Its original institution, the Debrecen szabad királyi város Főreáltanodája was opened on November 3, 1873.
At that time it was a boys only school, its main topics were modern languages, mathematics and natural sciences.
Its building was designed by Károly Meixner and was started in 1891 and in 1893 its gates opened for the students.
The name "Fazekas Mihály" was adopted in 1922, and it became a high school in 1934, when the education system was standardised.
Since 2000 the high school started unique dual-language classes in Hungarian-Spanish and Hungarian-French languages.