German Consulate General in Chicago Herbert Quelle played his rendition of Jingle Bells on the harmonica while LT German and Model UN students sang along on Tuesday, Dec. 5. NC room 140 was packed with 80 to 100 students who meet with him and discuss German government and its policy.

“As their teacher, I can give them the educator’s perspective of Germany and German culture, the language and the history, but having a real native German diplomat come and talk to the students about the issues, situations and current events is an entirely different perspective,” German Club sponsor Shannon Murray said.

The majority of Quelle’s talk centered around the refugee situation in Germany, and the German perspective of immigration, Murray said.  He went into depth about how Germany welcomed to Syrian and African refugees in 2015.  However,  just over two years later they are closing their borders after letting in over 1 million refugees.

“I believe it is important to meet with students, because education is a very important part of intercultural exchange,” Quelle said.  “Besides being educated in your daily subjects, it is increasingly important that students develop an understanding of how to be a good global citizen. I think I can contribute to this. ”

This unique opportunity came about when Mary Kate Dudley met Quelle at the German Unification Day Ball in Chicago, her son Jack Dudley ‘18 said.  Quelle agreed to her invitation to come talk to the German and MUN students.

“Meeting with the German Consul General offered LT students a chance to engage in public diplomacy without even leaving their school,” Jack said. “Having spent an entire year in Germany, I was just glad we could get a representative of their government.”

Besides the refugee crisis, he spoke about the structure of the German government, and how it compared to the United States government, MUN advisor Andrew Johannes said.

“Most of the time we would see these things in the media or in articles that we read, so having an actual in-person presentation with a first hand perspective of events that are going on like this in a country that they are learning about and can make cultural connections to,” Murray said.

The presentation lasted from sixth to eighth period. The first 30 minutes, Quelle delivered a speech about German politics and how he came to be a German diplomat.  Then for the rest of the time he answered questions from the students.

“A lot of times, I feel that high schoolers can have very limited experiences with cultures outside of their own, and this was a great chance to be immersed in another culture’s political views,” MUN member Gina Cuba ‘19 said.