This year, the 9th European Student Conference on "Germany of the Greeks - Greece of the Germans. Classical Greece and its influence on German-speaking culture", took place in Munich. From November 25 to December 2, 2024, a large number of students from schools in Greece and Germany presented their papers, searching for the spirit of classical Greece in various aspects of German speaking culture.

In the framework of an educational visit organized from November 24 to 27, 2024, Athens College High School participated in the 9th European Student Conference, with a presentation edited by students High School 1 Adriani Gavrilou, Marina Giannakopoulou, Charalambos Livadaras, Sophia Moutsopoulou, Nefeli Moraitini, Alexandra Pephani, Maria-Rafaela Synolaki and Maria-Paraskevi Hatziandreou, with the support of Professors Ioannis Koulas and Ioanna Tsiligianni.

The presentation took place on the second day of the conference and was titled "Realistic Academicism: the first artistic movement in 19th century Greece: the Munich School". Inspired by the close connection between Greece and Germany in the 19th century, our High School students presented the prominent Greek artists of that period: Nikiforos Lytras, Konstantinos Volanakis, Nikolaos Gyzi, Georgios Iakovidis, Ioannis Zacharias, Polychronis Lembesis, Konstantinos Panorios and Georgios Hatzopoulos. They highlighted the philhellenism movement, the contribution of King Otto to the development of visual arts in Greece, as well as the special characteristics of the Munich School. The students reflected on the techniques used by the above artists and analyzed the character of selected works, focusing on the effect of the Munich School's coupling with the stimuli and personal style of the artists.

At the same time, the program of the study visit gave students and teachers the opportunity to discover the cities of Munich and Salzburg and to feel the rhythm of their everyday life. Our School group was guided through the center of Munich, toured Odeonsplatz and Marienplatz and visited the cathedral, Frauenkirche. In Salzburg, the fortress was impressive, from which the entire city and countryside was visible. The educational mission concluded with a visit to the Deutsches Museum in Munich, which houses exhibits representative of the development of science and technology.