Although it is owned and supported by the German Association of the Holy Land, it is currently in the care of the international convent of the Sisters of the Congregation of Jesus.

In 1886 a school for Arab girls was established in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, then part of the Ottoman Empire, in the newly built "Old Hospice", which it shared with a pilgrims hospice and a medical station, at what is today number 25 on Hillel Street, a street leading east towards the Jaffa Gate.

In 1890, the German Lazarist, Father Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt [de] (1833-1907) took on the administrative role for the school, developing it until his fatal accident.

The kaiser had already supported the construction of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Old City and the establishment of the Abbey of the Dormition on Mount Zion.

With his support, the German Association of the Holy Land acquired two parcels directly opposite the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, where they built the Paulus-Haus.

After Schmidt died in 1907, the administrative role was passed on to Father Ernst Schmitz [de], who continued building the library and expanded the natural sciences collections.

When it reopened, under the British Mandate of Palestine, English replaced German as the main teaching language.

The old hospice in Hillel Street, used as a school building, lay in the western, Israeli part of Jerusalem after the ceasefire agreement of 1949.

However, the students mainly lived in East Jerusalem, then under Jordanian administration and had to cross the ceasefire line on their way to the college.

The headmaster, Father Sonnen, was able to achieve the move quickly through the support of the Israeli authorities, enlisting the help over 60 vans for the transportation purposes.

The twelve-year school period finishes with the Palestinian Tawjihi certificate and the Deutsche Internationale Abiturprüfung [de] (DIAP, "German International Abitur Program").