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Between September 8 and 11 2013 BGU carried out the Red Sea Open for the fourth time. Convened by Mor Zoran and Noa Golan hyper-funded by the Ben Gurion University the rounds took place on the Eilat Campus of BGU. 32 teams, an outstanding Chief Adjudication team and an all round board combined an intimate debate atmosphere with a party holiday mood.  And the debate community has a new contender that wants to host EUDC 2016. Eilat, a rather Unconventional Debate Scenery From around a dozen tournaments yearly generated on the Israeli circuit the Red Sea Open is the only one truly ...

Marietta Gädeke is Chief of Staff of the WUDC. She has recruited, organized and motivated a team of over 200 volunteers from all around the world. Martin Funck, Chief Editor of the wudcwatch, talked to her. [caption id="attachment_14059" align="alignleft" width="240"] Marietta Gädeke, Chief of Staff, after 4 days of work for WUDC 2013[/caption] Martin Funck: Two hundred sounds like a lot. How did you organize such a large team? Marietta: It took us two days to get things going. Our original plan how to allocate personnel resources didn’t work. So we changed our system dramatically: Now, our volunteer dispatchment uses a huge wall ...

[caption id="attachment_14010" align="alignright" width="400"] Where do they hide among  Announcement Hall der WUDC 2013[/caption] "I was really eager to be part of the largest debating tournament on earth," says Lucas Danco. The 20-year old experiences his first Worlds and is enthusiastic. "It's totally fascinating to see so many different people from so many different cultures come together and compete by the same rules. " Lucas is one of 28 speakers from VDCH clubs that compete at the Worlds in Berlin. The umbrella association VDCH (Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen, engl. Association of Debating Societies at Universities) represents more than 70 debating societies ...

Save the date: Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) is looking for the “Jokes Champion”. The annual Gutenberg-Cup in Mainz is a tournament with exclusively funny motions. This year it is held on October 20 and 21, debating style is Offene Parlamentarische Debatte (OPD; teams consist of tree speakers and one adjudicator), language is German. If you want to be part of the tournament, please check the German version.

Christmas cookies and debating: The Debattierclub Münster offers both with their Santa Claus tournament. The tournament will be held in German on Saturday, 1 December, in British Parliamentary Style (BPS) and comprises three pre-rounds and break into final. Registration is not yet posible but please save the date! Facts: Münsteraner Nikolausturnier 1. December BPS, German Pro-Am CAs: Manuel Adams and Marietta Gädeke Reg not yet posible

We're sorry: This article is not available in English. Please read the German version of this to learn the details about the regional championships, this on in Jena.

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 ...

Do you have a helping hand? Contact Marietta Gädeke via m.gaedeke@wudcberlin.com and learn more about how to help make Berlin Worlds 2013 a tournament to remember. Read the German version of this to learn more about the details. ...

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.

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.

Wanna know what Lenny Kravitz, a piggy bank and Jesus all have to do with DDG, the German debating alumni association? Well... read the German version of this! The Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG) – the German association of alumni debaters – provides a network for alumni debaters as well as it promotes student debating in German speaking regions. Moreover, DDG is co-editor of our debating magazine Achte Minute. DDG’s general assembly of 2011 elected their executive board: Stefan Hübner is now president of the alumni association supported by Marietta Gädeke, Oliver Hörtensteiner, Nicolas Eberle and Bastian Laubner. ...

The general assembly of Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG), the German alumni debating association, have elected a new executive board: President is now Stefan Hübner, his vice-presidents are Marietta Gädeke, Nicolas Eberle, Bastian Laubner and Oliver Hörtensteiner. ...

Since we guess that our appreciated readers follow us on Twitter your head will most probably be replete with impressions from Galway Euros. But what are the facts and figures about the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros)? Or maybe you have been there yourself and want to sort things out now? Your Achte Minute team provides you with all you might want to know - and even beyond. By the way, you still might wanna follow the Hashtag #EUDC on Twitter - you'll find funny stories and how everybody copes with the ...

Achtung, the Germans! The teams from the German speaking regions make up one of the largest groups here at Galway Euros, the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC and Euros) held in Ireland this year. 17 teams from Germany and Austria are competing for the title at the western coast of the Emerald Isle. To make sure you keep your fingers crossed for the right teams, we are presenting you with the names: ...

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: ...

This article is not available in English. Please read the German version to learn about which teams, free speakers and adjudicators made it to octos at the Deutsche Debattiermeisterschaft (DDM), or German Championship in Heidelberg. ...

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 ...

