The general assembly of VDCH (Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen), the umbrella organisation of over 70 german-speaking debating clubs at universities, has elected a new executive board on August 31. Florian Umscheid (Berlin/Bamberg) was elected president by the representatives; vice presidents are Tobias Kube (Marburg), Jennifer Holm (Heidelberg) and Alexander Labinsky (Dresden).   The Achte Minute congratulates the new board and wishes them best of success for their term of office! kem

The general assembly of VDCH (the Association of Debating Societies at Universities) elected a new president and his deputies: Philipp Stiel , Leonid Vogel, Nils Haneklaus and Anna Mattes constitute the new VDCH executive board.

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: ...

Big names in a relatively small town - learn how Andreas Lazar saw this year's Durham Open and read the German version of this article.

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 ...

The convenor of Potsdam PULS Punk announced the CA team of the tournament: Nils Haneklaus (Debattierclub Stuttgart), Rafael Heinisch (S.A.E.C.L.O. Greifswald) and Christoph Krakowiak (Streitkultur Berlin). ...

Team Texas A&M A (Syed Taha and Alya Al-Harthy) defeated teams from Stuttgart, Berlin and Utrecht in the Science Po IV 2011 final. Twenty BPS teams competed from May 7 to 9 at the tournament in Le Havre, France. Chief adjudicator at the ESL-only IV in France's Normandy was Manos Moschopoulos, his deputies were Anne Valkering, Isabelle Loewe, Milan Vignjevic and Rob Honig. The Tab is already online. All motions at a glance: Round 1: This House would invalidate any election result with a turnout below 70 per cent. Round 2: This House believes that children should be excluded from any religion ...

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This is an article about the German Senior League in Schools Debating. This league is annually staged by the Debating Society Germany (DSG) in Würzburg. Marcus Ewald travelled to the Franconian town where he presented the Association of Debating Societies at Universities (VDCH). In the end, the two umbrella associations have come to the conclusion that they must work together. Read more on the tourny and the coop in the German version of this article. Unfortunately, the piece is not yet available in English.

After five prelims, team Freiburg Türme, Zsolt Szilagyi and Friedemann Groth, won the final of Stuttgart Punk on the past weekend. The motion read "Dieses Haus würde Vegetarier werden", or this house would become vegetarian. Best speaker of the final was Clemens Fucker from Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz. Chief adjudicators Sarah Kempf, Nils Haneklaus and Andreas Lazar made up motions for five prelims and a final: 1. Vorrunde: Dieses Haus würde Einwanderern die Staatsbürgerschaft verleihen, wenn sie im Einwanderungsland Militärdienst geleistet haben. 2. Vorrunde: Dieses Haus würde Handelsbeziehungen mit Ländern abbrechen, in denen Christen verfolgt werden. 3. Vorrunde: Dieses Haus lehnt den ...

Daniel Grotzky has been announced CA for ZEIT DEBATTE Stuttgart. As Nils Haneklaus from Debattierclub Stuttgart (DCS) informed Achte Minute, Daniel is going to replace Andrea Gau. Daniel is one of the most experienced debaters in Germany, he has been CA of Southern German Championships 2007 and 2010 and of the German Championship 2010. In the season of 2007/2008 Daniel was president of VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, 2008/2009 of the German Debating Society for Alumni (DDG). Originally associated to Debattierclub München (Munich), he is now committed to debating in Switzerland since he works in ...

We're sorry, this piece is not available in English. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about what deb socs from Stuttgart and Vienna have to say on Botswana Worlds 2011 and what Berliner Zeitung reports on the Berlin Debating Union, the future host of Worlds 2013. ...

The next big event of the ZEIT DEBATTEN open its registration: Nils Haneklaus from Debattierclub Stuttgart just opened registration for the ZEIT DEBATTE which will be held in Stuttgart from 11th to 13th March. ...

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. ...

Debaters worldwide already are cheering about their teams at World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds): The Debattierclub Stuttgart (DCS) jubilates about a smooth start into 2011, the Israeli Debating League compliment their Israeli debaters on their results and the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT interviewed Chinese debaters. ...

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? ...

Six preliminary rounds are over, night has fallen over Botswana. Tomorrow will bring three more pre-rounds at Worlds 2011. These are going to be closed rounds – no feedback and no info on the ranking will leak from the judges. Socials tonight feature a “culture night”. No more complaints about waiting and queuing are to be heard in Gaborone, but speculations on the ranking of teams and institutions. The teams of Debattierclub Stuttgart feel fine with their performance, Andreas C. Lazar reported this morning: “Gaborone, 32 degrees Celsius. Both Michael [Saliba] and I (Stuttgart A) as well as Jana [Gilke] and ...

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, ...

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This article is not available in English. Please read the German version of this article to see what various debating societies say about the BaWü 2010 on their websites! ...

Nils Haneklaus and Kai Nosbüsch are the new champions of Debattierclub Stuttgart (DCS)! They won the final at Internationales Zentrum in Vaihingen and defeated Isabel Spieth and Sven Hein. The motion read "This house would penalise blasphemy", as is reported on the DCS website. The DCS follows a sophisticated system to nominate the semi-finalists of their internal championship every semester. Debaters have to take part in the weekly debates regularly, either as speaker or as judge, and collect points. At the end of the semester, the club champion is to be found in a semi final and final held in the ...

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The Stuttgart debating club Debattierclub Stuttgart has a new executive board. Nils Haneklaus now is president, Kai Nosbüsch his deputy and Sven Hein treasurer. Congratulations and good luck with your work!

Nils Haneklaus and Michael Saliba (both from the debate club Debattierclub Stuttgart) made the break at the DAPDI (Dutch Anglo-Saxon Parliamentary Debating Institute) in Rotterdam – but left the venue before the final rounds took place in order to participate at the Tilbury House Sommer Open.  The DAPDI takes place in Rotterdam every year. There were three days of debate seminars first, an exercise tournament followed (especially to prepare for the EUDC in Amsterdam). The boys from Stuttgart made a blog entry on the DAPDI (in German) and left only positive reference: “What could we get out of DAPDI? A lot, since on ...

Die Achte Minute hat noch ein paar Artikel zusammengesammelt. Hier gibt's was aus Stuttgart, München und Köln zu entdecken, also lest mal rein. ...

Das Greifswalder "webmoritz" berichtet, im Stuttgarter Blog sind schon ein paar Fotos zu sehen und auch von den Debattierclubs in Frankfurt am Main und Mainz gibt es inzwischen Turnierberichte. Hier im Überblick.   ...