We started our journey to The Hague on Sunday the 29^th January, with 15 students of the Thomas-Mann-Schule and our MUN-directors Mr. Großmann and Mrs. Fietzek, who we want to thank for supervising us throughout the conference.  We were all very excited about going to the largest student MUN-conference in the world, especially our THIMUN first timers.

At this year’s THIMUN conference one of our students had the chance of participating as a deputy chair in the second committee, while the other 14 students represented delegates of the Republic of Zimbabwe. Meeting up regularly, months before the conference, to study and talk about Zimbabwe helped us being well prepared for the conference, so that everyone will be able to participate actively in the debates.

After an eight-hour train ride we finally arrived in The Hague, where we had the chance to finish our last preparations for the conference and to walk around the city. On Monday morning the next day we entered the World Forum, the convention center, where the conference took place. We faced the conference theme “borders in a globalized world”, with around 3500 other students from all over the globe, and tried to combine all the delegations’ aims and ideas in resolutions, dealing with different issues. Throughout lobbying on Monday one of our delegates had the chance to be the main submitter of a resolution, which later on even passed successfully. We are very proud of him and of our Chair, who did a great job in chairing in his committee.

After lobbying the official opening ceremony took place at noon, where inspiring speeches were held and a flag-parade, like the year before. The first day started of very well and was quite inspiring.

The debates started on Tuesday, after the opening speeches were held, and throughout the day all of us were able to actively participate in our committees, making points of information or to deliver speeches in front of over 100 delegates . The two following days were similar, debating about different resolutions and delegates trying to make the best out of each resolution, but like at the UN, not every resolution passed and clapping was out of order. The applause for a passing resolution got louder by each resolution we debated about.

On Friday, the last day of the conference, we debated about the last resolutions and to finish off a week of fruitful debates, the 49. THIMUN-conference was closed at the closing ceremony. Again a flag-parade was held, but this time accomplished with loud drum music, making it a life-time experience.

Closing-Ceremony

Outside of the conference we also had some fun in the city of The Hague where we went in the “Madurodam”, a famous miniature park with model replicas of famous Dutch landmarks, historical cities and large developments, walked around town and went to the beach. Some of our students also took the free time to take pictures all over the city and visited Amsterdam on Wednesday.

All in all this year’s conference was very productive, fun and international. We made many new friends and met many students coming from different countries such as South Korea, Panama, The United Arab Emirates and more surprisingly we even had the chance to meet students coming from Zimbabwe. THIMUN is a serious conference where we gain many new experiences and also improve our language skills and we wouldn’t want to miss future conferences. Therefore our delegation and our chair of the TMS are very thankful for our great sponsors, who made the excursion possible for all of us.

Our sponsors are:

1. Gemeinnützige Sparkassenstiftung zu Lübeck
2. Michael-Haukohl-Stiftung
3. Schulverein der Thomas-Mann-Schule
4. Kulturmark der Thomas-Mann-Schule

Die THIMUN-Delegation der Thomas-Mann-Schule

Annika R. und Ömer D.

© Fotos: Ömer D.