We proudly present the winners of this year’s German regionals:

• Heidelberg won the Western German regional.
• Potsdam won the Eastern German regional.
• Kiel won the Northern German regional.
• On the weekend previous to the other regionals, Tübingen won the Southern German regional.

Congrats to everyone!

In the West, Sven Hirschfeld, Kristina Seebacher and Jennifer Holm from Debating Club Heidelberg defeated Nicolas Eberle, Robert Lehmann and Caroline Moll from Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG). Free speakers – a characteristic of the format OPD, or open parliamentary debate – were Andrea Gau (DCJG), Martin Thelen (DC Bonn) and Sascha Schenkenberg (DCJG). Andrea was awarded most popular speaker of the final, best speaker of the final was Sven who also topped the tab. Tim Richter (Bonn, CA), Lukas Haffert (Köln,CA ), Martin Fries (Marburg), Claudio Zeitz (Marburg) and Gudrun Lux (anywhere) judged the final, Sina Strupp (DCJG) was chair of the debate in Frankfurt am Main.

In the East, Florian Umscheid, Moritz Kirchner and Markus Heilig from Wortgefechte Potsdam defeated Clemens Lechner, Moritz Niehaus and Severin Weingarten from Debattiergesellschaft Jena. Free speakers of the final in Halle were Patrick Ehmann, Dessislava Kirova (both Berlin Debating Union) and Tom-Michael Hesse (Streitpunkt Leipzig). Florian was awarded best speaker of the final. Judges were Marcus Ewald (Mainz, CA), Torsten Rössing (Halle,CA ), Farid Schwuchow (Berlin BDU), Mario Dießner (Streitkultur Berlin) and Tina Reimann (Halle).

In the North, Rauad Abagela, Julika Hofmann and Aleksander Markovic from Debattierclub Kiel defeated Lukas Hornig, Tim Schatto-Eckrodt and Yunus Sevinchan from Unna. Free Speakers were Johannes Haug, Markus Häßelbarth (both DC Münster) and Manuel Adams (Hanse Debating Union Bremen).Johannes was awarded best speaker of the Osnabrück final. Judges were Julian Schneider (Münster, CA), Thore Wojke (Mainz, CA), Benedikt Nufer (Hamburg), Nicolas Friebe (Göttingen) and Eray Demirtop (Bremen).

The motions of the semis read:

• West: Sollen die deutschen Stromnetze auch gegen den Willen der Bürger ausgebaut werden?
• East: Sollen wir eine verpflichtende Kulturquote für alle Sendeanstalten einführen?
• North: Soll Artenschutz um seiner selbst willen kein Ziel von Politik sein?

The motion of the final was the same in all three finals:

• Sollen in schweren Krisen Straftäter ihre Verbrechen durch Heldentaten sühnen können?

glx / apf