The Debattiergesellschaft Jena (DGJ) will have some new participants on 10 May. Four bank employees form the Geraer Bank eG are going to join their weekly debate next week. Within an internal training program, the four employees have gained rhetorical knowledge. Now they are going to practice with the debaters form Jena in the "Wartburg" style where no proposals are allowed. But that's not enough for Jena's debating society: preparations for the ZEIT DEBATTE Jena are already in full swing. xzy / sol

On 28 April, three speakers from the Debattiergesellschaft Jena (DJG) will step into the ring against the three professors Stephan Lessenich (Sociology), Michael Dreyer (Political Science) and Stefan Strohschneider (Intercultural Business Communication). Jacob Horn, Friederike Meyer zu Wendischhoff and Severin Weingarten will be arguing on the student side. The audience is to choose the topic and to nominate the winner of the debate. Suggested motions are "Vegetarianism for everyone – should meat consumption be banned?", "Should worse pupils be supported more than better pupils?" and "Should the portrait rights be abandoned?" The show debate starts at 20.15 pm in auditorium 3, located ...

Please read the German version of this article to learn more about what both the press and deb socs have to say about the Northern, Eastern and Western German regionals. glx / apf ...

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. ...

The next big event of the ZEIT DEBATTEN series is looking just around the corner: The ZEIT DEBATTE in Jena is open for registration. From 20 to 22nd May this tournament will take place in Jena, Germany. The convenors allure to German speaking debaters with the "Wartburg" style where no proposals are allowed so you have to create questions that can be answered clearly with “yes” or “no”. ...

There are news from the "City of Light" situated at the river Saale: The tournament website of ZEIT DEBATTE Jena is finally online! There you may find all basic data and important information about the tournament. Registration is not open before 4 April 2011, but the organizers from Debattiergesellschaft Jena (DGJ) made up a special feature to bridge the gap: You may use the new opportunity to submit suggestions for the motions until the opening of registration. Please keep in mind that the tournament will be held in Wartburg style where no proposals are allowed so you have to create questions ...

We are sorry, this article is not available in English. Please read the German version and get to know how debaters from five German cities enjoyed the small tournament in Wartburg style in Jena.

Jonathan Scholbach, Severin Weingarten and Eva Schlindwein (Debattiergesellschaft Jena) have just won this year’s Jena Open defying the Pro side. The motion reads "Open Goverment statt Geheimdiplomatie? – Sollen staatliche Informationen frei verfügbar sein?". ...

The guys of Debattiergesellschaft Jena (DGJ) never stand still: they are already very busy with the preparation of the ZEIT DEBATTE in May, but that doesn’t seem to be enough. That’s why the board of DGJ invited selected debaters to the friendship tournament in the “City of Light” situated at the river Saale. Speakers and adjudicators from Ilmenau, Leipzig, Dresden and Potsdam will come to Jena for the weekend to practise the Wartburg style in four preliminaries and the final. Also members of DGJ take part in the tournament and offer places to sleep to the participants from other cities. Today ...

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

Leipzig won the final of ZEIT DEBATTE Mainz 2011! 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 semi-finals at ZEIT DEBATTE Mainz!

Warm-up for the ZEIT DEBATTE in May: the Debattiergesellschaft Jena (DGJ) hosts a friendship tournament from 22 to 23 January in the "City of Light" situated at the river Saale. There are three preliminaries and a final scheduled. The debates are going to be held in Wartburg style. So all the speakers and adjudicators can get to know the format better and prepare their selves for the ZEIT DEBATTE in Jena. Members of DGJ and debaters from other societies, who can find an invitation in their mailbox, are allowed to participate. For those who are in need of a place to sleep, ...

Only two weeks until Christimas Eve: The debating societies in Berlin and Jena are very curious and arranged on Tuesday 14th December Christmas parties for their members. ...

Two debaters from Debatte Dortmund (DebaDo) set out in summer to visit debating clubs all over Germany. Jörn Hahn and Jens Schulze now presented a video about their trip. Have fun watching Es gibt immer eine Begründung - Gespräche mit deutschen Debattierern. (In German, no subtitles.) msi / glx

Pubs, comedians and potato salad: These things and even more were provided during the debating workshop of Debattiergesellschaft Jena (DGJ) from 12 till 14 November. Originally thought of as an internal event, the non-competitive debaters’ meeting did not only attract speakers from DGJ but also especially debating novices from other clubs like Dresden, Magdeburg and Munich. In a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere the debates were held in the established formats Open Parliamentary Debate (OPD) and British Parliamentary Style (BPS) but also in Wartburg style. Some speakers even tried to discuss under the rules of Disputation. It was very particular for this ...

