Just like Luca Weller, who just sat his exams for the prestigious International Baccalaureate Diploma. He needs it too. The 18-year-old plans to study material and nuclear science at the Imperial College in London, which would be difficult with the German leaving cert, the Abitur.

That he would attend the BIS, wasn’t on the cards originally. „Luca was supposed to go to a German kindergarten“, recalls his father, Martin Weller, longtime chairman of the association that runs the BIS. „But we couldn’t get a place for him.“ So the German-Canadian looked for an anglophone kindergarten and found one at the BIS. Luca stayed, despite the fact that it cost something.

When he started school the current building, which holds the Primary and Secondary School, was just being built. The Primary School was still at the Europastraße. Before the modification of the buildings, it was just the Secondary School at today’s location, where 350 students started in 1997.

Only the „American Club“ is the last existing one of the old block of buildings, which might be turned into an event hall, according to principal Patricia Baier - however, that would require six million Euro. Plans were drawn up years ago. For five years the classes took place in the former High School, which wasn’t built to last forever. „I used to have a tree growing from the ground in my office“, recalls Junglas, who came to this school 18 years ago.

Then money was received to build new: „This building was financed 90 per cent from the Bonn-Berlin compensation fund“, explains public relations officer Natalie Niklas, who is working for the BIS for the past 14 years. The new two-storey construction was named „Waves“ due to its wavelike architecture, it was opened in 2006, holds a light-flooded cafeteria, and if you walk through the right door, you suddenly find yourself unexpectedly in the sports hall. 2012, the „Agora“ building was added, named after an antique Greek gathering place, and early 2017, the three-storey „Crest“ building was opened.

Today, 700 students find place in the school, not all with international background, many of them are German. The whole world comes together here. „I have one German friend at school“, says Luca. „The others are from South Africa, Taiwan, Korea, England and Russia.“ A mixture like this is considered essential, „to be successful in the global world“, Baier thinks. The classes are taught in English, but German lessons are part of the curriculum.

What else changed over 20 years? IT became more important, says Junglas, the music and sports offers improved, students are more involved in decision processes and there is a sports club headed by Martin Weller as chairman. Baier looks out into the future. „The students have to learn to think in a critical way.“ Research, data processing and the recognition and evaluation of fake news as well as international tolerance are all important. „The kids today are really shaping the future“, says the principal. The BIS wants to prepare them for that task.

Original text: Stefan Knopp Translation: Mareike Graepel