About Us

Its origins date back to 1893 when social reformers and feminists in Berlin established the Girls and Women's Groups for Social Aide Work, initiating systematic training for social work through one-year courses. Building upon this foundation, in 1908, Alice Salomon founded the Social School for Women in Berlin-Schöneberg, offering a two-year curriculum that integrated theoretical and practical training. This institution became a model for social work education in Germany, emphasizing interdisciplinarity, the integration of theory and practice, and an international perspective—principles that continue to define ASH Berlin's programs today.

Though students were mostly from Germany, the school admitted some foreign students, like Rayna Petkova, who would become one of the first professionally trained social workers of Bulgaria. The curricula included both theoretical training and required practical experience. Among the courses offered were family problems, pedagogy, population analysis and change, psychology, social health organization, social work as a profession, youth services, among others. Some of the teachers of the courses, besides Salomon, included Käthe Bonikowsky, Margarethe Freiin von Erffa, Elly Heuss-Knapp, Hilde Lion, Elisabeth Nietzsche, and Helene Weber, among others.

It admitted only women applicants until 1945. It was renamed the Alice Salomon School in 1932 in commemoration of Salomon's 60th birthday. In 1933, the Nazi Party came to power and Alice Salomon was banned from the school and a large number of instructors of Jewish descent were fired. In 1937, Alice Salomon was expelled from Germany and emigrated to the United States. It was not until 1954 that the school reinstated the name "Alice Salomon School".

The school was recognized as a State University of Applied Sciences for Social Work and Social Pedagogy in 1971 and was granted the right to confer degrees, although it once again lost the name "Alice Salomon". In 1991, the 'Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences' was established as the official name of the university.