Location: Mülheim

Was this really a military school?
It certainly was - between 1945-1969.

Jean (who was there in 1962) describes.......I am beginning to think that perhaps I am the only one in this group that went to an Army school in Mülheim that was a beautiful Manor House that had been owned by Baron Fritz Von Thyssen.
From Duisberg, where my Dad was stationed, the journey to Mülheim in a military bus took over an hour through a beautiful forest.

Angela remembers......... Gosh this brings back memories!
Mülheim school was the first BFES School I attended. It really stands out in my memory. It was an amazing building - a real rabbit warren of a place.
We had an art room up in attic and I remember a swimming pool in the woods that we used in the summer.
Our playground equipment was an army obstacle course!

We were always told that the building was originally Baron von Thyssen's hunting lodge.

Liz.......I attended Mülheim School when we were living in Duisburg - we used to go in an old army bus. I remember the Art Room in the attic.
There were lots of stories about its use in the war. The grounds were wonderful and I have very happy memories of my time there.

Other views of what must have been an amazing school.....now a listed building and converted into luxurious apartments (all sold).

In 1945 the English set up a British boarding school in the building - the so-called "English School". After the English vacated the country house in 1969, it stood empty for a few years. The owner Fritz Thyssen had died in the meantime and his heirs sold the villa in 1973 to the Mülheim entrepreneurial family Grillo, who extensively restored the building and then moved into it.
Until 1993, the house was one of the best-preserved entrepreneurial villas on the Rhine and Ruhr, almost unchanged since it was originally built. Then a fire destroyed the property to the ground.
The owner and resident Marita Grillo died.
In 1999 the property with the remains of the building was sold to a Duisburg investment company.
They then implemented their concept of integrating high-quality condominiums into the villa and converting some of the outbuildings into residential units.
In 2003 it was rebuilt as "Villa Park Uhlenhorst".
The external appearance of "Villa Anita" was largely restored.
The residential park can be found at the address Grossenbaumer Straße 246-252, but it is privately owned and not open to the public.

The history and B&W images are courtesy of the Stadt Archiv Mühlheim and reproduced with their permission.