The first Protestant alumnat in the Rhine province was founded in Moers in 1885. Foreign students of the Gymnasium Adolfinum moved into the two classicist houses of the "Filder Erziehungsanstalt", which henceforth bore the name "Martinstift". Dr. Johannes Zahn (1828- 1905), director of the Adolfinum, had advocated the establishment of an alumnate in Moers.
The history of the Martinstift is closely connected with the Zahn family.In 1832, the Protestant pedagogue Franz Ludwig Zahn (1798-1890) came with his wife Anna, née Schlatter (1800-1853) from the Elbe to the Lower Rhine. From Dresden, where he was director of the von Fletcherschen Lehrerseminar, Zahn was appointed to succeed Adolph Diesterweg (1790-1866) as head of the Moers Lehrerseminar, not least on the recommendation of the Crown Prince and later Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (reigned 1840- 1858). The textbook he wrote, "Biblical History," was used in elementary schools in Germany and abroad into the 20th century. Zahn was influenced by the pedagogue Wilhelm Harnisch (1787-1864), through whom he had become acquainted with the pedagogy of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) at the teacher training seminar in Weißenfels an der Saale.
From 1832, Zahn developed a rich literary and entrepreneurial activity alongside his duties as Moers seminary principal. In the same year, he founded the publishing house "Rheinische Schulbuchhandlung," and in 1835 the "Filder Druckerei. In addition, he published three magazines, the "Schulchronik" and the "Dorfchronik," and finally "Der Grafschafter," which is considered one of the forerunners of the "Rheinische Post. In 1837, Zahn acquired the Fild estate, located just outside the city of Moers, from the von Essen family. In 1841, construction began on the two classroom buildings for the preparatory school, attendance at which served as preparation for studies at the teachers' seminary. Ongoing disputes with the school bureaucracy led Zahn to take his leave as seminary director in 1857.
After 1857, the preparatory school became the "Filder Erziehungsanstalt". In 1885, Franz Volkmar Zahn (1830-1891) sold the buildings to the Moers Alumnats-Verein, which subsequently ran the "Martinstift" there and erected a third building in 1890. Closed in the meantime, the Stift was reopened in 1952 and finally abandoned in 1970. In 1978, the city of Moers acquired the buildings. Today, the Martinstift is the home of the Moers Music School and the Lower Rhine Chamber Orchestra.
