Curriculum as published:Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care · German-language preschool (Vorschule) · Finnish National Core Curriculum (basic education) · German Auslandsschule curriculum (Grundschule, Mittelstufe, gymnasiale Oberstufe) · Deutsches Internationales Abitur (DIA) · Finnish Matriculation Examination subjects (ylioppilastutkinto) as additional certificates
Languages of instruction:German, Finnish
Deutsche Schule Helsinki sits at Malminkatu 14, 00100 Helsinki, a short walk from Kamppi. Official website: dsh.fi. The Finnish name on the same site is Helsingin Saksalainen koulu. School office: dsh@dsh.fi, +358 9 6850650, Monday–Friday 7.45–15.45, with a quiet hour 10.00–11.30 (and Thursday also 12.00–15.00). Gate: +358 44 7685060. Head of school: Saga Sjölund. Finnish principal: Anu Mälkki. German deputy: Kalle Peuna. Managing director: Joachim Bauer. Student-welfare lead: Noora Sotaniemi.
It is a day school. The pages never offer a boarding house. The December 2025 Grade 1 information PDF calls it Finland’s oldest private school, founded 1881, about 700 students, languages of instruction German and Finnish. The same PDF then prints kindergarten 47, preschool 50, Grades 1–9 549, upper secondary 98, 744 in all. Treat those as the school’s own snapshots. The jobs page prints about 65 teachers and 16 teachers sent from Germany (ADLK) through the Zentralstelle für das Auslandsschulwesen.
Do not confuse this with International School of Helsinki in Ruoholahti. ISH is an English-medium IB continuum that ends in an IB Diploma and an ISH High School Diploma. Do not confuse it with The English School in Meilahti and Pitäjänmäki either. That school is a Finnish–English bilingual private school that finishes with the national ylioppilastutkinto. Deutsche Schule Helsinki is the other animal. The about page says it in one sentence: a German Auslandsschule and a Finnish school for basic education and the upper secondary, a Begegnungsschule of German and Finnish culture. The leaving certificate is the Deutsches Internationales Abitur (DIA). The DIA page and the Finnish lukio page both say that certificate matches a German Abitur and a Finnish ylioppilastutkinto, and that a graduate can apply straight to universities in both countries.
The 336,50 € semester fee is a Finnish private-school charge with lunch in it, not a Geneva-style international tuition. Parents still pay the journey. Every admission page repeats Perusopetuslaki 628/1998 §32: because this is not a City of Helsinki school, there is no municipal school-travel reimbursement.
The history page opens in 1880, when Consul Freiherr von Lamezan, German-speaking families and the Evangelical Church founded a charity that took on the German elementary school in 1881. A separate association followed in 1922, the forerunner of today’s Kouluyhdistys Pestalozzi-Schulverein Skolföreningen ry, still a Finnish-law association (imprint: 0201528-1 / VAT FI02015281). Board chair: Welf Zaeske, hallitus@dsh.fi. Values on the about page: responsibility, openness, respect, sustainability.
The useful questions are German-and-Finnish, not IB. Can this child work in German on the A/C track, or is the door the Finnish-medium B class that starts German from scratch in Grade 1? If you want the DIA, can they hold German at the level a German Auslandsschule actually teaches? If you might stay, do you understand that Swedish or Finnish-as-a-foreign-language ylioppilastutkinto papers are extra, not the main exam? Can you live with 336,50 € a semester plus travel, afternoon care if you need it, and a kindergarten bill that is a different number?
Who it is for
It serves families who want a German–Finnish school life, not an English bubble and not a municipal peruskoulu with a German club. The December 2025 PDF’s nationality snapshot is 62% Finnish, 8% German, 20% German–Finnish, 10% other. Mother-tongue lessons listed for 2025–2026 on that PDF: Finnish, German, English, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese. That is a slide, not a census we counted. It is not a specialist SEN school. The primary page lists special-education staff, a social pedagogue, a school psychologist, a school nurse and study counselling — ordinary Finnish oppilashuolto, not an international learning-support brochure.
Seats are gated by language and by a test. Grade 1 for 2026–2027 has already started; the live admission pages now print the 2027–2028 window. Mid-year places exist only where a class has a gap. This is not a mid-posting walk-in unless the German is already there.
The campuses you can actually picture
Malminkatu is Kamppi. Grades 1–12 share the schoolhouse: own kitchen and lunch, a yard, a gym, and the in-house music school after lessons. The December 2025 PDF mentions class trips without prices: Grades 3–4, one or two nights near Helsinki; Grade 5, two weeks in German host families and a two-week return visit; Grade 7, a ski week in Tanhuvaara; Grade 9, a biology and geography week in Finland; Grade 11, a fourteen-day study trip to Germany. We are not inventing the bill.
Kindergarten is not on Malminkatu. Deutscher Kindergarten Helsinki is a private day-care under the same Pestalozzi association, two sites, both Monday–Friday 7.30–17.00.
