The first three days and six open rounds of the European Universities Debating Championships are already over. Tomorrow the competing teams will debate three more rounds without getting the results before the break will be announced at the Pratersauna.The Adjudication Team published the resultes in a Google-Doc, which is available online.The results of competing teams of debating societies of the VDCH - Association of German Speaking University Debating Societies are listed here:[caption id="attachment_27073" align="alignright" width="400"] Registration Desk on the first day of Vienna EUDC 2015. (c) Vienna EUDC 2015[/caption]Berlin A - 9 points (Florian Grünwald and Tanja Maximow, Berlin)Berlin B - 8 points ...

From coming Sunday on, the European Debating Championship (EUDC) 2015 in Vienna will take place. The tournament starts on August 2 and ends on Saturday, August 8. The schedule includes nine preliminary rounds, semi-finals and finals among dinners, parties and a Council meeting.Being the second biggest debating tournament worldwide after the World Championship and organized by the Vienna Debating Society, a member of the German debating circuit, it will have over 650 participants arriving from all over Europe.As usual with big international tournaments, there will be equity guidelines, whoch can be read in the current equity briefing. They deal with ...

The World Universities Debating Championship 2015 in Malaysia has its champions:And the winners are...The Open CategorySydney A (Edward Miller, Nick Chung) won the final in the Open Category. They debated the motion "This House believes that humanitarian organisations should, and should be allowed to, give funding, resources or services to illegal armed groups when this is made a condition for access to vulnerable civilians." and won against Oxford A (Patrick Bateman, Natasha Rachman) in Opening Government, BPP A  (Steven Rajavinothan, Michael O'Dwyer) in Opening Opposition and Harvard A (Bo Seo, Fanelesibonge Mashwama) in Closing Opposition. The final was adjudicated by Shafiq Bazari (chair), Dominic ...

Team break Out of the contingent of the Association of German Speaking University Debating Societies (VDCH) we are very happy to report the break of one team at this year’s Worlds in Malaysia! In the category "English as a foreign language" (EFL) the team Potsdam A (comprised of Mathias Hamann and Moritz Kirchner) broke in 4th place with 14 team points in total. The next round for them will be the EFL Semi Final on Friday, 2 January 2015. It will take place at 1 pm local time in Malaysia (which translates into 6 am local time in Germany) and will ...

Yesterday the 35th World University Debating Championships were officially started by the grand Opening Ceremony. The German speaking debating circuit is represented by a strong delegation this year. Seven members of the VDCH – the Association of German Speaking University Debating Societies are comprised of ten teams and ten adjudicators. Debating societies Berlin Debating Union (BDU, Berlin), Debattierclub Goethes Faust Frankfurt (Frankfurt), Debattierclub Kiel, Debattierclub München (Munich), Debattierclub Münster, Wortgefechte Potsdam, Debattierklub Wien (Vienna). [caption id="attachment_25445" align="alignright" width="400"] The Opening Ceremony. © 2014 Matthias Carcasona[/caption] Debate teams BDU A: Philip Schröder, Christina Dexel BDU B: Lilian Seffer, Alexander Hans BDU C: Pegah Maham, Christof Kebschull Frankfurt A: Andreas Dreher, Sven Schuppener Kiel ...

The Berlin IV – European Debates Conference 2014 has its winners: Emilia Carlqvist and Peer Klüßendorf from Lund Debate Society won the final in a three-to-two split decision. Peer and Emilia debated in Opening Government as the team "Dixendorf". The motion of the final read: "This House believes that the EU should force member states to adopt socially progressive legislation (e. g. same-sex marriage, abortion rights, ethnic and religious minority rights)." [caption id="attachment_22737" align="alignright" width="400"] Participants during the public debate on Friday (c) Matthias Carcasona[/caption] "REC Truth Department", another team from Sweden consisting of Olivia Sundberg and Martin Devenney, spoke in Closing ...

Kai Dittmann began cautiously. “It often is not easy to argue for free trade,” said the 2014 World Champion in the category English as a Second Language (ESL). “But it is the marginal benefits that sum up.” Together with John Eltringham, who works at the American Academy in Berlin, he represented the government side in a public debate on the first evening of the Berlin Intervarsity. The question debated was: “Does Europe need the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)?” Speakers at the public debate (from left to right): John Eltringham, Kai Dittmann, Christoph Krakowiak, Rebecca Irvine and Philipp Stiel (c) ...

