The International Debate Academy Slovenia (IDAS) will be held from November 23rd to December 1st. You can attend the instructional week and the British Parliamentary debate tournament. The weeks consists of a full program for trainers, teachers, coaches, club leaders, judges at any level in any debate format. If not interested in the whole programme, you may apply for the tournament only. The application deadline is the 30th of October. The whole event costs 340 euros, the tournament-only option 80 euros. Facilities As displayed by the picture above, participants will be accommodated in Hotel Špik, in the impressive ambient of Kranjska Gora. Results IDAS is mainly ...

The OrgComm of Zagreb EUDC 2014 has announced that they opened the DCA application process to the feedback stage. They would like to invite all members of the international debating community to provide feedback on the applicants based on their personal experience of working with them either as debaters, judges, CAs or DCAs. They are interested in feedback regarding judging ability and motion setting. In addition, they welcome any feedback on how well applicants work in teams and their other personal attributes. In alphabetical order, the applicants are: Alon van Dam (Israel, RRIS) Andreas Lazar (Germany, University of Stuttgart) Ashish Kumar (IONA, Cambridge University) Ben ...

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First German Ironmans' break: Andreas C. Lazar (8 Punkte) Willy Witthaut Leonid Vogel und Adrian Gombert (je 7 Punkte). Motions: Vorrunde 1: Dieses Haus glaubt, dass separate sportliche Wettbewerbe für Frauen der feministischen Sache schaden. Vorrunde 2: Dieses Haus würde christliche Missionsschulen in Pakistan einrichten. Vorrunde 3: Dieses Haus würde den Personen- und Güterverkehr durch Beamen verbieten. Vorrunde 4: Dieses Haus will kein deutsches Europa.

Julian Ohm and Barbara Schunicht from Debattierclub Hamburg won the Berlin Punk 2012. They defeated Andreas Lazar and Roxanna Noll from Debattierclub Stuttgart and two teams from Berlin Debating Union: Jonas Werner and Katja Krüger aswell as Christina Dexel and Lilian Seffer. The final motion read “Dieses Haus glaubt, dass Menschenversuche Richtern als Strafmaß zur Verfügung stehen sollten.“ ...

Debaters from all over the world are flocking in to Manila, Philippines. From 27 December 2011 to 4 January 2012, they assemble at De La Salle University (DLSU) to compete for the title of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). From under the roof of VDCH there will be the following debating society competing with around 400 teams from about 70 countries - all in a peaceful competition, the WUDC 2012 or DLSU Worlds: Berlin Debating Union: John Eltringham, Narendran Ramasendaran, Dessislava Kirova, Juliane Mendelsohn, Kai Dittmann, Matthias Winkelmann S.A.E.C.L.O. Greifswald: Rafael Heinisch, Ida Heidecker Debattierclub Mannheim: Jana Gilke, Katrin Sadroschinski Debattierclub Johannes ...

All candidates have applied for the office of deputy chief adjudicator for the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) to be held in Berlin. Now the chief adjudicators Doug Cochran and Sharmila Parmanand require the help of the international debating circuit: Give your feedback on the candidates, among them Isabelle Loewe (Bonn) and Ben Woolgar (Oxford)! The full list is available on the blog of WUDC Berlin 2013. Doug and Sharmila point out that they will not accept anonymous feedback and promise that all e-mails will be treated strictly confidentially. They also ask all of you to put special focus ...

A premiere in Stuttgart: On December 10 and 11, the convenor Andreas Lazar invites the debating circuit to the society's first international tournament. Top-class debaters like Michael Saliba (WUDC 2011 semi-finalist), Maja Cimerman (EUDC ESL champion 2010) and Daniël Springer (EUDC 2011 semi-finlast) will serve as CAs. Andreas believes that "it is time to give back to the international debating community we've enjoyed so much over the past years" and promises an "ideal Worlds prep two weeks before Manila". The tournament offers five rounds, semis and a final. Speech duration is seven minutes, team cap is 36. Reg fee is €35 Euros ...

Since we guess that our appreciated readers follow us on Twitter your head will most probably be replete with impressions from Galway Euros. But what are the facts and figures about the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros)? Or maybe you have been there yourself and want to sort things out now? Your Achte Minute team provides you with all you might want to know - and even beyond. By the way, you still might wanna follow the Hashtag #EUDC on Twitter - you'll find funny stories and how everybody copes with the ...

Achtung, the Germans! The teams from the German speaking regions make up one of the largest groups here at Galway Euros, the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC and Euros) held in Ireland this year. 17 teams from Germany and Austria are competing for the title at the western coast of the Emerald Isle. To make sure you keep your fingers crossed for the right teams, we are presenting you with the names: ...

Big names in a relatively small town - learn how Andreas Lazar saw this year's Durham Open and read the German version of this article.

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. ...

