Bonn American High School
Developed out of an elementary school that originally opened in 1952, it was intended to support the families of personnel at the U.S. Embassy – which grew to become the largest U.S. Embassy in the world with over 900 Americans and 600 local staff – in Bonn, West Germany, then the linchpin of the West's engagement during the Cold War.
BAHS closed in 1997 following the transition of the Embassy to Berlin, and was part of the Post-War American Plittersdorf settlement [de],[1][2] now a protected historical area.
The American School on Rhine as it was initially called, had grades 1-8 and was located in an apartment building of the HICOG Plittersdorf housing project at the corner of Europastrasse and what was then Turmstrasse (later renamed Martin-Luther-King, Jr Strasse).
US Assistant High Commissioner Chauncey G. Parker cut the ribbon opening the school on March 21, 1952.
Immediately following WWII's end, the four occupying powers – the United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union – administered Germany.
They took a U.S. Embassy bus to these schools on Sunday evening and stayed in dormitories during the week, returning to Plittersdorf on Friday afternoon.
Unlike Berlin, Bonn had no particular international community, but in the Post-War period and throughout the Cold War, it was a key European capital.
[5] Bonn International School opened in the same facilities as BAHS in autumn 1997, eventually demolishing and rebuilding the physical plant entirely.
Their mascot was Clarence, a suit of armor now in the archives of the American Overseas Schools Historical Society in Wichita, Kansas.
BAHS was in the Benenor Conference, which was made up of DoDDs and NATO schools in Belgium, The Netherlands, and Northern Germany.
The boys' basketball team was a perennial powerhouse, winning the European Championship in its first season in 1971/72 with a 16–1 record.
Unfortunately Shapiro Field was torn down in 1973 allowing the American Club to expand and build additional tennis courts.