Semi-finalists have just been announced in Vienna! Semis break Vienna IV 2011 Colgate Extra Weiß (16 Ranking Points, 955 Speaker Points, Austin Schwartz, Travis Steele) Bonn Schumeter (14, 935, Lukas Haffert, Volker Tjaden) Galatasaray Ottomans (13, 929, Engin Arikan, Denizhan Kilic) Deree B (13, 921, Jim Kotzias, Eirini Damianaki) Heidelberg Early Blossom (13, 911, Jan Lüken, Marcus Ewald) Brits It means nothing to me (12, 921, Oscar Avery, Feng Cai) Belgrade Tik Tok (12, 907, Goran Jankuloski, Tijana Mejalkovic) SciencePo (12, 907, Stephane Wakeford, xxx) Adjudication Christoph Jäger (DK Wien) Derek Lande Filip Muki Dobranic Gudrun Lux (DC Bonn) Isabelle Loewe (DC Bonn) Kimon Ioannides Leonhard Weese (DK Wien) Lio Kaufman Maja Cimerman Manos Moschopoulos Marietta Gädeke Marko Cirovic Michael Shapira Milan Vidnjevic Rosie Halmie ...

On his blog, Manos Moschopoulos compiled unofficial tabs for ESL and EFL respectively for the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). He did so based on data provided by Leela Koenig, judge at Botswana Worlds, and the competition's language committee. So far, official ESL and EFL tabs have not yet been published by the adjudication team of CA Logandran Balavijendran. According to Manos’ compilation, a correction of the Top Five EFL Speakers has to be noted: “Simon Belak (Ljubljana C) and Andreas Lazar (Stuttgart A) are joint top EFL speakers (initially, they were announced as 2nd and 1st respectively),” Manos ...

The full tab of the World Universities Debating Championships 2011 has been made available online already! The CA team put it on the homepage of Botswana Worlds. Naturally, Achte Minute does have a focus on the results of  VDCH teams and speakers. Hence, to lighten the burden for you, our loyal readers, we compiled their results. ...

The term "Worlds" is used in its plural form because numerous winners have been awarded at Gaborone, Botswana last night. Foremost, the three best teams have to be mentioned who prevailed over the course of nine prelims. It is three best teams as there are three categories: "Open Break", "English as a Second Language" (ESL) and "English as a Foreign Language" (EFL). And the winners are ... Monash A from Australia, Haifa A from Israel and Tokyo B from Japan. There were about 300 teams from all over the globe competing for the title, 32 of which made it to ...

One quarter of the teams of the ESL break are from Germany! That would make one German team in each room, one could think. But in final rounds, the tab is folded. That means that for instance room one assembles teams ranking on 1, 7, 8 and 16. Thanks to this folding, room three of the ESL qurter finals will see two German teams: Stuttgart A (Andreas Lazar and Michael Saliba) and Berlin B (Patrick Ehmann and Bastian Laubner). Other German teams in the quarters are Berlin B (Florian Umscheid and Dessislava Kirova) and Gutenberg A (Marcus Ewald and Marietta ...

That sure is a good start into the new year for VDCH country: Four German teams broke to ESL quarter finals of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) in Gaborone. Here are the lucky ones: Stuttgart A, Michael Saliba, Andreas Lazar, 15 points Berlin B, Dessislava Kirova, Florian Umscheid, 14 points Gutenberg A (Mainz), Marcus Ewald, Marietta Gädeke, 14 points Berlin A, Bastian Laubner, Patrick Ehmann, 13 points Jens Henning Fischer and Isabelle Loewe broke as judges. The complete break was compiled by Stephen M. Llano on his Blog. The draws for the main break are available on Colm Flynn's  World Debating Website. Congratulations to ...

Breaking news from Botswana: Results of our VDCH teams after round 6 leaked from Gabs and we have it all here for our loyal readers. Colm Flynn provided photographs of the tab on his World Debating Website. So how are our German and Austrian teams doing in Gaborone? ...

Let’s get ready to rumble – the 31st World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) are about to start. From 27 December to 4 January Worlds 2011 are to be held in Gaborone, Botswana. Numerous debaters from VDCH countries change to the international debate circuit to compete with more than 300 teams from all over the world for the title of world debate champion. Nine days, that makes nine preliminary rounds plus various final rounds in three categories: Main break, ESL and EFL. The main break is de jure the category for all speakers, de facto for native speakers of English, ...

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 ...

Eisenach is neither very big nor is it very exciting. Out-of-towners attract attention. A bewildered taxi driver asks a party-hungry debater whether he has arrived today. He has not. He has arrived here the day before. What for? To do the same thing, the Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft  (DDG), the German alumni association of former student debaters, has done every year in this small but lovely Thuringian town: Convene its Masters’ Cup. [caption id="attachment_5488" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Die neu eingeführten Manschettenknöpfe mit DDG-Vereinsabzeichen. Daneben gibt es auch Pins fürs Revers und Magnetpins. (Foto: Oliver Hörtensteiner)"][/caption] All DDG members are allowed to compete, all others are ...