Berlin Model United Nations (BERMUN) brings students from all over the world to simulate the United Nations. Students from over 25 countries attend two conferences in each academic year: BERMUN in the fall and BERMUN2 in the spring.

At the heart of BERMUN is the John F. Kennedy School (JFKS), a German-American public school, with its supportive community, administration, students and vibrant MUN program. JFKS was founded and exists because of a firm commitment to international cooperation. Each conference is a collaborative result of JFKS, the Berlin Senat, our political and community partners, visiting schools, the BERMUN directors and the student leadership team (“StOff”).

In cooperation with former JFKS teacher Dr. Walter Peterson, two students, Lars Day and Stefan Elbe, founded BERMUN with the intention of bringing East and West together. They recognized that Berlin was particularly well suited to serve as a bridge between the formerly divided city, country and continent.  With the subsequent support of Karin Hӧvermann and many other teachers and generations of students, BERMUN takes pride in the collaborative work of the Directors and StOff in planning and orchestrating each conference.

We host events at political institutions, like the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung for the fall conference (BERMUN) and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung for the spring conference (BERMUN2). We connect participants to the exciting Berlin academic, professional, and political community by inviting guest speakers. Student officers prepare research reports - which are available online - to prepare incoming delegates before and throughout the conferences. For our fall conference, we especially encourage more experienced students to attend; and we welcome both experienced and new students in particular to our BERMUN2 spring conference. We believe that the MUN experience is most enjoyable when there is a synergy of prepared and engaged students.

BERMUN wants every student to participate meaningfully during each day of the conference. Over 600 students attend our fall conference, and 200 during our spring conference. To allow each student an opportunity to be involved, we limit the size of committees so that each student can participate daily. Student Officers encourage delegates to prepare before the conference so that they arrive confident and engage actively in lobbying and debate.  Student officers, furthermore, seek to include all delegates to constructively be a part of the committee work.  Finally, we offer events for the larger community and visiting teachers, such as guest speakers and interactive academic visitations in Berlin. We seek especially to partner with engaged teachers eager to learn and inspire their students.

We aim to be a diverse conference with participants from many countries, schools, and various socioeconomic backgrounds.  We keep our conference fees as low as possible: in the fall, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung hosts the opening ceremony while the majority of the conference is on the JFKS campus; in the spring, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung welcomes us for the entire conference in the middle of Berlin. Each year, to include as many schools as possible, we also limit the number of students each school can bring.  Finally, we offer a housing program during our fall conference to ensure schools have accommodation for their students.

Furthermore, we strive to involve students with varying interests. At the fall conference, the General Assembly normally comprises of the Political, Environment, Disarmament, and Human Rights committees. There is also a Security Council, a Historical Security Council, and a Special Conference - which specifically focuses on the conference banner theme. Other students serve as judges or advocates in the International Court of Justice or help create local grassroots initiatives as participants of the Youth Assembly. Moreover, students can apply to be part of the StOff team or to assist the BERMUN Press team as reporters, photographers, text editors and digital production staff. Additionally, many JFKS students work as part of the support staff (Admin Team) learning the valuable skills of organization, management, and event planning.