The history of Marienhöhe begins in 1911, when the last Grand Duke of Darmstadt-Hesse made the land west of Marienhöhe available to the dance teacher, Elisabeth Duncan. As a sponsor, he had a spacious Art Nouveau building with park land built to serve as a boarding school, day school, and natural space for expressive dance.
This place on the edge of the former Grand Ducal forest park, between the Darmstadt districts of Bessungen and Eberstadt, was given the name ‘Marienhöhe’ in honour of Princess Maria of Hesse-Darmstadt (1824 - 1880). As the later Tsarina Maria Alexandrowa—her husband was Tsar Alexander II—she became the mother of Tsar Alexander III and the grandmother of the last tsar, Nicholas II.
In 1924, the German Association for Health Care bought the land on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventists. The authorities approved the establishment of a mission school. Other school branches were opened, some of which were closed again.
To this day, the school center and the community both benefit from the natural location—Marienhöhe is an "island in the green", a campus with park-like grounds and a main building with a beautiful architectural design.
Whatever the official names of the educational institution that has been based here for over 100 years—school for expressive dance, preacher's seminary, business school, home economics school, nursing preparatory school, advanced secondary school, and even the Marienhöhe school center—for everyone who spent some time as a student or employee on this campus, in the middle of nature, it was "Die Höhe" where they studied, learned or worked.
The First World War forced Elisabeth Duncan to continue her school elsewhere. To this day, the school center benefits from its natural location. Marienhöhe is still an "island in the green," a school with park-like grounds and an architecturally beautifully designed main building, which also forms the school center's logo. "Living holistically" is a characteristic of the Adventist church school authority that we want to keep alive and keep bringing to life.
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