In 1903, the boys of the Maisonsgoutte and Steige schools were treated to a special school outing to Haut Koenigsbourg, which William II of Hohenzollern had decided to renovate.
All the pupils looked very smart in their Sunday best.
The people accompanying them were also very elegant: the headmasters, their wives and their children. Look at the ladies, so elegantly dressed in their beautiful hats!
This outing was clearly a day of celebration:
Monsieur Georges Schmitter, headmaster of the Maisonsgoutte school, organist and secretary of the town hall, is leaning against the beam of the scaffolding while his wife sits to his right.
Mr Frindel, his colleague, is leaning on his walking stick, while his wife sits on the rock with their little daughters at her side. A third lady, whose identity we do not know, is in the picture.
Times have certainly changed, and what can we say about the freedom given to schoolchildren to climb the scaffolding of the castle, which was being rebuilt!
(Sources: Monique and Nicole, granddaughters of Georges Schmitter)