Planned by Heinrich von Ferstel, the Wasagymnasium was built between 1869 and 1871 and was officially inaugurated on 16 October 1871. For many decades the school was popular amongst the cultured Jewish bourgeoisie. In 1900, around 70% of the students were Jewish, whereas in 1938 there were only around 50% Jewish students. The Anschluss to the Third Reich put an end to this in 1938 and the school was relocated. Instead, the Gau administration of the Reichsgau Niederdonau used the school building as its headquarters. In the meanwhile, the Wasagymnasium used the school building of the Schottengymnasium, which was shut down by the Nazis, from 1938 until 1945. In 2007, a group of students and their teacher organised a school project, called Erinnern , in order to research the fates of former Jewish students. Furthermore, the school also installed a commemorative plaque, honouring and remembering all the students and teachers who were victims of Nazism.
Today
Known as one of the most demanding schools in Austria, the Wasagymnasium offers a traditional humanistic education with a focus on classical languages as well as a focus on modern languages. Furthermore, the school also offers an education with an emphasis on science. Its students regularly participate in different competitions, most notable the various language competitions in which the students of the Wasagymnasium were able to achieve many awards in the past few years. The University of Vienna cooperates with the Wasagymnasium and offers student teacher internships for its university students. Several teachers from the Wasagymnasium also teach at the University of Vienna. The school building of the Wasagymnasium is also used by the educational centre for Chinese in Vienna. The Wasagymnasium has two gyms, one in the main school building and another bigger gym in a different building, located at Wasagasse 20, 1090 Vienna. Since 2007, the Wasagymnasium is also the location of the Nox Latina, the long night of Latin, organised together with two other Viennese secondary schools and the University of Vienna.