Bernhardinkatu 4, 00130 Helsinki, in Kaartinkaupunki, in the rooms of the German Church by Tähtitorninmäki. Groups printed: ages 3–4, preschool 5, preschool 6. Site lead: Madeleine Kugler, bernhardinkatu@kiga.fi.
Itälahdenkatu 21, 00210 Helsinki, in Lauttasaari. Groups: under 3, ages 3, 4, preschool 5, preschool 6. Site lead: Lena Meyer, lauttasaari@kiga.fi. Kindergarten leadership: Janna Schulz, info@kiga.fi, +358 44 7160 440. Administration: Rita Luomakoski.
Book all three buildings. A five-year-old’s Tuesday is not the Malminkatu playground.
How the day is organised
Kindergarten and preschool. Play, gentle interaction, German language and culture beside Finnish culture. Preschool is the bridge: school skills in the familiar kindergarten, visits to the school, play still first. It follows the DSH year calendar. In DSH holidays, full-day care continues as complementary early-childhood education and is billed that way. After preschool ends in June, complementary full-day care (48 hours a week) is charged at the ordinary full-day rate; the July month fee stays the same.
Grades 1–5, two tracks. 1A and 1C are German-speaking. 1B is Finnish-speaking and, the admission pages say, needs no German on day one. The December 2025 PDF draws German preschool into A/C and a Finnish-speaking preschool into B, then both tracks toward a shared 10–12 and the DIA. Primary lists German- and Finnish-speaking specialist teachers, plus English, Swedish, French, Latin and Russian as subjects.
Grades 6–9. Still the two tracks. The middle-school page is short: solid teaching, optional subjects, class trips, “the best of the German and the Finnish school.” Ask the coordinator what that means for this child’s timetable.
Grades 10–12 — one German international leaving exam. Grade 10 is the introductory year and, the programme PDF says, also the end of lower secondary; those marks do not enter the Abitur but they decide promotion. Grades 11 and 12 are the qualification phase. The DIA page: written exams in three subjects in early February, oral exams in two more in mid-April. The Finnish DIA page prints late January and late March for the same two blocks. Confirm the live Abi calendar with Sylvia Sundermann. Subject choice starts in Grade 10; which courses are compulsory is explained at the start of Grade 9. Rules cited: the KMK order and DIA guidelines of 11 June 2015.
Extra papers the certificates page lists, not part of the DIA itself: Finnish ylioppilastutkinto tests in Swedish (two levels) and Finnish as a foreign language (one level); Latinum; CAE through Finnbrit; DELF scolaire; CertiLingua. Own Grade 9 students who passed, the programme PDF adds, also need DSD I to continue automatically — and they still have to apply on time in spring.
Languages, which is the whole school
Instruction is German and Finnish. That is the product. English is a subject, not the medium. The A/C door wants German at mother-tongue level for Grade 1, then keeps it there. The B door starts Finnish-medium with no German required in Grade 1; from Grade 2 the B track wants mother-tongue Finnish and German at that grade’s level. Both tracks also need the subject knowledge of the year.
If you are posting from Germany, A/C is the obvious conversation. If the child is a Finnish speaker with little German, B is the printed door — and you still need to ask how quickly German has to catch the Auslandsschule. An English-only IB pupil is on the wrong campus unless the German is already strong. Swedish is a subject and an optional extra ylioppilastutkinto paper, not the main leaving exam.
How a child actually gets in
Kindergarten and preschool. Applications all year if a place exists; for August groups the printed deadline is 1 March. A taster visit, or Teams if you cannot come. Kindergarten places for August are decided in March by the kindergarten leadership; preschool places by the DSH school leadership. Answers by the end of March. Forms to antrag@kiga.fi. Two forms: kindergarten ages 1–4, preschool ages 5–6. Sideways into preschool: some German for the five-year-olds, good German for the six-year-olds. Ties can look at group mix; then a lottery.
Grade 1 for 2027–2028 (the window the live pages now print). German-track parents’ information 12 January 2027; Finnish-track 13 January 2027; open day 16 January 2027; applications by 20 January 2027; test for 1B on 30 January 2027; test for 1A and 1C on 6 February 2027. Children should turn 7 in the calendar year they start, with preschool behind them. A/C: German is decisive, a published minimum score, ranking if too many pass, siblings then lottery on a tie. B: Finnish mother tongue, mother-tongue skills and problem-solving, same sibling-then-lottery rule. The December 2025 PDF for the already-run 2026 A/C intake adds: one sitting, a group lesson of about 45 minutes plus a 15-minute interview. Use it as a picture of the day, then follow the 2027 dates.
Grades 2–5 for 2027–2028. Applications by 5 March 2027; evaluation 1 April 2027. German track: arriving from a German-speaking country or German at mother-tongue level, usually at year start. Finnish track: mother-tongue Finnish plus German at that grade.
Grades 6–9. Same language rules. Printed dates still on the page for 2026–2027: applications by 16 March 2026, evaluation 9 April 2026. Ask Asta Varjokallio what is left this year.
