The creation of this book was like founding a school – we needed patience, perseverance and staying power.

We had to contend with a number of delays: the commitments we needed did not come as quickly as we would have liked; the publisher announced that it would no longer be producing print media; our friend and BFAS board colleague Uwe Schröder passed away; a pandemic raged across the globe; and yet we did not give up.

Although I must admit: there were times when I no longer believed that this book would ever be published. And now it has happened after all.

What's it all about?

Since 1986, the Federal Association of Independent Alternative Schools (BFAS) has been supporting and advising school founding initiatives on their way to becoming independent schools. From 2009 to 2019, I was a member of the board and in this role I had the opportunity to get to know many school founding initiatives, read concepts, provide advice at the annual federal meetings and finally, together with Klaus Amann, Tilmann Kern and Uwe Schröder, began to design and offer school founding workshops.

The starter kit was a BFAS product that had been around for many years before I joined and had undergone several revisions. It was also a bestseller for BFAS, but production and shipping always took a lot of time, so the idea arose to turn it into a book.

We took this project as an opportunity to reflect once again on the process of founding schools and supporting them, and instead of the 12-step programme in the start-up folder, we compiled a handbook in 15 modules. Klaus Amann, Tilman Kern and I rewrote and reworked some texts for this purpose, but we also collected previously published texts on free schools and gave them a new home in the new book. That is why we see ourselves as editors rather than authors. Without all the support from other active members of the free school community, the book would not have been possible.

The 15 building blocks

One of the most important things when founding a school is probably the awareness that founders invoke the fundamental right under Article 7 of the Basic Law and do not have any absurd ideas that would make them supplicants to the authorities. Founding independent schools is part of civil society, in which people campaign for local change and actively shape it. There are now over 150 independent alternative schools in Germany, organised within the BFAS, and a further 45 founding initiatives across the country. The building blocks in the book are:

• Find a founding group
• Discover inspiring schools
• Discover inspiring places and people
• Developing your own school concept
• Learning to know and understand school law
• Establish an association
• Clarify decision-making structures
• raise money
• Making the school economically viable – financial planning
• Personnel planning
• Find rooms
• open doors
• submit an application
• Check approval notice
• The school opening ceremony

The book is rounded off with an extensive section of appendices containing sample statutes, financial plans, brief concepts, interviews and school portraits of existing schools.

In view of the current educational situation in Germany, which has also led to calls and protests under the slogan „Education must be different“As the debate becomes increasingly heated, it is becoming ever more important to take the initiative and change the public school system.

I am convinced that our book contributes to this.

The book „Freie Schule gründen“ (Starting a Free School) is now available in German bookshops or directly from BFAS.

Order the book from BFAS