Manfred Moeller, who has brought about 100 German students since 1995 to Sri Lanka said that he was happy the war against the LTTE was over. Moeller told The Island that even at the height of the war he hadn’t suspended a programme initiated in 1994 to bring German students to Sri Lanka. He said though there had been travel advisories, the German government never prevented Gymnasium Isernhagen from sending students to Sri Lanka. "Now that the entire country had been brought under government control, we may be able to expand programme to north and east," he said.

He said that students engage in a range of fund raising activities over a two-year period to visit Sri Lanka. He said that the German embassy in Colombo never discouraged him though international travel advisories categorised Sri Lanka a dangerous place to visit.

Gymnasium Isernhagen has had contacts with Sri Lanka since 1995. In 1994, Moeller initiated the "Sri Lanka Activity Group Gymnasium Isernhagen".

So far about 100 students from the school situated in Isernhagen, near Hannover in Northern Germany, had visited Sri Lanka. Moeller said that usually visiting groups spend three weeks in Sri Lanka, mostly staying as ‘paying guests’ with host families. He said that their stay gave them an opportunity to study a different culture which all found extremely interesting and rewarding.

He said that the latest group also visited a charity project, a hostel in Weliweriya, which was built with the help of the German school, the council of Isernhagen and many other supporters.

He said that their programme had been extended in 2007, when the first group of students from S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia, visited Germany and attended lessons at Gymnasium Isernhagen. In the spring of 2009, Ladies’ College, Colombo, also joined the programme.

On 17th June the group of German students and the two accompanying teachers, Manfred Moeller and Thomas Loeffler, visited Ladies’ College, Colombo, and attended a presentation by those girls who had spent three weeks in Germany in April 2009. Later that day, the group was welcomed at the German Embassy by the acting German Ambassador, Dr. Stefan Weckbach.