This school year the NMS participated in the “Jugend debattiert” regional competition only the second time, which took place on February 10, 2026, at the Hildegard-Wegscheider-Gymnasium. The
debaters were Henriette (10a), Emilian (9a), and Rasmus (10c), who had won the school’s internal finals for the 9th and 10th grades, and Lynn (Q2), Luisa (11b), and Hana (11b) served as judges. Even participating is very challenging for the debaters, because they not only have to prepare thoroughly for three different topics, but also only find out shortly before each debate whether they
will have to argue the pro or con position. Henriette debated in her usual objective and concise style and, to her great credit, won first prize.
This automatically qualified her for the Berlin-wide qualifying round of the last 16 students competing for the four spots in the Berlin final. This event took place on March 2, 2026, on the FU campus. Here, too, Henriette—the only representative from a bilingual school—debated confidently on the questions “Should students be required to hand in their smartphones at the start of the school day?” and “Should a mandatory political internship be introduced for students?”, but ultimately could not qualify for the finals.
Nevertheless, her participation was not only an impressive experience, but also an outstanding achievement, for which we would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to Henriette!!