Grades 10–11. Own Grade 9 who passed are admitted. Outsiders need a right to enter a gymnasiale Oberstufe — passed Grade 9 in a 12-year system, or Grade 10 in a 13-year system — and good German (DSD I or equal). Finnish peruskoulu Grade 9 leavers need DSD I or a German test the head authorises. Applications by the end of February; tests in spring; two or three taster days for Finnish and other non-German schools. August resits if seats remain. Grade 12 is, as a rule, closed. Guest and exchange students: at least one semester. Papers: birth certificate and the last three term reports. If the parents do not live in Finland, the school board decides. Coordinators named on the pages: Sylvia Sundermann, Martha Scheer, Jens Koch. The 17 November 2025 application PDF for Classes 2–11 also asks, for arrivals from abroad, a doctor’s note that the child is fit for school.
Money, as the pages print it
This is a private school. The semester fee the admission pages and the application PDF print is the same from preschool through Grade 12, and it includes lunch.
| Charge |
Amount |
Who / when |
| School fee, regular pupils |
336,50 € / semester |
Preschool and all grades; lunch included |
| Guest pupils (stay longer than two weeks) |
170 € / month |
Lunch included, on the 17 November 2025 application PDF |
| Kindergarten, under 3, from 1 March 2026 |
1400,00 € / month |
Lauttasaari U3 group |
| Kindergarten, ages 3, 4 and 5 / first preschool year, from 1 March 2026 |
1034,00 € / month |
Age 5 also pays the preschool fee below |
| Kindergarten, age 6 / second preschool year, from 1 March 2026 |
555,00 € / month |
Plus the preschool fee below |
| Preschool fee to DSH |
ca. 337 € / semester |
Separate invoice, kindergarten fees page |
| Afternoon care, Grades 1–2 |
100 € / month to 16.00; 120 € to 17.00 |
City of Helsinki application for these two years |
| Afternoon care, Grades 3–4 |
145 € / month to 16.00; 165 € to 17.00 |
Apply to DSH; no legal right to a place |
From 1 March 2026 use the figures above. Older bracketed prices on that page ran only to 28 February 2026.
Kela private-care support — statutory allowance, income-related supplement, and a Helsinki supplement if you are registered in Helsinki — is described, not priced, on the kindergarten fees page. Helsinki-registered families may also get a City sibling reduction. We are not inventing a net kindergarten bill after Kela.
No City of Helsinki travel card or journey refund. The admission pages say so because this is a private school.
Afternoon care (Nabe) is in the school building for Grades 1–4: pickup after lessons, snack in the canteen, homework with help but not one-to-one tutoring, two carers per group, about 22 children. Grades 1–2 have a legal claim and apply through the City; Grades 3–4 only if the school can staff it. Holiday care “can” be offered. The 2025 summer-care page printed 2–19 June 2025, 8.00–16.00, 35 places. We are not inventing a 2026 holiday-care price.
The Finnish homepage says school clubs are free. The music school page prints no euro fee. Ask for the live invoice.
A first-year who is not a guest pupil is 336,50 € a semester plus travel, optional afternoon care, and trips the school will not price here — not a Geneva international bill. A kindergarten five-year-old is 1034,00 € a month plus about 337 € a semester to the school, before Kela.
Support, and the limit the pages admit
Student welfare is named, not promised as a specialist unit. Noora Sotaniemi leads it. Afternoon care says it cannot offer individual support teaching. If the file is thin, say so before you send the form to antrag@kiga.fi or sit the Grade 1 test.
What to ask on the stairs
Ask which track you are applying to, in writing: A/C or B. Ask whether a 2026–2027 mid-year seat still exists, or whether you are in the 2027–2028 Grade 1 queue. Ask how fast B-track German has to rise, and whether this child would sit extra Swedish or Finnish-as-a-foreign-language ylioppilastutkinto papers. Ask for the kindergarten invoice after Kela, in writing. Ask the music-school price; the page does not print one. Walk Malminkatu, and if the child is small, walk Bernhardinkatu and Lauttasaari.
The 2026–2027 calendar the school prints: autumn 12 August–19 December 2026, autumn break 12–16 October, Christmas 21 December 2026–6 January 2027; spring 7 January–5 June 2027, a Saturday school day and open day 16 January 2027, ski break 22–26 February, Easter 26–30 March, Ascension 6 May.
What we are not claiming
We are not ranking this school against ISH or The English School. We are not guessing a waitlist. We are not inventing a music-school fee, a 2026 holiday-care price, or a camp-school bill.
Read the kindergarten fees page, the primary admission page, and the DIA page before you resign a flat in another country. This is a map. The school still has to be the right Tuesday.
Sources used for this portrait
Official pages and documents we read. If a figure matters to your budget or your application, open the link and confirm it is still current.
Friendly orientation, not an application. Dates, fees, and programme details move. Confirm everything with the school.