Secondary students sitting on deckchairs

History

Our Beginnings

Berlin Bilingual School began after a small group of enterprising parents living in Berlin took it upon themselves to establish a kindergarten for their children who were growing up bilingual.

At the time, there was no kindergarten in the eastern part of Berlin where their children could be exposed to both English and German. The parents formed an association, and then created a kindergarten named Berlin Kids International, as a nod to their little international community.

The kindergarten has since changed hands. In 2007, the founding parents joined with Pfefferwerk Stadtkultur gGmbH to establish a primary school. They located a former-East German school building, which had previously been abandoned for five years.

They went to work on a courtyard knee-deep in weeds, walls covered in graffiti and floors strewn with trash. Parents painted, scraped, scrubbed, discarded, and finally furnished the building, one floor at a time.

That autumn, the first 16 children entered the Berlin Kids International School.

Five years later, the children had outgrown not only the Primary School, but also their school name. In anticipation of the opening of its Secondary School in August 2012, the school changed its name to Berlin Bilingual School.

Since August 2014, the school has maintained two campuses: the primary school (grades 1- 6) is located in Friedrichshain, and the secondary school (grades 7-13) in Pankow.

The original school of 16 students in grades 1-3 has grown to more than 400 students in grades 1 to 13.

Speech of one of the founding members: Marcello Eusepi - 10 year anniversary 2017.