After almost 170 years, the school tradition on the Rhine island of Nonnenwerth near Remagen ended on Friday with many children's tears.

On their last day of school before the summer holidays, several hundred students from the Rhineland-Palatinate high school on the state border with North Rhine-Westphalia released black balloons as a sign of mourning.

They had written messages on cards attached to it.

Because of his many students from North Rhine-Westphalia with siblings in schools there, Nonnenwerth had its own holiday regulations - in Rhineland-Palatinate they only start on July 23 this time.

In North Rhine-Westphalia there have been long holidays since the end of June.

After a church service at Nonnenwerth, the girls and boys crossed over to Remagen for the last time in several trips on the left-bank ferry with brass band music from students and teachers.

There they said goodbye to their private all-day school with flowers and hugs.

Principal Andrea Monreal said: "This is a very bad day, a sad day." She said goodbye to all the students individually at the ferry dock.

They have to change schools.

They had repeatedly demonstrated for the preservation of their high school.

Politicians also searched for a solution – in vain.

The private school authority and island owner Peter Soliman justified the closure with insufficient fire protection in the huge listed school building.

He didn't know anything about this when he bought the island from the Nonnenwerth Franciscan nuns about two and a half years ago.

With several hundred thousand euros, the continuation of the lessons was made possible at least until the end of the school year.

According to Soliman, the cost of permanently eliminating the fire protection deficiencies is estimated by experts at more than ten million euros.

"We simply cannot bear these costs in an economically justifiable way," he explained.

Despite an intensive search, no other school authority was found under these circumstances, to his regret.

The number of students had increased during his time and they all passed this year's Abitur.