The Heilbronn "Gymnasium" about 1830; Adolf Cluss attended school in this building; he was probably enrolled in the "Realklasse" from 1833 to 1841 - Lithograph of the Brothers Wolff

At school

Like all the children in his age, young Adolf attended the "Volksschule" (public primary school); he probably entered school in 1831, most likely the boys' school located in the Klostergasse in Heilbronn. Religion and ethics were the main subjects, followed by reading, writing and arithmetic. Singing classes were devoted to the practice of religious (Protestant) hymns.

After two years of "Volksschule", boys had the opportunity to transfer to the "Gymnasium" (high school). Beginning in 1827, it was possible for Heilbronn students to switch to a "Realklasse" (vocational track), after three years of "Gymnasium". The "Realklasse" emphazised new educational subjects so that students could "receive a higher education as future businessmen, professionals, artists, etc., without having to devote themselves to university studies".

Adolf Cluss probably began at "Gymnasium" in 1833. The later course of his life suggests he opted for the "Realklasse"; if indeed he did, his school years would have come to an end in 1841.

Several of the teachers, who might have taught him, were to become politically prominent in the years leading up to the 1848 revolution and may thus have laid the foundation for Cluss's participation in the communist movement. Johann Franz Arnold may also have belonged to the circle of teachers. He began teaching English in the "Realklasse" in 1831.

His son Franz, born 1829 in Heilbronn, emigrated like Adolf Cluss to the United States. He could well be the Franz Arnold whom Cluss describes in an 1852 letter to Weydemeyer as a "Fresco painter from Heilbronn", and in another as "a young man not without talents, although only one to one-and-one-half years ago he was still an immature twit". Cluss goes on to report, "because of a cute, silly little girl, Rosa Schmidt in Baltimore, he nearly turned his back on his whole political engagement; it was only the old man Schmidt's refusal to give his blessing to this marriage that in part saved him from this fiasco". As he wrote that letter, Adolf Cluss most certainly could not have imagined that he himself would marry this very same Rosa Schmidt in 1859.