President of the Kiel Institute
for the World Economy
Prof. Gabriel Felbermayr, Ph.D.
Secretary-General of the United Nations
António Guterres, 2019
President of Hamburg University
Dieter Lenzen
Dear Students, honorable Delegates, Welcome to the University of Hamburg. The Hamburg Model United Nations is one of the biggest and most renowned UN Simulations. Students are able to experience the complex procedures, which are necessary to ensure a constructive relationship between the member states of the UN and beyond that, first hand. It seems to me that the procurement of the peace-giving nature of democracy, given many of the ongoing political conflicts in all parts of the World and the sometimes acute threat of democratic Structures in the direct European Neighborhood, is today more relevant than ever. This is why I am happy that the Campus of the University of Hamburg is a location for such an important conference and I dearly hope that our Campus will inspire many interesting discussions. HamMUN distinguishes itself through a high standard and intensive labor in a relatively small group and in particular an interregional dynamic. I therefore wish to extent my regards, because you have chosen to attend the HamMUN and show willingness to train your diplomatic and democratic Abilities. By that you show, that you are aware of the future challenges a globalized World and are amongst the white hopes of the in this World living society. I hope that your stay with us leaves a positive impact on you, with long-lasting impressions of the conference and our University. My the fundamentals of the United Nations inspire you as well.
President of the University,
Prof. Dieter Lenzen
©Pressebild.de/Bertold Fabricius
Founder of our Association
Wolfgang Müller
My name is Wolfgang Müller and I am the Managing Director for European Affairs at the German Public Employment Service. Why, you might ask yourself now, do I write some introductory words on this website. Well, quite some time ago in 1994 I was a student like you are now. At this time the new world order after the Cold War was still to be formed and there was an increasing role of the United Nations foreseen. I heard about the Model United Nations and thought that must be a good way to know more about the functioning of this institution. So I started to participate, but thean, already in 1995, I was asked to organise the participationprepare the MUN-group of my own university, (the Helmut-Schmidt-University in Hamburg Germany,) for the NMUN-Conference in New York and again in 1996 for the participation of our sister university in Munich. I continued to do so in 1997. Some years later I came back to the university for teaching and my PhD. I automatically restarted my engagement in MUNs. For a better preparation of the delegations I thought about not only teaching it in a class-room but also to do our own mini-simulation. So, with some equally engaged and motivated people we started organising the first Hamburg Model United Nations. Last year I had the honour to open the HamMUN and was impressed how our little project from 20 years ago had grown to be a large-scale international conference. To see so many young people still believing and being actively engaged in the idea of talking, discussing, sharing ideas to make our world better and safer makes me proud being part of that community. I wish you all the best for the following events and please do always keep in mind, no matter of how frustrating progress both at the simulation and in the real world seems to be, you are and will be making a difference!
Wolfgang Müller