With service-oriented programs like a fire brigade and a THW (Technical Support Organisation), the school seeks to offer education on a social as well as an academic level.

[4] In the period of the Third Reich, Hahn, who was Jewish, was forced to emigrate to Scotland, where he founded the British Salem School of Gordonstoun and subsequently the Outward Bound organisation and the United World Colleges.

Students may either continue in the German system (Abitur) or enter the international classes and the IB Diploma Programme, in which the primary language of instruction is English.

In 2013 the one-year interdisciplinary Salem Kolleg was opened in Überlingen; it is a studium generale programme seeking to prepare high school graduates for their academic and professional future through an orientation year of classes, career counseling, personal assessment, and outdoor leadership courses.

The Upper (secondary) School is in Spetzgart Castle – along the shores of Lake Constance – and the new campus of Härlen (Grades 11 and 12, IB years 1 and 2).