Anna from Paderborn, boarding the train.

Today, more than one hundred WUDC volunteers left their cozy Christmas homes in order to get the big WUDC Berlin 2013 project running. During the day, more and more volunteers arrived and added massive manpower to the crew that already ran the WUDC scholarship program since the 25^th of December. In order to prepare WUDC novices from countries that would not have participated in WUDC 2013 otherwise, a core volunteer team already started its work on Christmas day. Most of the other volunteers then left their home or university towns today in order to come to Berlin. Together with those arriving tomorrow, they will form a crew of up to 200 volunteers working for WUDC Berlin 2013.

Florian Prischl from Vienny, already in the Berlin subway.

In the background and behind the scenes, they will make the tournament run smooth, prepare the arrival of the volunteers and set up the main WUDC venue, the central building of TU Berlin. There, you could see volunteers working today in every corner. Most important for orientation: a lot of people distributed sings guiding your way to the more than 100 debating rooms – something incredibly important, as the TU main building seems like a whole city within Berlin. Finding the right room (and the exit afterwards) will be the first intellectual challenge for all participants.

Philipp Schröder didn’t have the best weather conditions for his way to Berlin…

On their way to Berlin, WUDC volunteers made pictures for Achte Minute – many of them exited to get the big event starting right away. Anna from the debating society in Paderborn sent us a picture from her boarding the train – it looks like a slow one, so she will have spent some time in it afterwards. Willy Witthaut from the debating society in Mainz was driving with a whole crew from Frankfurt to Berlin. Florian Prischl from DK Wien already arrived some days ago and thus sent us a picture from a ride in the Berlin metro. The small icons from the “Brandenburger Tor” on the window behind him are a theme that all WUDC participants will now see every day: the transport from the Hotel to the WUDC main building is done by subway. Finally, Philipp Schröder from the debating society in Marburg gave us a short preview to the weather in Berlin: about 90 kilometers away from Berlin, he posted: “Berlin not yet in range of sight.” That’s true indeed: At the moment, the weather is about 6° Celsius and more or less rainy – a wet condition participants should get used to as the weather forecast tells us.

A car full of debaters from the center of Germany. Driving too fast to give a good picture…

Tomorrow, at 8 in the morning, there will be the last briefing for all volunteers before the registration desks opens at the accommodation, the Hotel “Berlin, Berlin”. Then, the WUDC will truly begin with more than 1000 participants arriving.