[caption id="attachment_21882" align="alignright" width="379"] Jonas Huggins (l.) and Nikos Bosse (c) private[/caption] The editorial board of the Achte Minute is complete again. The publishers of the online-magazine, the Association of German Speaking University Debating Societies (VDCH) and the German Debating Society (DDG), have filled two posts: Taking effect immediately, Jonas Huggins (Berlin Debating Union e.V.) is Editor-in-chief; Assistant Editor-in-chief is Nikos Bosse (Streitkultur e.V. Tübingen). This has been announced by Florian Umscheid, President of VDCH, in a mail to all member clubs. For the first time since 2006 the editorial board now comprises of three persons. Together with Editor-in-chief Sarah Kempf, Jonas ...

After Florian Umscheid has run the Achte Minute along with Annette Kirste since January 2013, he will assume a new task now: The representatives of german-speaking debating clubs elected him the president of VDCH (Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen), the umbrella organisation of over 70 mostly German and Austrian debating clubs at universities. Along with Annette, Sarah Kempf will now run the Achte Minute as editor-in-chief. She has been Chief Convenor of the German Universities Debating Championship 2009 and the Gutenberg-Cup 2009 and 2010. Since 2010, she reports on local affairs and culture for the daily newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung in Mainz. ...

The WUDC Berlin 2013 is creating a massive press echo. Mayor German newspapers write about the Championships, radio stations have live interviews with WUDC staff and even the first camera team came to the TU yesterday. For the press review, please read the German verision of this article.

68 teams, seven prelims and a quarters round make up for semis in Vienna. The following eight teams made it to semis of the German language debating championship (Meisterschaft im deutschsprachigen Debattieren or MDD): Berlin Stadt im Norden (Annette Kirste, Julian Ohm) Mainz Anton (Andrea Gau, Daniil Pakhomenko) Stuttgart CNC (Michael Saliba, Igor Gilitschenski) Berlin Flauschpfote (Hauke Blume, Niels Schröter) MS Hamburg Loki (Kira Lancker, Barbara Schunicht) Berlin HS (Johannes Häger, Georg Sommerfeld) Berlin Babes Bolay (Dessislava Kirova, Juliane Mendelsohn) München Alpha (Valerio Morelli, Marco Witzmann) (This is not a ranking. ) Learn more about MDD in the German version of this article and follow us on Facebook and Twitter ...

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. ...

sorry, there is no English translation available. Please read the German version. ...

Please read the German version of this.

Female power straight on through to the final - Dessislava Kirova and Juliane Mendelsohn of Berlin Debating Union (BDU) are runner-ups to Omer and Sella Nevo from Israel who won the ESL final of the World University Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). Congrats from Achte Minute to all! The ladies gave Achte Minute an interview - please switch to the German page to read the full story or check back later for an English translation.

Please read the German version of this article to learn more on how Miriam Hauft experienced the Elbe Open in Magdeburg.

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 ...

“Embracing Dissent“ is the motto of the WUDC Berlin 2013 – “We believe this reflects the enlightening and liberating clash of ideas that shaped European and German history - and, of course, what makes debate relevant and exciting”, the Facebook site of WUDC Berlin 2013 announced. No doubt, there is a natural dissent between the fractions of a parliamentary debate. Yet, there might also be dissent during the preparatory phase of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds), for instance in a heated debate about the motto. However, consent was the motto when now WUDC convenor Patrick Ehmann travelled the ...

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. ...

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 ...

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

Tuesday, 26th November, the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) opened the new debating semester with the motion "This House would jaywalk“. About 60 guests were curious about the topic and were able to join an exciting debate about the borders of citizens duties. On the side of the Government, Julian Ohm (finalist North-German Championships 2010), Jonas Werner (German Champion 2009) and Johannes Häger (semi-finalist SOAS IV 2010) were stating that a responsible handling of governmental rules also implies to trespass them in particular cases. Only in this way can a healthy relationship to the governmental power be created and the citizens are ...