The school uses the buildings of a former Franciscan monastery next to Saint Catherine Church, which was extended in the 1880s.

At the Katharineum it is possible to choose Latin as the first foreign language.

In year nine it is also possible to choose ancient Greek as the third foreign language.

Mann, who as a bad student had to resit two years, made it clear that he disliked the Katharineum by describing both the school and the teachers with strong sarcasm.

His brother Heinrich Mann described the school and one infamous teacher in Professor Unrat.