"Class 1c. Welcome" is written on a smartboard. (Symbolic image)
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Five new secondary schools are to be completed in Berlin by the start of the new school year in the summer. This was announced by the state-owned housing association Howoge. A total of 4,050 additional school places are to be created as a result.
According to the information provided, the new school buildings will be handed over to the districts starting in June. These include the Adlershof Community School in Treptow-Köpenick, the largest school currently under construction in Berlin. The 3.5-hectare site alone is almost as large as five soccer fields. In the future, 1,400 children and young people will attend school there.
According to Howoge, the four-stream Schulstraße Gymnasium for 664 pupils is being completed in Mitte. In Mariendorf (Tempelhof-Schönberg), a six-stream integrated secondary school (ISS) with around 600 places is currently under construction. A six-form ISS with 600 places is also to be completed on Garzauer Straße in Biesdorf (Marzahn-Hellersdorf). The new Heinrich Hertz Gymnasium in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg is being built near Ostbahnhof. A total of 784 school places will be available in the new building. The building will be occupied by the existing school community of the Heinrich Hertz Gymnasium during the course of the school year.
With a portfolio of around 82,150 apartments (as of June 30, 2025), Howoge is one of the largest landlords in Germany. It is responsible for the construction of new schools and major renovations of existing schools on behalf of the state of Berlin. The demand is high: according to data from the education administration, there were around 408,000 pupils in general education schools in the capital at the beginning of the last school year. This figure was a good 4,000 higher than in the previous year, when it had exceeded the 400,000 mark for the first time in 25 years.