On thursday and friday the outrounds and the final of the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) took place in Manchester. Via Twitter and Facebook the results were announced already on Friday evening. Here is an overview of the motions and finalists. English as a Foreign Language: ESL Quarter-Finals: THBT men should consistently 'call out' and correct chauvinistic claims made by friends and coworkers ESL Semi-Finals: THBT environmentalists should start a campaign of sabotage and property damage aimed at major polluting companies ESL Final: THB the state should not fund works of art/ performance that average citizens would not recognize as having artistic merit OG: Berlin ...

Das Team Mainz Anton (Andrea Gau/Daniil Pakhomenko) hat das Finale der ZEIT DEBATTE Aachen 2013 gewonnen. Als Besten Redner der Finales zeichnete die Ehren-Jury um Ulla Schmidt, Marcel Phillips, Prof. Martin Baumann, Florian Krämer und Philip Stiel Hauke Blume aus Berlin aus. In einem spannnenden Finale setzte sich das Team aus der Schließenden Regierung durch. Für die Ehrenjury lobte Prof. Baumann Haukes Redebeitrag, er hätte die Würze und Klarheit gehabt, die eine gute Rede braucht. Damit endet die ZEIT DEBATTE Aachen, den Organisatoren, Teilnehmern, Sponsoren und der Ehrenjury vielen Dank für die schöne ZEIT DEBATTE und das gute Finale. Die ZEIT ...

The Leiden IV 2013, from the 22nd to the 23rd of March brought together 53 teams (including teams from DK Wien, Berlin Debating Union and Tilbury House), competing against one another in a pleasant atmosphere, which can be attributed to the formidable organizational effort of the convenors, as well as the social and open-minded attitude of the mostly Dutch contestants. The location of Leiden certainly also played a part though. It can justly be described as an idyllic small university town, perpetuating Dutch stereotypes, concerning their generally friendly and tolerant attitude and a heavy, widespread use of bicycles. The tournament consisted of ...

Over the weekend I have been up north, where I heared about a famous debater who could only surpass the fromidable beginning of his speech by his closing remarks. This modus vivendi holds true for the ZEIT DEBATTE Hamburg as well - a tournament which raised a lot of expectations, fullfilled them all and even went far beyond what was expected. This review has not been published in English. Please read more on this in the German version of this article.

68 teams, seven prelims and a quarters round make up for semis in Vienna. The following eight teams made it to semis of the German language debating championship (Meisterschaft im deutschsprachigen Debattieren or MDD): Berlin Stadt im Norden (Annette Kirste, Julian Ohm) Mainz Anton (Andrea Gau, Daniil Pakhomenko) Stuttgart CNC (Michael Saliba, Igor Gilitschenski) Berlin Flauschpfote (Hauke Blume, Niels Schröter) MS Hamburg Loki (Kira Lancker, Barbara Schunicht) Berlin HS (Johannes Häger, Georg Sommerfeld) Berlin Babes Bolay (Dessislava Kirova, Juliane Mendelsohn) München Alpha (Valerio Morelli, Marco Witzmann) (This is not a ranking. ) Learn more about MDD in the German version of this article and follow us on Facebook and Twitter ...

 

Georg Sommerfeld and Bruno Davids of Berlin Debating Union (BDU) won Saggsn Masders 2012, a tournament in the Saxonian capital Dresden. Georg was also awarded best speaker of the final. The other final teams were from Mainz (Willy Witthaut and Betty Braun) and of BDU: Sarah von Kaminietz and Martin Funck, and Hauke Blume and Marijana Todorovich). The top speakers of the tourney: Georg Sommerfeld Willy Witthaut Hauke Blume Sarah von Kaminietz, Dessislava Kirova The top team results of the league after Saggsn Masders: Mainz (53) Heidelberg Debating (44) Tübingen (44) Berlin Debating Union (36) Freiburg (26) Top speaker results after Saggsn Masders: Willy Witthaut (64) Almut Graebsch (45), Zsolt Szilagyi (45) Philipp Stiel (44) Please ...

Debattierclub  Mainz won ZEIT DEBATTE Magdeburg. To know more please read the German version.

Please read the German version of this.

Debating is starting in VDCH country!Gutenberg Cup is welcoming those who love to do fun debates. Sarah Kempf and Torsten Rössing are going to present a set of joke motions. And teams from 14 societies are going to compete for the title "Master of the Jokes". Follow @achteminute on Twitter for the motions (in German). Read the German version of this to learn more about the Gutenberg Cup in Mainz.

Rain, rain, rain - all over Germany! But the brave debaters of the Boddencup never gave in and even did their BBQ in Greifswald. A short lesson on German geography: "Bodden are brackish bodies of water along the southwestern shores of the Baltic Sea, primarily in Germany's state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern around the island of Rügen," as Wikipedia has it. This year's Boddencup was staged by Greifwald's debating society for the third time in a row. It was also the final of the first season of Freie Debattierliga, or free debating league (FDL). Read more on a rainy weekend by the ...

Please read the German version of this article to learn more on how Miriam Hauft experienced the Elbe Open in Magdeburg.

For teams qualified for semis of the Deutsche Debattiermeisterschaft (DDM), or German Debating Championship. Read here who competed on a sunny Sunday morning for the title of Deutscher Meister. The motion read "Brauchen wir einen europäischen Marshallplan für Nordafrika?", or "Do we need a Marshall Plan for North Africa?". ...

