The Berlin IV – European Debates Conference 2014 has its winners: Emilia Carlqvist and Peer Klüßendorf from Lund Debate Society won the final in a three-to-two split decision. Peer and Emilia debated in Opening Government as the team "Dixendorf". The motion of the final read: "This House believes that the EU should force member states to adopt socially progressive legislation (e. g. same-sex marriage, abortion rights, ethnic and religious minority rights)." [caption id="attachment_22737" align="alignright" width="400"] Participants during the public debate on Friday (c) Matthias Carcasona[/caption] "REC Truth Department", another team from Sweden consisting of Olivia Sundberg and Martin Devenney, spoke in Closing ...

Kai Dittmann began cautiously. “It often is not easy to argue for free trade,” said the 2014 World Champion in the category English as a Second Language (ESL). “But it is the marginal benefits that sum up.” Together with John Eltringham, who works at the American Academy in Berlin, he represented the government side in a public debate on the first evening of the Berlin Intervarsity. The question debated was: “Does Europe need the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)?” Speakers at the public debate (from left to right): John Eltringham, Kai Dittmann, Christoph Krakowiak, Rebecca Irvine and Philipp Stiel (c) ...

The elections for the European Parliament are right around the corner. This year’s elections promise to be different. For the first time, the citizens of the European Union can directly vote for the President of the EU parliament, while the rise of far right groups could create tensions in the EU. Under these impressions, the coordination meeting for the European Debates took place in Berlin this weekend. Right in the heart of Berlin, at the Allianz Foundation Forum next to the Brandenburg Gate, 23 young Europeans gathered to plan and discuss the series of upcoming debates. The association Bürger Europas e.V. ...

Europe shall be subject to debate. That is the spirit that drives the International Series of European Debates. The VDCH* and the society Bürger Europas e.V. initiated this series of debates about European topics. In cooperation with different local debating societies, public debates with European politicians have already been organised in a variety of cities in Germany and Austria. This year, in the run-up to the 2014 elections to the European Parliament, the European Debates will be hosted not only in German speaking countries, but all over Europe. Christoph Krakowiak, person in charge for the European Debates, has announced that ...

This article is only available in German.

While most debaters were still recovering form the WUDC-fever, another debating highlight took place in Berlin: on Januray 16th politics and competitive debating clashed. Streitkultur Berlin hosted an event where they debated professional politicians. The motion before the house was:" Should journalisim be publicly funded?" This article is only available in English. Please read more on this in the German version of this article.

 

Here are tab and motions of ZEIT DEBATTE Karlsruhe 2011. ...

Great start into the ZEIT DEBATTEN season 2011/2012 for Berlin Debating Union. Their speakers Georg Sommerfeld, Patrick Ehmann and Johannes Häger won the ZEIT DEBATTE's final against Marco Niedermaier, Lukas Windhager and Almut Graebsch who were competing for Debattierclub München. Georg Sommerfeld was the best speaker of the final. The motion was: Do we need the United Staates of Europe? The final was completed by the free speakers Willy Witthaut (Mainz), Sven Hirschfeld (Heidelberg) and Irene Adamski (Halle). The finals' adjudicators: Pauline Leopold (Tübingen), Yin Cai (Heidelberg), Christoph Krakowiak (SK Berlin), Mario Dießner (SK Berlin), Leonid Vogel (Karlsruhe) and ...

The new ZEIT DEBATTEN series begins! This weekend, speakers and judges from all over VDCH-land flock at Karlsruhe. Language of the tournament, as in the whole series, is German, the ZEIT DEBATTE Karlsruhe will be held in Offene Parlamentarische Debatte (open parliamentary debate, OPD). Chief adjudicators are Yin Cai (former president of Debating Club Heidelberg), Christoph Krakowiak (former president of Streitkultur Tübingen and current president of Streitkultur Berlin) and Mario Dießner of Streitkultur Berlin. 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 ...

Debating is starting in VDCH country!Gutenberg Cup is welcoming those who love to do fun debates. Sarah Kempf and Torsten Rössing are going to present a set of joke motions. And teams from 14 societies are going to compete for the title "Master of the Jokes". Follow @achteminute on Twitter for the motions (in German). Read the German version of this to learn more about the Gutenberg Cup in Mainz.

The 11th ZEIT DEBATTEN series is about to begin! The convenor in Karlsruhe has open its application for the first ZEIT DEBATTE this season. Language of the tournament, as in the whole series, is German, the ZEIT DEBATTE Karlsruhe will be held in OPD. Chief adjudicators are Yin Cai (Heidelberg), Christoph Krakowiak and Mario Dießner (Berlin). ...

Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) is looking for the “Jokes Champion”. The annual Gutenberg-Cup in Mainz is a tournament with exclusively funny motions. This year it is held on November 12 and 13, debating style is Offene Parlamentarische Debatte (OPD; teams consist of tree speakers and one adjudicator), language is German. Registration is open now via e-mail to andrea_gau@yahoo.de. Fee is 15 Euros per person, crash is available.

