Berlin Model United Nations 2017

BERMUN is tops among the MUN conferences Schiller students attend. The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung provides an impressive venue for the opening ceremony, the John F. Kennedy School offers professional organization of the committee sessions, and the bilingual JFK student officers ensure a high standard of language and debate. The three-day conference, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, attracts over 700 delegates from around the world.

This year all of the experienced MUNers from the English Zusatzkurs were lucky enough to get a place at BERMUN. They represented the United Kingdom, which meant plenty of action for those who served on the Security Council, where the UK is a permanent member with veto power.

Model United Nations of Hamburg  2017

The 2017-18 MUN year started off with a new conference that will most likely become a permanent fixture on our schedule: Model United Nations of Hamburg (MUNOH). With 300 delegates from around the world, MUNOH is big enough to offer a wide variety of issues, but not so big as to be overwhelming for inexperienced delegates. Topics ranged from climate change and desertification to the right to asylum and clean water.

The conference was hosted by Gymnasium Meiendorf, a school with circa 950 students in grades 5 to 12 which has a focus on music and bilingual education. The opening and closing ceremonies were held in the imposing 19th-century Hamburger Rathaus, where Bürgermeister Olaf Scholz himself was on hand to welcome us in the Kaisersaal.

As usual we did not have much free time for sightseeing, but the youth hostel provided clean and friendly accommodation and meals within a reasonable distance from the conference venue.

Thanks to Xavier, the storm that blew through Germany on October 5th, our train was cancelled and we had to switch to a bus for the trip home.

We look pretty smart, don't we?

Baltic Model United Nations 2017

The Schiller delegation to BALMUN included not only 14 delegates, but also two experienced 10th-grade students who served as student officers on the BALMUN team. This was the first MUN conference for several of our eighth-graders. They managed to overcome their nervousness and participate actively in their committees. Several of them have caught the MUN bug and have already signed up for their next conference!

PORG Model United Nations 2017

Although PORGMUN was scheduled for the first weekend of Easter break, thirteen Schiller delegates were eager to make the trip to the fascinating city of Prague. PORGMUN is organized by Nový PORG and PORG Libeň schools in Prague. The PORG group established the first private school in the Czech Republic in 1990 after the end of Communist power. Nový PORG is now a bilingual school that offers the International Baccalaureate diploma and attracts a diverse student body with a strong academic focus.

The conference is organized and run entirely by PORG students. Although the end result may not be quite as smooth and polished as the other conferences we attend, delegates appreciated the emphasis on personal contact, warm-up activities and active participation in committees. The delegates as well as the student officers ranged from first-timers to highly experienced, giving some of our pros a chance to point out procedural errors that otherwise might have gone unnoticed. Five of our thirteen delegates were voted one of the two best delegates on their committee!

And the Best Delegate Award goes to ...

Our accommodations at Hostel Downtown offered an excellent, inexpensive cooked breakfast as well as a self-catering kitchen for the night we cooked our own meal. With a gigantic Tesco supermarket just across the street, no one had to worry about not having enough to eat.

Half of the group solved the problem of not having time for sightseeing by extending our stay for two extra nights. Beautiful weather, a friendly guide from the hostel, interesting Czech snacks and the fantastic views along the river helped to make the trip a memorable one. And yes, we’re going back in 2018!

We added some color to the John Lennon Wall!

Nothing beats a sunny day in Prague.

Berlin Model United Nations 2  2017

March means BERMUN2, the regional version of the international BERMUN conference. This is a friendly conference that is good for newbies. All events are held at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which gives the debates a very professional flair.

Model United Nations of Augsburg 2017

In February we tried out a new conference at the Maria-Ward-Gymnasium in Augsburg. Debates were lively and the venue and accommodations were excellent. Augsburg is a beautiful city offering a backdrop of quaint streets lined with historical buildings. Delegates had an evening out with their committee, giving them a chance to socialize and talk about real life instead of just politics. Although the train ride was rather long, no one seemed to mind the chance to relax, chat and find silly ways to pass the time.

On the way back, catching up on some sleep was a priority.

Berlin Model United Nations (BERMUN) 2016

Our most challenging conference is the Berlin MUN Conference run by the John-F.-Kennedy School in November. JFK maintains a high standard in terms of both level of language ability and quality of debate. The conference is one of the best and places are limited, so we were very pleased when another school's cancellation resulted in five extra delegates for Schiller. Several of our younger, inexperienced students were thus able to jump into MUN at the highest level, and they performed admirably, with some of them even submitting amendments and making speeches.