British Parliamentary Style in the German capital: From 11th to 13th April 2011 this year’s Berlin IV will be held. Chief adjudicators (CA) are Sally Rooney (EUDC 2013 Top-Speaker and Finalist, CA Moscow Open and UKDC 2013), Tomas Beerthuis (Deputy Chief Adjudicator of Zagreb EUDC) and Kai Dittmann (WUDC 2014 ESL-Champion). Registration will open on Febuary 1st, 6:00 pm. Reg fee will be 35 € per person. As Convener Alexander Hans states, the teamcap of 40 can be expanded if demand is high. Institution cap is 3 teams. The contact information if you have any questions is alexander.hans.mail@gmail.com.  As a special, Alex ...

The World Universities Debating Championship 2014 has its winners: The World Champion 2014 in the category “English as a foreign language” is Bandung A (Vicario Reinaldo and Fauzan Reza Maulana). The World Champion 2014 in the category “English as a second language” is Berlin A (Dessislava Kirova and Kai Dittmann). The World Champion 2014 is Harvard A (Josh Zoffer and Ben Sprung-Keyser). ESL Semi Final Motion: This House believes that Pope Francis should publicly encourage Catholics to support radically redistributive government policies. Break into ESL Final: Babes-Bolyai A (Radu Cotarcea, Octavian Vasile Buta) Lund A (Peer Klüßendorf, Emilia Carlqvist) Belgrade B (Helena Ivanov, Stefan Siridzanski) Berlin A (Dessislava Kirova, ...

On the 2nd of January 2014 several out-rounds of different language categories took place. Three German teams are still in the competition. Here are the result and the motions:   Open Double Octo Finals Motion: This House would abolish gated communities in the developing world. Break into Open Octo-Finals: Otago B (John Brinsley-Pirie, Patrick Dawson) Monash B (Nisha Dutta, Beatrice Paull) IIUM A (Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Mubarrat Wassey) Stanford A (Ilya Gaidarov, Andrew Suciu) Western University A (Victoria Hale, Brent Schmidt) Yale B (Zach Bakal, Sesenu Woldemariam) UCTA A, (David Harris, James Wink) Monash C (Andrew Gaulke, Thomas Stansfield) Sydney C (Evangeline Woodforde, Daniel Farinha) Cambridge C (Frederick Powell, Michael Dunn Goekjian) Glasgow ...

On October 11 and 12 the Roosevelt Debating Society hosted the second edition of the Roosevelt Open. The tournament was held in lovely Middelburg, all the way in the south-west corner of the Netherlands. Among the VDCH-speaker were Stefan Torges, Madlen Stottmeyer, Leonard Muenstermann, Moritz Justen, Kai Dittmann, Jan-Dirk Capelle and Christopher Kroesmann. The tournament was won by Anne Valkering and Rogier Baart. Unfortuantly no VDCH-teams were in the break rounds, but the individual results of the teams and speaker can be found in the individual Speaker Tab and Team Tab. Motions R1: This House would no longer arrest or prosecute ...

The Berlin Debating Union (BDU) has elected a new executive board: Niels Schröter is the new president. He is supported by Bruno Davids (treasurer) and Julian Ohm, Christina Dexel and Marijana Todorović. They follow Dessislava Kirova (president) and Juliane Mendelsohn (treasurer), Kai Dittmann, John-Thomas Eltringham and Juliane Zeuschner. apf

About 1,400 people will assemble in Berlin in December to compete at the World Universities Debating Championship 2013 (a.k.a. WUDC or Worlds). Kai Dittman from Berlin Debating Union is in charge of the finance department. Viviane Clarin talked to him about what the guests will need and how he is raising the funds. Please read the German version of the interview to learn more about the details. The Berlin Debating Union bid for hosting the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC or Worlds) was confirmed in Botswana 2011 and reconfirmed in Manila 2012. The hosts expect about 1.400 Debattierer from around 70 ...

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

Please read the German version of this.

Debaters from all over the world are flocking in to Manila, Philippines. From 27 December 2011 to 4 January 2012, they assemble at De La Salle University (DLSU) to compete for the title of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). From under the roof of VDCH there will be the following debating society competing with around 400 teams from about 70 countries - all in a peaceful competition, the WUDC 2012 or DLSU Worlds: Berlin Debating Union: John Eltringham, Narendran Ramasendaran, Dessislava Kirova, Juliane Mendelsohn, Kai Dittmann, Matthias Winkelmann S.A.E.C.L.O. Greifswald: Rafael Heinisch, Ida Heidecker Debattierclub Mannheim: Jana Gilke, Katrin Sadroschinski Debattierclub Johannes ...

