← Back to the rankingHelene-Lange-Gymnasium Hamburg
Hamburg, Germany · est. 1910 · State
Illustration · Hamburg
Helene-Lange-Gymnasium is a state gymnasium in the Eimsbüttel district of Hamburg, founded in 1910 as a state girls' school; since 1970 it has had a bilingual German-English stream and has admitted boys. The school calls itself the only gymnasium in Hamburg where all students in grades 7 to 10 learn some subjects in English: history from grade 7, geography from grade 8, then one or two sciences or art. Since August 2003 it has offered the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, as the first state school in Hamburg and the third in Germany, but only as a second qualification together with the Abitur, in a separate upper-school profile. All IB profile subjects except German are taught in English. The upper school is shared with the neighbouring Kaiser-Friedrich-Ufer gymnasium (Eimsbütteler Modell) and housed in a separate building. In 1953 the school became the first UNESCO project school in Germany. Students come from Hamburg, most living near the school.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Languages of instruction
German, English
Languages taught
French, Latin, Spanish
About the fees Tuition is free: the school states it is not a private school but a Hamburg state gymnasium. The school's annual IB fee (about 8500 EUR), materials and teacher training are paid by the Hamburg education authority and the IB support association founded by parents and teachers. IB students pay a one-time exam fee of about 650 EUR; internal students may ask the support association to cover it, external applicants are not funded. Early and late care and holiday programmes run by an outside provider are paid.
Admissions The school accepts students fluent in German, spoken and written: all sit external exams, including German. Fluent English is not required for grade 5; students joining mid-way through the middle school need confident English. Applications for the IB profile (grades 11-12) run from 1 October to 28 February, later only if places remain. External applicants submit a full application folder with the form, join the IB support association and attend an interview with the IB coordinator together with their parents; internal places are allocated first, and external applicants are informed in March. If there are more than 24 applicants, selection is based on grades in grades 9 and 10, work and social behaviour, teacher references and extracurricular activities. German is required at native or near-native level (C1-C2): it is taken at Higher Level in both qualifications, and the IB cannot be taken without the Abitur. Students not educated in the German state system must first confirm with the Zentrum für Schul- und Jugendinformation of the Hamburg education authority that their previous credentials give access to the upper school; the school offers no advice to families abroad.
Stages and year groups Grades 5-12. A Hamburg gymnasium from grade 5 to grade 12, with the Abitur as the final exam. Bilingual profile: extra English in grades 5-6, history in English from grade 7, geography from grade 8, then sciences or art; a bilingual certificate is issued at the end of grade 10 and with the Abitur. The upper school (Eimsbütteler Modell, with the Kaiser-Friedrich-Ufer gymnasium) has eight profiles, two of them bilingual: International Baccalaureate and Humans and their environment. The IB profile (about 24 places) runs the Abitur and IB Diploma in parallel with no subject choice: German A HL, English B HL, Mathematics SL, History HL, Biology SL, Theory of Knowledge, Film, plus sport and one elective; a 4000-word Extended Essay and at least 150 hours of CAS.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Diploma Programme. The IB track runs inside a German Gymnasium: in the upper grades students take the IB Diploma alongside the Abitur.
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
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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
Average IB score
34.07 (world average 30.88)
Exam results IB Diploma 2025: all candidates received both the Abitur and the IB Diploma; the average score was 34.07 against a world average of 30.58, the best 37 points out of 45. Three more students took English HL only and received IB certificates.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The main building is a three-storey house from 1908-1910 in the style of Hamburg merchant houses, completely renovated after 2003: new furniture, windows and roof, all rooms networked and interactive boards instead of blackboards. There are chemistry and physics rooms, a science room modernised in 2011-2012, a gym, an assembly hall with new lighting, a canteen in the basement with pre-ordering and cashless payment, and the Lernzentrum, a library and learning centre with internet workstations and about 1500 books and media in German, English, French and Spanish. The upper grades study in the Oberstufenhaus, the former Bismarck-Gymnasium building, shared with the neighbouring Kaiser-Friedrich-Ufer gymnasium. The school owns the KLAARSTRAND group guest house on Sylt, used for class trips. Grades 5-8 have free all-day care until 16:00 with elective courses.
Clubs and activities: AG Jüdische Biographien (Jewish biographies of the school's students and teachers) · Technik AG (technology club) · UNESCO-AGs (UNESCO clubs) · Band · Orchestra · Choir · Foto AG (photography club) · Kreatives Schreiben (creative writing) · Philosophieren mit Kindern (philosophy for children) · Debating · Schülerzeitung Helene (school newspaper) · DELF AG (French DELF exam preparation)
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 sizenot stated
The staff page names about 73 teachers with their subjects and roles: subject heads and coordinators for the IB, bilingual teaching, careers guidance and gifted education. Teachers are employed by the Hamburg education authority; the school does not handle vacancies itself.
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
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
Counselling teachers help with learning difficulties, pressure, conflicts, mental strain, problems at home, addiction and violence, and conversations are confidential; in difficult cases school psychologists of the regional ReBBZ Eimsbüttel centre are involved. Grades 5-10 follow an addiction and violence prevention programme with lessons by a police officer, and there are mediators, older student mentors (Prefects) and a safety officer.
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%)82 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data60 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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