Hamburg · time both streets
Hamburg is not one international campus. It is an older IB house by the Botanical Garden and a bilingual Abitur campus in the centre. Ask which paper the child will hold, and which S-Bahn you can live with.
Hamburg is not “the international school.” It is a northern German city with two English-facing campuses posting families name in the first week, and a much older set of Stadtteilschulen and Gymnasien that stay families name in the second.
The portraits we have are the International School of Hamburg in Groß Flottbek and Phorms Campus Hamburg on Wendenstrasse. Use them for admissions rules. ISH’s public fee PDF on the site is from 2018 — ask for this year’s sheet. Phorms prints a monthly euro table, including a 2026–27 Friends’ Association line. This note is the city between them. The Germany country page is the wider map.
ISH sits on Hemmingstedter Weg in Groß Flottbek, across from the Botanical Garden. Germany’s older international. English in class. German from Grade 1. IB in the upper years. A day campus whose public fee PDF is old. Time Blankenese and the S-Bahn, not only an open morning.
Phorms sits on Wendenstrasse in the centre. Bilingual German-English from daycare through the Abitur. Not IB. A public monthly fee, plus lunch, plus a Friends’ Association percentage of income. Time Hammerbrook. It is not Groß Flottbek.
They share a city and almost no Monday. Walk both, then a neighbourhood Gymnasium that charges nothing for the lesson.
If you might stay, an English-medium diploma is not automatically the kindest paper. A state Gymnasium, a Stadtteilschule, a church door — those are official mornings. Families looking at ISH often also walk a German door in the same week, because the next five years may still be German.
The language of the yard is the test that matters more than the IB page. A child can thrive in English at 9 a.m. and still be lonely at 11 if the park is speaking German — or the other way around.
Munich and Frankfurt are not suburbs of Hamburg. Do not flatten Germany into one Elbe.
Ask which paper this child will hold — IB, Abitur, or a state path. Ask ISH for this year’s fee schedule. Ask Phorms what the Friends’ Association comes to in euros for your household. Ask how much German a new eleven-year-old meets before Christmas.
Time both streets on a wet Tuesday.
The city hub is the short map. The two portraits are the long ones.
Friendly orientation, not formal admissions advice. Always confirm dates with the school.
This is Hamburg, not Starnberg and not Oberursel. Germany’s first international school, a day campus in Groß Flottbek. English in class, German from Grade 1. The public fee PDF on the site is from 2018. Ask admissions for the live schedule.
HamburgA bilingual German-English private in the centre, aiming at the Abitur, not the IB. The monthly school fee is public. It is not ISH in Groß Flottbek. Time Wendenstrasse, not the Botanical Garden.
MunichTwo IB campuses, one non-profit gAG. Primary can sit in Schwabing. Secondary sits in Haimhausen, north of the city. The 2026–27 prospectus prints tuition and a three-year entrance fee. Time that commute before you fall in love with the Schloss.
KleinmachnowAn IB campus in Brandenburg, not a first-district Berlin tram. Ersatzschule through Grade 10, Ergänzungsschule in 11–12. The 2026–27 pages print euros, including a reduction programme for Grades 1–10. Time Kleinmachnow.
The letters on the leaver’s certificate matter. They are not the whole child. Here is how to tell them apart without a headache, and without pretending every door stays open.
16 minYou do not need a perfect algorithm. You need a few true things about your child, a boring list on the fridge, and the courage to ignore a beautiful campus that does not fit.
15 minTuition is the number on the homepage. The PDF is the number that arrives in March. Here is how to read the second one, without inventing a euro, a krona, or a deadline.
12 minSkip the question about last year’s average. Ask the ones that make a teacher’s face change. Then look at the corridor while they answer.