The Städelschule was established by the Städel Institute in 1817, following an endowment left by Johann Friedrich Städel (1728–1816), a wealthy banker and patron of the arts. In a deed dated 15 March 1815 he left his house, his art collection and his fortune to establish a museum – now the Städel Museum – and to pay for the training in art and architecture of deserving students, in the hope that they might be “…educated to become valuable and useful citizens and artists”.[3]: 322 [4]
Städel died on 2 December 1816, and from 1817 scholarships were given out. It was Städel’s intention only that funds should be provided to pay for students’ tuition at other schools, however the institute employed its first teacher, Johann Andreas Benjamin Reges (1772–1847), from 1817. He taught students in his house, and, from Summer 1817, at an orphanage; nineteen students were taught in the first year. In 1829 it was decided that the Städel Institute of Art would be an art education institute and the teachers Philipp Veit (1793–1877, painting), Friedrich Maximilian Hessemer (1800–1860, architecture) and Johann Nepomuk Zwerger [de] (1796–1868, sculpture) were appointed. Around 1930, the Frankfurt Kunstgewerbeschule (established 1878) was incorporated into the Städelschule.[5][6]
The school was later taken over by the city of Frankfurt. Until the end of 2018 it was the only tertiary institution in Germany to be funded by a city rather than state administration; in 2007 it received €3.8 million from the city.[3]: 322 From 1 January 2019 the school became an educational institution of the state of Hesse, and is funded by that state.[7]
In 1970, Günther Bock [de] was appointed Professor and Head of the Architecture Class.[8] The Master of Advanced Design evolved from the postgraduate program “Conceptual Design” established by Bock;[9][10] it was later led by Peter Cook, Enric Miralles, Ben van Berkel[11] and Johan Bettum.[12] It was not funded by the state of Hesse, and was closed down in October 2020 for reasons associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.[13]
