The Ernestine Gymnasium (Latin name: Ernestinum, used in German) is a humanistic and modern gymnasium in Gotha, Germany, the successor of the Illustrious Gymnasium (Gymnasium illustre), founded in 1524, which in 1853 was merged with the recently founded Real-Gymnasium Ernestinum, named in honour of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The merged school continued to be known as the Ernestinum. Until 1947, when it was closed, it was considered the oldest gymnasium in the German-speaking world. It was re-founded in 1991, shortly after German reunification.
History
The school's earliest forerunner was a Latin school at the parish church of St Mary, which is mentioned in 1291.
On 21 December 1524, the school was founded by Friedrich Myconius, a friend of Martin Luther, in the cloister of the Augustinian monastery of Gotha, which was in the process of being dissolved, and was given the Latin name Gymnasium Gothanum. As a result of the Reformation, in