The German Debating Championship is getting more and more exciting. The motion reads "Soll die Wikipedia Weltkulturerbe werden?", or "Should Wikiepedia become World Heritage?". Read here who made it to quarters in Heidelberg: ...

East, West and North have debated all day long in Halle, Frankfurt and Osnabrück to select the best debaters at German regional championships. Format of this year's regionals is OPD, or Offene Parlamentarische Debatte (open parliamentary debate). Achte Minute has all the results for you. ...

Egyptian queen in the German capital - The motion of the second masters’ debate of Berlin Debating Union (BDU) was especially directed to a Berlin audience: "Who is owning Nefertiti? This house would give the bust of Nofretete back to Egypt!" Georg Sommerfeld and Johannes Häger (Opening Government) talked about the rude and somehow illegal methods that were used to bring the bust to Germany in 1913. They also explained that Nefertiti is an important symbol for the Egyptian history and identity and so would belong to Cairo. Juliane Mendelsohn and Niels Schröter (Opening Opposition) disagreed. Nefertiti's bust has been exhumed ...

Read more on Tübingen's Streitkultur Cup in the German version of this article and find out how Marcus Ewald won the audience, how Natalie Wieseotte won a version of "Who wants to be a millionaire" on OPD (the German format of open parliamentary debate) and how Pauline Leopold won in a competition on the rules of OPD but still felt ashamed. ...

Marc Lenzke, Marcus Ewald and Isabelle Loewe (DC Bonn) won the prestigious Streitkultur Cup in Tübingen. They defeated as team for Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) another DCJG team consisting of Sina Strupp, Jan Papsch and Nicolas Eberle. The final was completed by the three Free Speakers Lea Weitekamp (Bonn), Hauke Blume (Berlin) and Wladi Jachtschenko (München). Judges of the final were Mario Dießner, Jenny Bachmann (Karlsruhe) and Daniel Grotzky (München/Zürich), president was Gudrun Lux (Mainz/Bonn). The motions were: Round 1:  Sollen Volksentscheide bei Großprojekten verpflichtend werden? Round 2: Soll die Pressefreiheit bei Terrorgefahr eingeschränkt werden? Round 3:  Brauchen wir wieder Militärparaden in Deutschland? Final: ...

Reaching a broad public, debating controversial social topics, provoke thoughts – that’s the idea behind the Masters’ Debate. In this way the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) wants to perform its sociopolitical role. Furthermore the members of BDU want to show what is possible in a really good debate and that even difficult, controversial and contra intuitive motions can be discussed in a reasonable, ambitious and entertaining way. So early December's motion was a heavy one: “This house would allow disabled parents (in countries where pre-implantation diagnostics are allowed) to choose embryos with the same disability.” The Opening Government with Annette Kirste and ...

Tuesday, 26th November, the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) opened the new debating semester with the motion "This House would jaywalk“. About 60 guests were curious about the topic and were able to join an exciting debate about the borders of citizens duties. On the side of the Government, Julian Ohm (finalist North-German Championships 2010), Jonas Werner (German Champion 2009) and Johannes Häger (semi-finalist SOAS IV 2010) were stating that a responsible handling of governmental rules also implies to trespass them in particular cases. Only in this way can a healthy relationship to the governmental power be created and the citizens are ...

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Pauline Leopold, Peter Croonenbroeck and Christoph Krakowiak from Streitkultur Tübingen scored the title “Master of Jokes”. Second time in a row, they won the Gutenberg Cup, the annual tournament of Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG). The motion of the final round reads “Do we need a new Robin Hood?”, where the debaters from Tübingen defeated a home team from Mainz. Best speaker of the final was Hauke Blume who fought in the final round as free speaker, i.e. a speaker with no beforehand appointed position in the debate, a characteristic of the German format OPD (Open Parliamentary Debate) in addition ...

In early August, Berlin Debating Union (BDU) staged a fun tournament, the first Alternate Timeline Memorandum Cup, as is reported on BDU’s homepage. Twelve teams – some consisting of only one speaker who filled both positions of the team – debated bizarre and comical motions such as “This house would try to teach great apes the finite nature of their existence” or “This house would merge consciousnesses”. It was up to the individual speakers to decide upon the language of debate, be it English or German. In the preliminary rounds, the speakers functioned as their own jurors. That gave Hauke ...

In der Reihe "DDM im Gespräch" ist diesmal die noch amtierende Deutsche Meisterin Miriam Hauft (DC Magdeburg) im Gespräch mit der Achten Minute über die Wehmut, den Titel weiterzugeben und ihre Hoffnungen, an wen. ...

Trotz zahlreicher, frohlockender Demonstrationen, Kundgebungen und Volksfeste im Nordosten der Republik pilgerten am 1. Mai rund 50 Debattier- und Jurierwillige zu einem Punk-Turnier nach Magdeburg. Nicht nur die Raumbezeichnungen, sondern auch das gesamte Motto dieses Punks beim amtierenden Deutschen Meister, dem Debattierclub Magdeburg, sollten unter dem Stern "Machdeburjer Orjinale" stehen. Chefjuriert wurde es dennoch Nicht-Magdeburger Originalen, nämlich von Patrick Ehmann (Berlin), Jonas Werner (Magdeburg, ehemals Berlin) und Marcel Giersdorf (Mainz). Die zeitig angereisten 20 Teams aus der, nach Patrick Ehmann, "stärksten Region in der Ausrichtung von Punk-Turnieren" debattierten in den ersten zwei Vorrunden ...