It was founded as a grammar school for the singers of the capella sanctae crucis (Latin for "Chapel of the Holy Cross"), now the Dresdner Kreuzchor.

The school is now a Protestant Gymnasium, officially called the Evangelisches Kreuzgymnasium.

[1] Richard Wagner was a pupil of the school for 5 years from the age of 9 to 14, enrolling in 1821.

[1] The school was at this period moved to the building of the former Masonic Institute, in the Striesen district of Dresden.

At that time, 850 students were enrolled in the school, 145 of them singers of the Dresdner Kreuzchor.