School history

Inspired by the British Embassy, diplomats and a group of other professional people in Berlin began in the early 1990s to make plans for a British School in Berlin. Their ambition was to root British traditions in the city as Germany’s future capital after the departure of the Allies. The BBS e.V. was founded to prepare the ground with the German government, the Berlin Senate and eventually with the Bezirk authorities for taking over the building of a former British Military School in Charlottenburg.

Here we were to establish a novelty: British education for all. In September 1994 the first ever British School in Berlin – where the French School looked back on a tradition of several centuries and the German-American J.F. Kennedy School on some decades – opened its gates as the “Berlin British School” to 84 children of 23 nationalities. Although we started with pre-school nursery and primary education only, the school very soon had to extend its educational scope by going into secondary education, shortly hereafter introducing the International Baccalaureate, as it also had to expand further into the Grunewald to serve its growing pupil population. In 1999 we were happy to take our nursery and reception up on the hill at Havelchaussee, to a woodland site with purpose-built accommodation ideally suited for small children. In September 2000 the vast campus at the Postfenn welcomed our Senior School students. On this site, in a protected area of outstanding natural beauty, we established an arts studio, a dining-hall, a state of the arts science lab, and turned one of the 6 existing buildings into a study centre for our IB students. A seventh building, generously funded by the Berlin Lotto foundation, will soon be finished with a spacious library, further science labs and classrooms.

Thus we are confident to accommodate our growing pupil population – at present more than 400 pupils of some 50 nationalities – in beautiful and well equipped settings to ensure a happy and healthy learning atmosphere.

The BBS e.V. has, until this day, been the holder of the independent private British school.