On 4 November, the Debattiergesellschaft Jena (DGJ) organised its annual ZEIT DEBATTEN evening, which is a public debating contest between students and professors. In the last years, the exhibition debate that is generously supported by the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT had inspired a lot of spectators and made them familiar with debating in general. This year the team of professors consisted of Eberhard Eichenhofer (Law), Alfred Fahr (Biology/Pharmaceutics) and Andreas Freytag (Economics). Speaking for DGJ were Clemens Lechner, Friederike Meyer zu Wendischhoff and Jonathan Scholbach - Clemens being a German Debating Championship finalist of three times, Friederike and Jonathan finalists ...

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“How far have you travelled?“is the starting sentence into any kind of conversation this weekend. It is the kick-off into the new season of ZEIT DEBATTEN series at Greifswald. Flirts, smalltalk - they all start with the "How long did it take you to get here" question. Indeed, the Hanseatic town by the Bodden, a bay at the Baltic Sea, is located in quite a remote area. However, about 65 debaters found their ways to Greifswald. Many of them split their journey - it took them a two-day's travel via Berlin or Hamburg to get to Meck-Pomm. To read more on ...

The Debattiergesellschaft Jena invites everybody to the annual public debate with professors on Thursday, 4 November.  This time, before the debate begins the audience can not only choose the motion to be discussed, but they also decide upon the winner after the debate. Three  students will speak against the professors Eberhard Eichenhofer (Law), Alfred Fahr (Biology/Pharmaceutics) and Andreas Freytag (Economics). Let's see if the students can win this time: Last year the team consisting of the professors beat the students with a small lead. The debate evening starts at 8.15 pm. The venue is auditorium 3, located in Carl-Zeiss-Straße 3. vro ...

Halle for the first time enters the Top Ten in the VDCH hall of fame, and now draws with Bonn. Munich and Greifswald are victims of Halle’s victory in Greifswald and lose a few places. A new entry on the list is Bremen (Hanse Debating Union, HDU). Jena underscores its position as one of Germany’s top clubs, and Mainz was able to secure a point this last weekend, although this was in debating, not in football. This was an awaited recovery, after Mainz had disappointed during the German Championships in June. The top seated Berlin Debating Union did not win any ...

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Hooray and boohoo: Just eight teams out of 24 had the chance to break at the ZEIT DEBATTEN series kick-off that opens the current season of 2010/2011. Here are the teams that compete for the break into finals on Sunday morning at Greifswald by the Baltic Sea. ...

A weekend filled with fun and debate – this is what the Debattiergesellschaft Jena (DGJ) offers from 12 to 14 November in their Thuringian hometown. Participants get to know various formats, from Wartburg (a special format developped in Thuringia and named after the famous castle), OPD (Open Parliamentary Debate, widely spread in Germany), and BPS (British Parliamentary Style) to Disputation (a format of strict rules based on Aristotle’s disputation). Aim of the non-competitive debaters’ meeting is to experience and learn – especially for adjudicators, since they should not focus on ranking teams during any tournament, but should rather exercise constructive ...

The Debattiergesellschaft Jena (DGJ) presented their debating society at Friedrich Schiller University. They allured students interested in debating with home-made cakes and issues of DIE ZEIT. On DGJ’s website, it is reported that students were introduced to and had the chance to deliver impromptu speeches with motions such as “A woman’s place is in the kitchen”. Other rhetoric games included the explanation of made-up inkhorn terms such as ‘vulgivag’ or ‘kökkenmödinger’. apf /glx

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The next season of the German debating ZEIT DEBATTEN series is set: the general assembly of VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, came together in August and decided upon dates and locations of four ZEIT DEBATTEN tournaments, four regional championships and the German debating championship (DDM) 2011. An overview over the coming season 2010/11 is provided here: ...

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Two debaters from Debatte Dortmund (DebaDo) set out last week to visit debating clubs all over Germany. Jörn Hahn and Jens Schulze report from their stops six to eight. (The following part is not or not yet available in English. Please check back later.)

Boddencup 2010's Tab is now available online. You may also find some societies' reports on the tournament (in German), as there are Debattiergesellschaft Jena's report on Boddencup, a Debattierclub Stuttgart's report and a Berlin Debating Union's report. ...