The CAs of BaWü, the Open Baden-Wurttembergian Championship, have been announced: Yin Cai from DebatingClub Heidelberg and Christoph Krakowiak from Streitkultur Berlin are going to be the masters of the motions. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the details. ...

The German Debating Championship is getting more and more exciting. The motion reads "Soll die Wikipedia Weltkulturerbe werden?", or "Should Wikiepedia become World Heritage?". Read here who made it to quarters in Heidelberg: ...

This article is not available in English. Please read the German version to learn about which teams, free speakers and adjudicators made it to octos at the Deutsche Debattiermeisterschaft (DDM), or German Championship in Heidelberg. ...

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). ...

The Association of Debating Societies at Universities (VDCH) has now grown to 70 debating societies. The umbrella association represents debating societies in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. Jan Lüken, current president of VDCH, is proud to announce that just recently four new debating societies have become members of VDCH. These are AFA Wien, Debattierclub Zürich, DUEbattierclub Duisburg-Essen and Streitkultur Berlin. Streitkultur Berlin is a kind of "branch" of Streitkultur Tübingen and as such an advocat for the format OPD (open parliamentary debate, a format widely spread in Germany). The executive board is formed by Christoph Krakowiak, Helen Leutloff and Julia Dragon. ...

Read more on Tübingen's Streitkultur Cup in the German version of this article and find out how Marcus Ewald won the audience, how Natalie Wieseotte won a version of "Who wants to be a millionaire" on OPD (the German format of open parliamentary debate) and how Pauline Leopold won in a competition on the rules of OPD but still felt ashamed. ...

Streitkultur Tübingen announced the chief adjudicators of Steitkultur Cup: Mario Dießner of Wortgefechte Potsdam and Christoph Krakowiak, Streitkultur Berlin's president, will be in charge. Until November 14th, you may register for Streitkultur Cup, a German-language debating tournament held in OPD style. Please send an e-mail to vorstand[at]streitkultur.net and let your host know how many teams your institution is going to send to the tournament. Registration fees are 10 Euros and a limited number of crash will be available, others will be asked to care for their own accommodation. There will be three preliminary rounds and a final which will be staged ...

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Pauline Leopold, Peter Croonenbroeck and Christoph Krakowiak from Streitkultur Tübingen scored the title “Master of Jokes”. Second time in a row, they won the Gutenberg Cup, the annual tournament of Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG). The motion of the final round reads “Do we need a new Robin Hood?”, where the debaters from Tübingen defeated a home team from Mainz. Best speaker of the final was Hauke Blume who fought in the final round as free speaker, i.e. a speaker with no beforehand appointed position in the debate, a characteristic of the German format OPD (Open Parliamentary Debate) in addition ...

Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) is looking for the "Jokes Champion". The annual Gutenberg-Cup in Mainz is a tournament with exclusively funny motions. This year it is held on October 16 and 17, debating style is Offene Parlamentarische Debatte (OPD; teams consist of tree speakers and one adjudicator), language is German. Registration is open now via e-mail to kempf.sarah[at]gmx.de. Fee is 15 Euros per person, crash is available.

Reporting with text and photos from their very first club evening is the newly founded Streitkultur Berlin (SKB). Their article is now online (available only in German). ...

Almost three dozen club members and others convened for the first club evening of Streitkultur Berlin (SKB). Only a few blocks away, the new President of Germany (Bundespräsident) was elected in the Reichstag, while the newly founded debating club debated the topic that was to ultimately prove as the old President's downfall. They asked: "Should German military operations be allowed to assert economic interests?", thus re-debating the final motion of this year's German Debating Championships, this time in OPD debating style. Before the debate, club President Christoph Krakowiak introduced the rules to all those present and then handed off to ...

"Was nicht umstritten ist, ist auch nicht sonderlich interessant." - Diesen Sinnspruch des Dichters Johann Wolfgang von Goethe hat sich der frischgegründete Debattierclub Streitkultur Berlin zum Motto gemacht. Der Verein lädt zu seiner Auftaktdebatte am 30. Juni um 20 Uhr in das "Cum Laude", Universitätsstraße 4, in Berlin. Passend zur Wahl des neuen Bundespräsidenten, die am gleichen Tag nur wenige Straßen weiter im Berliner Reichstag abgehalten wird, lautet das Debattenthema: "Sollen deutsche Militäreinsätze zur Durchsetzung wirtschaftlicher Interessen erlaubt werden?" Der Vorstand des neuen Berliner Debattierclubs besteht aus Christoph Krakowiak, ehemaliger Vorsitzender des VDCH-Clubs Streitkultur Tübingen, sowie Helen Leutloff und Julia Dragon. Helen ...

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! ...

Die Streitkultur Tübingen hat einen Bericht über das Berliner Neujahrsturnier, das im Januar gemeinsam mit dem Punk-Turnier stattfand, veröffentlicht. ...