SkypeDebate - online debates via Skype, initiated by Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg. Curious? Read more on this in the German version of this article.

New executive board in the German capital: The Berlin Debating Union (BDU) elected a new board. Dessislava Kirova was confirmed in her office as president. She is now supported by John Eltringham, Juliane Mendelsohn, Kai Dittmann und Juliane Zeuschner. Good luck to BDU, especially with the Worlds ahead!

Berlin beats Berlin in the Potsdam PULS Punk final on the motion "Should all jobs be payed equally?". The opposition side with Annette Kirste, Emre Yildiz and Franz Müller (Berlin Debating Union) won the palm against the government speakers Kai Dittmann, Arne Windeler and Philipp Cragg (also BDU). The so-called free speakers in the final were Arash Alawi (BDU), Nikolai Badenkoop (Streitkultur Berlin) and Kai Nosbüsch (Debattierclub Stuttgart). Tournament style was the German open parliamentary debate (OPD). The CAs Nils Haneklaus (Debattierclub Stuttgart), Rafael Heinisch (S.A.E.C.L.O. Greifswald) and Christoph Krakowiak (Streitkultur Berlin) had th efollowing motion for the prelims up their sleeves: Round ...

“Embracing Dissent“ is the motto of the WUDC Berlin 2013 – “We believe this reflects the enlightening and liberating clash of ideas that shaped European and German history - and, of course, what makes debate relevant and exciting”, the Facebook site of WUDC Berlin 2013 announced. No doubt, there is a natural dissent between the fractions of a parliamentary debate. Yet, there might also be dissent during the preparatory phase of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds), for instance in a heated debate about the motto. However, consent was the motto when now WUDC convenor Patrick Ehmann travelled the ...

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. ...

Paris is very, very beautiful. Plus, it is the political, economic and social center of the French nation. It is de facto impossible to get the full impression in just one weekend. But the convenors of Louisa Leila Zhang’s team helped us get a good first glimpse on the first weekend of April. The about 150 participants of the Paris IV were offered hospitality and French cuisine, impressive technology and the art of partying plus a city tour – and all that in just under 45 hours. The debaters – from the Wordls finalist John Ashbourne from the London School ...

Göttingen (Nicolas Friebe and David Lamouroux) won the final of ZEIT DEBATTE Stuttgart 2011! Best Speaker Award goes to Katharina Wagner from Dresden Debating Union. Please read more on this in the German version of this article. ...

Please read the German version of this article to find out who broke to the Grand Final at ZEIT DEBATTE Stuttgart! ...

We are sorry, this article is not or not yet available in English. Please check back later. ...

Debattierclub Bonn won the Schobbe Cup 2010! In the final round, the team “Die Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo” from Berlin Debating Union in the proposition argued with “Bonn Generations” about net neutrality at Campus Westend of Frankfurt Goethe University. The team of Isabelle Loewe,  Gudrun Lux and Jens Fischer from the former German capital defeated Georg Sommerfeld, Dessislava Kirova and Kai Dietmann from the now capital. Awarded the title as best speaker of the final were two: Jens Fischer from the winning team and Nicolas Eberle from Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, a so-called Fraktionsfreier Redner, free speaker. There are usually ...

Die Presse berichtet, die Clubs erzählen. Hier schon ein paar Stimmen zu den VDCH-Regionalmeisterschaften 2010. "Der Westen", das Internetportal der WAZ-Mediengruppe, berichtet über die Westdeutsche Meisterschaft (WDM) und das Debattieren an sich. Der Journalist Thomas Mader hat sich bei der WDM eine Vorrunde angeschaut. In dem Artikel "Reden ist Gold bei der Debattiermeisterschaft" schreibt er: "Das sind merkwürdige Studenten, hier an der Dortmunder Uni: Sie siezen sich und sagen Sachen wie: 'Aber mein Herr ... Sie haben doch gerade ausgeführt … Ist es nicht so … da fehlen mir die Worte …' Man achte auf ihre rechte Hand, wie sie in bester ...