Founder of King Charles’s hated former school believed he could ‘cure’ puberty as former pupils claim he ‘personally bathed boys’, report claims

The founder of King Charles’s hated former school which he called ‘Colditz in Kilts’, believed he could ‘cure’ puberty through his ‘educational laboratory’, a report claims.

Three generations of the Royal Family were educated at Gordonstoun – which featured in Netflix’s hit series ‘The Crown’ – and was founded by Dr Kurt Hahn, a Jewish-German educator who fled the Nazis.

Last year, Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry chairman Lady Smith found children who boarded at fee-paying Gordonstoun School in Moray were ‘exposed to risks of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse’.

Lady Smith said the abuse ‘materialised’ for many pupils, and continued ‘for a long time’ at the school, which Charles attended from 1962 to 1967.

A bombshell new report has revealed that Hahn believed he was a member of a ‘secret society’ that aimed to prove ‘the spiritual strength of childhood can be preserved, unbroken and undiluted’.

He ran an ‘educational laboratory’ where boys had to run barefoot through snow.

Hahn would supervise students as they showered or washed them himself, in what has been slammed as ‘deeply disturbing and inappropriate’ behaviour.

Hahn told students to avoid cycling uphill, stop drinking water with meals and not to take aspirin for the apparent good of their health as he looked for a ‘preventative cure’ to puberty.

Charles arrived at Gordonstoun in April 1962 after spending four years at Cheam School in Hampshire.

He stayed until 1967 and left as House Captain and Guardian (Head Boy) with five O-levels.

He was the first future British monarch to be educated at school rather than tutored at home and it has been well publicised that he referred to his time there as ‘absolute hell’.

A spokesman for Gordonstoun previously said that it has never been independently verified that the King used the phrase ‘Colditz in kilts’ and added that it ‘misrepresents student life at the school during this period.’

A new report quoted Hahn as saying: ‘We believe that present day civilisation is diseased, often sapping the strength of the young,’ The Times reported.

‘Again and again I have been weighed down by the fatalistic acquiescence of parents in the deforming influences of ‘puberty’ that must destroy all promise of the nursery,’ he wrote. ‘I believe our boys do not fade.

‘When they leave, their love, their curiosity, their pugnacity are intact as they were when their mothers brought them to school. The 19-year-old still radiates the freshness of childhood.’

Hahn insisted that ‘non-poisonous’ activities such as running, hiking and sailing could prevent ‘sexual impulses’ from developing in his pupils.

The head was secretly dismissed and sent to seek medical help as his behaviour became increasingly erratic, the report said.

He died aged 88, in 1974 after returning to his native Germany.

The school’s website reads: ‘The school’s founder Kurt Hahn was ahead of his time with his understanding of the benefits of cold showers for immunity, energy and indeed mental health!’

Lack of oversight and effective child protection measures, ill-prepared staff, and insufficient recruitment polices all contributed to abuse at the school, the report found.

Lady Smith described the junior school as having a ‘culture of naivety’ between the 1960s and 1990s, but said new leadership at the senior school in 1990 brought positive change with a focus on child protection.

The inquiry heard in 2021 of racism, grooming and ‘extreme violence’ at the senior school.

‘It was only after 1990 and the appointment of a headmaster who understood the importance of pastoral care that abuse eventually began to be addressed and a measure of trust was restored.

‘A dreadfully abusive and, in some houses, extremely violent culture was allowed to take root. Abuse was also perpetrated by staff. The evidence of abuse was clear from the accounts of many applicants.’

Lady Smith said: ‘There have been periods in Gordonstoun’s history where abuse was allowed to be normalised for decades. It seems clear, however, that for the last 30 years or so, some good leaders have sought to recover the position.’ 

In response to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, Lisa Kerr, the principal from 2016 to 2024, issued a public apology, stating: ‘Since reports of historic abuse came to our attention in 2013, we have taken a proactive approach, addressing matters openly and offering whatever support possible.’ 

Prince Philip, one of Hahn’s first pupils, steadfastly stood by the teacher right up until his death.

‘Hahn undoubtedly made an immense contribution to education in its broadest sense,’ he wrote in 2011. 

‘Inevitably this makes him sound like some zealous and dedicated reformer, with barely a shred of humanity or humour.

‘In fact, of course, his heart was even bigger than his brain and a twinkle was never far from his eye. He was undoubtedly a visionary.’

The prince based his Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme on the outdoor assignments issued by Hahn in the 1930s.