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. ...

This article is a wrap-up of what German and international media write about the World Universities Debating Championships in Gaborone, Botswana. Please read the German version to learn about Israeli pride in their debaters, De Nederlands Debatbond and Justice Mothlabani's address to the debaters at Worlds. apf / glx ...

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? ...

Reaching a broad public, debating controversial social topics, provoke thoughts – that’s the idea behind the Masters’ Debate. In this way the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) wants to perform its sociopolitical role. Furthermore the members of BDU want to show what is possible in a really good debate and that even difficult, controversial and contra intuitive motions can be discussed in a reasonable, ambitious and entertaining way. So early December's motion was a heavy one: “This house would allow disabled parents (in countries where pre-implantation diagnostics are allowed) to choose embryos with the same disability.” The Opening Government with Annette Kirste and ...

You may now register for the Berlin Punk Tournament in January. It will be held in German and in BPS. Team-Cap is 48. To register mail to Johannes Häger joiio.taefer[at]gmail.com. CAs are Dessislava Kirova and Andrea Gau. Pro-Am teams requested.

Together with his club mates John Eltringham and Cloud Ramasendaran, Patrick Ehmann, president of the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) has travelled to England for the Oxford IV this weekend. On his agenda: Of course taking part in the most prestigious and biggest debating competition in Europe – besides Euros. But much more important: Patrick and his companions are going to shake lots of hands since they just started their PR tour across Europe to advertise their bid for the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC a.k.a. Worlds) 2013. To gain a broad majority for their project, they chose to start in ...

The Berlin Debating Union won the Preußen Punk Potsdam tournament. The competition was held in German, the format was British Parliamentary Style (BPS). ...

The Berlin Debating Union (BDU) unite debating novices as well as old stagers with their January competitions: On 7 January 2011, they host an invitational which has to be understood literally – speakers get an invitation. With four prelims and a final all taking place on Friday, those old stagers get a good chance to compete with each other. This tournament will be held in German, the format will be BPS, chief adjudicators are Torsten Rössing (Klartext Halle) and Bastian Laubner (BDU). On the following two days, 8 and 9 January, Berlin will be stage to BDU’s Punk tournament. While everybody ...

The SOAS Debating Society continues to establish its IV as one of the largest debate competitions in Europe. On October 16th and 17th, 116 teams competed over six preliminary rounds at the School of African an Oriental Studies near King’s Cross in London. For VDCH-debaters, this was a particularly successful weekend. The final was won by Harish Natarjan and Matilda Wnek (Cambridge H). They triumphed over Cambridge E (Maria English and Jack Watson), Loyola (Emily Ravencroft and Bobby Cashen) and KCL A (Daniel Berman and Jordan Anderson). The ESL final was won by the German vice-champion and current exchange student Filip Bubenheimer ...

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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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 ...

Berlin Debating Union has elected a new executive board. Patrick Ehmann will remain as President; leading the club by his side are now Dessislava Kirova and Johannes Häger. Congratulations and good luck for your work!

Weiter geht's im fröhlichen Berichtereigen: Ein paar Zeitungen schreiben ausführlich über die Deutsche Debattiermeisterschaft (DDM) 2010 und die ersten Clubberichte sind online. Das ganze hat Euch die Achte Minute mit ein paar Bildern garniert. Viel Spaß beim Lesen! ...

"Danke, dass du OPD erfunden hast!", verabschiedete sich ein Stuttgarter Debattant am vergangenen Sonntag nach der ZEIT DEBATTE in Tübingen von Michael Hoppmann, dem Godfather des deutschsprachigen Debattierens. Unter dem Motto "Nur die Vernunft lehrt schweigen. Das Herz lehrt reden." hatte am Wochenende die Streitkultur Tübingen zum Debattierturnier an den Neckar geladen: Knapp 100 Redner aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz gaben sich hier ein Stelldichein, ja, gar aus Bozen und Boston reisten Debattanten an, um bei der ZEIT DEBATTE in Tübingen dabei zu sein. "Die Turnierserie kehrt heim" schreiben die Organisatoren von der Streitkultur auf ihre Homepage, denn die ...

Die Berlin Debating Union (BDU) hat die ZEIT DEBATTE Tübingen 2010 gewonnen. Ein Team des Clubs setzte sich im Finale gegen ein Team des Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) durch. Die Auszeichnung der Ehrenjury als bester Redner des Finales ging an Marcus Ewald vom DCJG, der auch von einer Mehrheit des Publikums als bester Redner bewertet wurde und so zudem die Auszeichnung als Publikumsliebling - bei der Streitkultur Tübingen traditionell ein Kaktus - mit nach Mainz nehmen konnte. "Soll die Ganzkörperverhüllung in Deutschland verboten werden?" lautete die Streitfrage, mit der sich sechs Redner und drei Rednerinnen am Sonntagnachmittag im Tübinger Rathaus ...

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 ...

Köln, Berlin, Halle und St. Gallen sind die VDCH-Regionalmeister 2010. Die Finaldebatten der Regios zum Thema "Dieses Haus glaubt: Es gibt kein Urheberrecht in der Literatur" wurden parallel am Sonntagnachmittag in Dortmund, Hannover, Ilmenau und München ausgetragen. Die Finalisten hatten sich in den Halbfinals zum Thema "Dieses Haus fordert die Kopfpauschale im Gesundheitssystem" durchgesetzt. Bei der Westdeutschen Meisterschaft 2010 im Dortmunder Rathaus konnte die Schließende Opposition überzeugen: Assen Kochev und Tillman Schrammel von Tilbury Hous Köln sind Westdeutscher Meister 2010. Als besten Redner des Finales zeichnete die Ehrenjury Yann Schweisgut-Montané vom Debattierclub Bonn aus. Westdeutsche Vizemeister sind der Debattierclub Bonn mit Yann ...

Facts: May 11 to 13, 2012 Münster BPS Chief adjudicators: Clemens Lechner, Dessislava Kirova, Lukas Haffert The ZEIT DEBATTEN series is convened by VDCH in cooperation with the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT and Deutsche Telekom, supported through VDCH’s media partner ZDF, a German public broadcaster. It has been a decade now since the first ZEIT DEBATTEN series kicked off with at least five annual tournaments, among them the German debating championship. This is now season eleven which comprises four regular tournaments and the German language debating championship. The series is nested under the ...