← Back to the rankingDeutsche Schule Budapest - Thomas-Mann-Gymnasium
Budapest, Hungary · est. 1990 · Private
Illustration · Budapest
Deutsche Schule Budapest (DSB) with its Thomas Mann gymnasium is a German school abroad in Budapest's district XII, one of more than 135 German schools abroad and a German-Hungarian Begegnungsschule. It was founded in 1990 under an intergovernmental agreement between Germany and Hungary; the first school day was 24 September 1990 with 11 students. It is run by the Stiftung Deutsche Schule Budapest foundation, established in 1992 by the Federal Republic of Germany, Hungary, the state of Baden-Württemberg and Budapest; all founders support the school. About 570 children attend and more than 70 teachers work there. Lessons are mainly in German following German curricula: a preparatory class 0, primary grades 1-4 and an eight-year gymnasium for grades 5-12 with German and Hungarian branches, which learn together in mixed classes from grade 9. At the end of grade 12 all students take the German Abitur (Deutsches Internationales Abitur), and students of the Hungarian branch also the Hungarian érettségi; to prepare them, Hungarian language and literature, Hungarian history, biology and chemistry are taught in Hungarian. The German branch can also obtain the Hauptschulabschluss after grade 9 and the Realschulabschluss after grade 10.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $6 951 a year
2.3 million HUF
Programmes
German programme · National programme
Admits from
5 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
German, Hungarian
Languages taught
English, French, Spanish
Class size
up to 25 children per class in primary
About the fees Tuition for 2026-2027 is the same for all grades: 2260000 forints a year for the first child, 1980000 for the second, 1885000 for the third and 1765000 for each further child enrolled at the same time; payable in three instalments (40% in July, 30% in December, 30% in March). Tuition includes textbooks and workbooks, free clubs and swimming in grades 3 and 6. A guest student (up to a year) pays 320000 forints a month plus the annual foundation contribution. A fee reduction scheme is available on application.
Admissions Registration requires an application form, copies of the last two school reports, a birth certificate, proof of nationality (passport or ID) and a vaccination record; the school management decides on admission. Class 0 (ages 5-6) requires no German: admission is by a conversation and playful assessment in May. Grade 1 requires basic German; the admission procedure is in German and lasts 2-3 hours. Grade 5 of the Hungarian branch (class 5s) admits students through the central exams in Hungarian and mathematics and the school's own German exam, prepared by a fee-paying Vorkurs. Students from German schools who meet the requirements are usually admitted without an exam to the same grade, others take an exam in the main subjects; separate rules apply to grades 10-12. The German branch is for children from Germany and children with German as a mother tongue. Foreign students may also attend as guest students for up to a year. The school's documents and administration are in German and Hungarian only.
Stages and year groups Grades 0, 1-12. Preparatory class 0 (ages 5-6, replacing kindergarten required by Hungarian law), primary grades 1-4 on German curricula (since 2021 two first classes a year, German and Hungarian children learning together) and an eight-year gymnasium for grades 5-12: in grades 5-8 a German branch (d classes) and a Hungarian branch (m and s classes) with partial integration, mixed classes from grade 9. Qualifications: the German Abitur under the Deutsches Internationales Abitur rules (KMK) after grade 12 for all, the Hungarian érettségi for the Hungarian branch; the German branch can obtain the Hauptschulabschluss after grade 9 and the Realschulabschluss after grade 10. The school has awarded German qualifications since 1997, the Reifeprüfung since 1999 and the German-Hungarian Abitur since 2005. The school offers no IB programmes.
Address 1121 Budapest, Cinege út 8/C. (XII. kerület)
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
ZfA · accreditationWDA · part of the alliancePASCH · takes part in the programmeThe Central Agency for German Schools Abroad (ZfA) lists the school as a German school abroad (Deutsche Auslandsschule). Graduates sit the German International Abitur (DIA), and students in the Hungarian section also receive the Hungarian érettségi. The school is a member of the World Association of German Schools Abroad (WDA) and of the PASCH network.
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
ZfACentral Agency for German Schools Abroad
A German federal agency. It recognises a school as a German school abroad, funds it and grants the right to award the German leaving certificate. Quality is examined by a state inspection about once every six years, and schools that pass receive the mark of an excellent German school abroad.
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 →WDAWorld Association of German Schools Abroad
An association of the owners of German schools abroad: in essence an industry lobby and a service organisation. It runs no inspections. The condition of admission is a recognised German certificate, but that recognition is granted by the German state, not by WDA.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to an association of school owners. There is no inspection of its own behind it: the badge rests on a decision of the German state and adds nothing to it. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →PASCHSchools: Partners for the Future, an initiative of the German foreign ministry
More than two thousand schools in about 120 countries. A school cannot apply for itself: participants are chosen by German agencies in agreement with the embassy. Very different schools sit under one mark - full German schools abroad, and ordinary national schools that simply teach German well.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to a German support programme. By itself the mark means neither a German curriculum nor the right to award a German certificate: of the two thousand PASCH schools, about seventeen hundred hold no such right. Look for a ZfA status next to it - that is the one that is about this. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →German programme
The German school programme. Recognised German schools abroad award the Deutsches Internationales Abitur, the German leaving certificate used for entry to universities in Germany. Behind the recognition stands the federal agency ZfA.
What this means for this school. ZfA recognition comes at levels: a school that takes pupils through to the German leaving certificate is one thing, a school with the DSD language diploma, where German is taught as a subject, is another. Which level this school holds is not stated here.
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
Where leavers go: University of Vienna · University of Munich · University of Passau · University of Zurich · University of Oxford · University of Cambridge · Corvinus University of Budapest · Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) · Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) · Semmelweis University
According to the school's statistics, from 1999 to 2025, 527 graduates of the Hungarian branch took the érettségi, and 238 of them went on to universities abroad in their graduation year; in 2025, 18 of 25 graduates went abroad. The most common choices are the universities of Vienna and Munich, and in Hungary Corvinus University, ELTE, BME and Semmelweis. The school does not publish data on German branch graduates.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground
Clubs and activities: Debattierclub - Jugend debattiert (debating club) · Football · Zirkus - Akrobatik (circus and acrobatics) · Band · Musical · Basteln (crafts) · Mit Kunst gegen Mobbing (art against bullying) · Robotik und Physik (robotics and physics) · Programming Python with AI · Business Studies · Chemische Experimente (chemistry experiments) · Moderne Physik (modern physics)
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
The school has more than 70 teachers. In primary, besides class teachers there is a dedicated post supporting students with reading, writing and arithmetic difficulties; team teaching is used, and German as a foreign language in grade 1 is taught in groups of 12. Gymnasium students have middle and upper school coordinators.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
✓Access control
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school has a school psychologist and two trusted teachers with weekly consultation hours; the student support page also lists external helplines in Hungarian and German. The student card opens the school gates via a card reader. The school runs an internal whistleblowing channel for staff and business partners.
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 data70 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data70 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 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.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country