Höhere Mädchenschule

Some early institutions of higher education for girls were called Lyceum, while the term Gymnasium was first used only for boys' schools.

The Mariengymnasium in Papenburg, for example, was founded around 1835 for the female youth from upper estates ("die weibliche Jugend höherer Stände").

One of its teachers, Johann Heinrich Meier [de], founded in 1806 a private institution for girls in Lübeck, which existed until 1871.

Many girls from poor families left school as soon as compulsory education was served, to fulfil other duties.

Helene Lange achieved in 1908, in collaboration with the responsible Prussian cultural politician Friedrich Althoff and other reformers, that schools for girls were fundamentally restructured.