It was founded on 18 April 1803 by Wilhelm Friedrich Hufnagel as a Realschule and is Frankfurt's second oldest higher school after the Lessing Gymnasium.

It received the name Musterschule due to being an experimental and progressive school based on Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi's educational ideas.

[2] In 1805 Klitscher was succeeded by Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel as the school's head teacher.

The Philanthropin, Frankfurt's most renowned Jewish school, shortly after moved into a neighbouring building across the street.

The Musterschule also had a high proportion of Jewish pupils, around 20%, until the 1930s when they were gradually forced out by the Nazis.