Today, the school is subject to regulation by the Turkish Ministry of National Education, and almost its entire student body is Turkish, but a large part of its administrative and teaching staff remains Austrian (appointed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Research), and it offers a mixture of Turkish and Austrian curricula in a bilingual environment.
History
Sankt Georg was founded in 1882 by Austrian Lazarists and was originally intended for German-speaking Catholic children living in the Ottoman Empire. After the Ottoman (and Austrian) defeat in World War I, the school was ordered closed by the occupying Triple Entente forces in Istanbul, and all of its staff was sent back to Austria. The school was reopened shortly afterwards when the Republic of Turkey was founded (1923). After the annexation of Austria by the Nazi Germany in 1938, the school turned into a "German school" and it was closed once again in 1944, due to the freezing of relations between Turkey and Germany. It was reopened in 1947. In 1995, the girls' and boys' schools were merged.
Curriculum
The school combines both the Austrian and the Turkish curricula to prepare its students for the Turkish and Austrian school leaving examinations and to enrich their general knowledge. Under the current curriculum, students at Sankt Georg can learn up to three foreign languages. German and English are the two compulsory foreign languages taught at Sankt Georg.
Aside from these two languages, students can choose either Latin or French as their third foreign language. Most subjects (including math, sciences, philosophy and arts) are taught in German by Austrian teachers, but subjects related to Turkish culture and language (such as Turkish literature, history and geography) are taught in Turkish by Turkish teachers. Students learn German in a compulsory one-year preparatory program.
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The current school library opened in 1988, after 2 small libraries within the school building were brought together. As of 2020, it contains more than 26,000 books, 20 periodicals/magazines in Turkish, German and English, and CDs/DVDs.
Alumni
Alumni of Sankt Georg gather every year in the last week of April at a re-union called "Strudeltag". Another annual re-union is organised around May in Vienna, which is intended for the graduates of Sankt Georg living/studying in Austria or in other European countries.
Notable alumni
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(October 2020)
List sorted in alphabetical order of surnames:
Ian F. Akyildiz, Ken Byers Chair Professor in Telecommunications, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Aret Güzel Aleksanyan, founder of Vienna Interkul Theater (Wiener Interkul Theater), 2008 Vienna City Gold Medal for Outstanding Service
Zerrin Arbaş, actress and Best Model of Turkey 1965