Germany's oldest debating society is becoming 20 years - celebrations of the anniversarystarting this weekend. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the details.

Debating in Germany is just 20 years old - the oldest debating society being Streitkultur Tübingen, founded in 1991. For their anniversary they take a whole weekend to celebrate. Kick-off for the celebrations is a show debate between on one side Ansgar Kemmann and Thomas Schwarz Wentzer, of the generation of the founding fathers, and on the other side Philipp Stiel and Peter Croonenbroeck, winner of the German national championship 2010. The show debate will take place on Friday, December 9. Guest of honor will be Asfa-Wossen Asserate, honorary senator of the University of Tübingen and grandnephew of Haile Selassie. The ...

The Committee on OPD Rules (Regelkommission) sat and adapted a few changes. OPD? Yepp, that's the most popular format of debating on the German language circuit: Offene Parlamentarische Debatte, or open parliamentary debate (OPD). It was founded in 2002 and since then updated whenever necessary. The authors of the set of rules are Bernd Rex, Ansgar Kemmann and Michael Hoppmann, all of them debaters from Streitkultur Tübingen, Germany's oldest deb soc. Included in the set is now the permission to use electronic devices such as smart phones during prep time - or more exactly: the convenors may decided upon the permission ...

This article is not available in English. Please read the German version to learn about how ten years back Michael Hoppmann, now professor in Boston, founded the Offene Parlamentarische Debatte (OPD), or open parliamentary debate, a format widely spread in German language debating. ...