[1] Selection for admission to the schools was rigorous; pupils were chosen for their political dedication and physical fitness, as opposed to their academic prowess.

[2] It was Ley's intention to erect a "Gauburg" (citadel) in every Gau, and subsequently create an entire NSDAP school system, transforming the state-supported National-Political Educational Institutes.

[3] Resistance to this plan from education minister Bernhard Rust stalled the original project until 1941, when the Adolf Hitler Schools gained the support of the German Labor Front.

This was followed by a two-week selection process at a camp, where the candidates were evaluated according to specified criteria, standards that included but were not limited to: The first AHS opened on 20 April 1937 (Hitler's forty-eighth birthday) in Pomeranian Crössinsee, and while the Hitler Youth's (HJ) leadership envisioned fifty such schools with in excess of 15,000 students, as late as the end of 1943 only ten schools were operational with a meager 2,027 pupils in attendance.

[5] Hitler described the aims of the AHS in the following terms: Scholarship lagged significantly behind as a criterion for success at these schools, namely since time-honored curricula and teacher qualifications were sacrificed for Nazi commitment.