Altes Kurfürstliches Gymnasium Bensheim, Educational institution in Bensheim, Germany

The Altes Kurfürstliches Gymnasium is a listed school building in Bensheim, inaugurated in 1911, whose facade mixes Renaissance and Baroque elements. A modern science wing was added in the 1970s and extended in 2004, and the old gymnasium was converted into a library opened in 2019. The main building stands in a large garden with old trees, reduced by construction under the new campus plan.

The school was founded in 1686 by Elector Anselm Franz von Ingelheim as an educational institution for the region. The current building was constructed in 1911 and has undergone several expansions to meet changing educational needs.

The name refers to the Elector of Mainz, Anselm Franz von Ingelheim, who founded the school on 30 August 1686; a Latin chronicle notes a local tradition crediting Archbishop Rabanus Maurus in the 9th century. Latin is still the first foreign language option, and pupils can take Ancient Greek through to the Graecum. Five choirs, two orchestras and a big band rehearse in the building.

The school stands at Wilhelmsstraße 64, a site it has occupied since 1 July 1966 after several earlier moves. The 1911 listed building sits in a garden whose old trees were reduced under the new campus plan. Visitors should arrange any tour with the school office, since the building is in daily use as a Gymnasium.

The school's files are held in the Hessian State Archives in Darmstadt as fond H 54 Bensheim D, and the oldest document dates from 1804. The collection is unusually dense for a school archive and can be searched online; it includes annual reports from 1825, a First World War diary and teachers' council minutes from the Weimar years.