tuition is free: the school describes itself as a public school of the state of Baden-Württemberg. Paid extras are canteen meals (4.80 euros), afternoon care and boarding: the boarding fee is set by the state, about 865.20 euros per month, 10 months a year, September to June; the boarding foundation and the state education ministry give scholarships to low-income families.
Admissions Grade 5 of the German section admits grade 4 primary pupils from Freiburg and the surrounding area under the state's general rules for admission to Gymnasium; registration is in February at the office by appointment, with the form and photo, birth certificate, grade 4 report, the primary school's recommendation for further schooling, the Kompass 4 test results and proof of measles vaccination. French is helpful but not required: in grades 5-6 German students learn French for 8 and 6 hours a week in small groups. Children from French primary schools usually enter 6e of the French section; for free places in grade 5 or 6 of the German section they are admitted in individual cases - from a Franco-German or German family, after a bilingual school, with grades matching a Gymnasium recommendation, and after an entrance exam in German and mathematics (written and oral); the application is due by March. The school sends the application file for the French section on request through the office. Students live in Germany, France and Switzerland. The boarding house takes students of the school with a French background who live far away.
Stages and year groups Grades 5-12. An eight-year Gymnasium (G8) following harmonised Franco-German curricula. First cycle: German section grades 5-9, French section 6e-3e; from grade 6 music, art and sport are taught jointly, from grade 8 geography and English, social studies in the partner language, biology in grade 9 in the partner language. French students take the brevet with a Franco-German option at the end of 3e. Second cycle (grades 10-12, seconde to terminale) - fully mixed classes, subjects half in French and half in German; in grades 11-12 students choose two 6-hour advanced courses. The final exam is the Deutsch-Französisches Abitur, equivalent to the German Abitur and the French baccalauréat; the second cycle is being reformed under a new 2025 Franco-German agreement. The second-cycle page still describes the L (philosophy and languages), ES (economics and social sciences), SMP (mathematics and physics) and SBC (chemistry and biology) tracks. There is no IB, Cambridge or AbiBac: the exam is its own Franco-German one. The school has no primary school or kindergarten.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
AEFE · accreditationAEFE runs the school directly (établissement en gestion directe): the curriculum is French and recognised by the French education ministry.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
AEFEAgency for French Education Abroad
It runs the network of French schools worldwide, while the accreditation itself, the homologation, is granted by the French education ministry and inspected by French state inspectors. A leaver from a homologated school moves into a school in France without an entrance examination. Homologation is granted stage by stage, so it sometimes covers only part of the year groups.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →French programme
The state programme of France. A school is homologated by the French ministry of education, and a leaver may move into a school in France without entrance tests. Homologation is granted stage by stage, so it sometimes covers only part of the year groups.
What this means for this school. Which year groups of this school are covered by homologation - only the primary ones, or all the way to the final year - is not stated here. The difference matters: it decides whether the school takes a child through to the French baccalaureate or hands them on to another school halfway.
National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
✓Boarding
Campus: One site on Runzstraße in central Freiburg: the old building and a new building with a foyer, pavilions, a sports hall, and a new library with computers, a reading area and a silent room, with books in German, French, English, Italian, Spanish and Chinese. The canteen has about 80 seats and is open 12:00 to 14:00; meals are delivered by a caterer, with a meat and a vegetarian menu, a meal costs 4.80 euros and is ordered online. After classes there is paid afternoon care run by Evangelische Jugendhilfe Freiburg-Zähringen under city rules. The Grand Est region runs school buses from Mulhouse (two buses) and Colmar (one bus). Since 1979 the school has had a boarding house for students with a French background who live far away, from grade 6 to the final year, 20 minutes by tram from the school.
Clubs and activities: Unterstufenchor (lower school choir) · Großer Chor (large choir) · Orchestra · Bigband · Deutsch-Französische Theatergruppe (Franco-German theatre group) · Schreibwerkstatt (writing workshop) · Ton-AG (clay modelling) · Näh-AG (sewing) · Trickfilm (animated film) · Malen und Projekte (painting and projects) · Kunst und Garten (art and garden) · Fahrradwerkstatt (bicycle workshop) · Akrobatik (acrobatics) · Zirkus (circus) · Schach-AG (chess club) · Badminton · Schwimmen (swimming) · Volleyball · Dreisam-Republik (Dreisam school republic) · Atelier Politea (political studies) · Schulsanitäter (school first aiders) · Technik (technology) · CinéClub (film club) · Ski
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
What the listings show: German teachers are civil servants or employees of the state of Baden-Württemberg; French teachers are civil servants of the French education ministry or locally hired teachers.
The staff is binational: French teachers teach their subjects in French and German teachers in German. Subjects are led by coordinators from both sides.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school has two school social workers (counselling in French and German, help with conflicts, crises and bullying, confidential), an age-appropriate prevention programme, student ambassadors of the French anti-bullying programme pHARe, peer mediators and student first aiders; there is a complaints procedure.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)72 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data60 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
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