The new ZEIT DEBATTEN series begins! This weekend (November 23 to 25), speakers and judges from all over Germany, Switzerland, Austria and even France flock at Tübingen. Language of the tournament, as in the whole series, is German, the ZEIT DEBATTE Tübingen will be held in Offene Parlamentarische Debatte (open parliamentary debate, OPD). Chief adjudicators are Philipp Stiel (German Champion 2010, Tübingen/Berlin) sowie Wiebke Nadler (Leipzig/Heidelberg) and Leonid Vogel (Karlsruhe).

The tournament series ZEIT DEBATTEN is organised by VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, in cooperation with the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT and German Telekom as well as with the support of ZDF, a German public broadcaster. It has been more than a decade now since the first ZEIT DEBATTEN series started with at least five big annual competitions. One of these is the German debating championship. Honorary patron of the series is the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt.