Deutsche Telekom AG is the new national sponsor of the Association of Debating Societies at Universities (VDCH) from August onwards. It thus supports the aims of VDCH both to encourage debating as a sport among young people and to promote the maintenance of the German language and the art of free speech in our society.

The VDCH is happy to have gained such a renowned and esteemed company like Telekom as a partner. “Having Telekom as a strong partner by our side we will manage even better to perform a high standard of debating and to embed the conjunct rhetorical examination in the society together with DIE ZEIT”, says Tim Richter, president of the VDCH.

The partnership between VDCH and Telekom will come into effect on time for the start of the ZEIT DEBATTEN season 2010/2011.

The sportive university debating follows strict rules and encourages structured examination and the exact analysis of various positions towards controversial topics. At tournaments current political, economical and social issues are being debated. These tournaments take place within the framework of the annual debate series ZEIT DEBATTEN, whose sponsor is the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. Telekom is now, in addition to DIE ZEIT and the media partner ZDF, the third partner the VDCH acquired. By supporting the public culture of debate and the examination of socially relevant topics, the 66 debate clubs that are part of the umbrella organization VDCH contribute essentially to the objectification of debates and the analysis of arguments.

VDCH press release / glx / saj / apf