Team Texas A&M A (Syed Taha and Alya Al-Harthy) defeated teams from Stuttgart, Berlin and Utrecht in the Science Po IV 2011 final. Twenty BPS teams competed from May 7 to 9 at the tournament in Le Havre, France. Chief adjudicator at the ESL-only IV in France's Normandy was Manos Moschopoulos, his deputies were Anne Valkering, Isabelle Loewe, Milan Vignjevic and Rob Honig. The Tab is already online. All motions at a glance: Round 1: This House would invalidate any election result with a turnout below 70 per cent. Round 2: This House believes that children should be excluded from any religion ...

Paris is very, very beautiful. Plus, it is the political, economic and social center of the French nation. It is de facto impossible to get the full impression in just one weekend. But the convenors of Louisa Leila Zhang’s team helped us get a good first glimpse on the first weekend of April. The about 150 participants of the Paris IV were offered hospitality and French cuisine, impressive technology and the art of partying plus a city tour – and all that in just under 45 hours. The debaters – from the Wordls finalist John Ashbourne from the London School ...

Wet, wet, wet - you must love England, for its weather, its guilty pleasures (deep fried chicken wings, huge burgers, chips and vinegar) and its talkative debaters. That was equally true for this year's Manchester IV in late February. With Ruth Faller (CA Galway Euros) and Sam Block (CA De La Salle Worlds) as motion setters for 80 teams, the Manchester Debating Union did a great job entertaining the debaters with regard to culinary and social needs. Particularly popular were the debate videos they had produced, playing with famous TV shows as "Dragon's Den" or "Glee", Andreas Lazar from Debattierclub ...

In early February, Andreas Lazar (Debattierclub Stuttgart) shed some light on international debating for those interested of Debattierclub Aachen (DCA). Earlier this year, Andreas was top speaker at Worlds in Botswana in the category "English as a Foreign Language" (EFL) and made it to semis together with his team mate Michael Saliba. In the two-day workshop, the focus was on the basics of the internationally wide-spread format of British Parliamentary Style (BPS). Andreas told the 30 debaters from Aachen about tools to find, order and present arguments. Andreas was supported by Dutch debaters from Amsterdam University College: Roelant Stegmann, ...

After five prelims, team Freiburg Türme, Zsolt Szilagyi and Friedemann Groth, won the final of Stuttgart Punk on the past weekend. The motion read "Dieses Haus würde Vegetarier werden", or this house would become vegetarian. Best speaker of the final was Clemens Fucker from Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz. Chief adjudicators Sarah Kempf, Nils Haneklaus and Andreas Lazar made up motions for five prelims and a final: 1. Vorrunde: Dieses Haus würde Einwanderern die Staatsbürgerschaft verleihen, wenn sie im Einwanderungsland Militärdienst geleistet haben. 2. Vorrunde: Dieses Haus würde Handelsbeziehungen mit Ländern abbrechen, in denen Christen verfolgt werden. 3. Vorrunde: Dieses Haus lehnt den ...

We're sorry, this piece is not available in English. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about what deb socs from Stuttgart and Vienna have to say on Botswana Worlds 2011 and what Berliner Zeitung reports on the Berlin Debating Union, the future host of Worlds 2013. ...

Sorry, this article is not yet available in English. Please read the German version to learn more on how Andreas Lazar and his team mate from Debattierclub Stuttgart made it to ESL finals at WUDC 2011.

On his blog, Manos Moschopoulos compiled unofficial tabs for ESL and EFL respectively for the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). He did so based on data provided by Leela Koenig, judge at Botswana Worlds, and the competition's language committee. So far, official ESL and EFL tabs have not yet been published by the adjudication team of CA Logandran Balavijendran. According to Manos’ compilation, a correction of the Top Five EFL Speakers has to be noted: “Simon Belak (Ljubljana C) and Andreas Lazar (Stuttgart A) are joint top EFL speakers (initially, they were announced as 2nd and 1st respectively),” Manos ...

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. ...

Debaters worldwide already are cheering about their teams at World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds): The Debattierclub Stuttgart (DCS) jubilates about a smooth start into 2011, the Israeli Debating League compliment their Israeli debaters on their results and the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT interviewed Chinese debaters. ...

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 ...

There’s a whole bunch of new world champions: Team Monash A from Australia won the grand final of the open break of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). That is Victor Finkel und Fiona Prowse. In the category English as a Second Language (ESL), Michael Shapira and Meir Yarom of team Haifa A from Israel defeated all other finalists. Then there is a third world champion team: Kazushige Yoshimaru and Yuki Tominaga of Tokyo B from Japan. All three winning teams triumphed from the position of opening government. The winners of the main break are experienced debaters: Victor was ...

Team Stuttgart A made it to ESL semis at World Universities Debating Championships in Botsuana. Congratulations to Michael Saliba and Andreas Lazar. Please read more on this in the German version of this article! apf / glx ...

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? ...

Six preliminary rounds are over, night has fallen over Botswana. Tomorrow will bring three more pre-rounds at Worlds 2011. These are going to be closed rounds – no feedback and no info on the ranking will leak from the judges. Socials tonight feature a “culture night”. No more complaints about waiting and queuing are to be heard in Gaborone, but speculations on the ranking of teams and institutions. The teams of Debattierclub Stuttgart feel fine with their performance, Andreas C. Lazar reported this morning: “Gaborone, 32 degrees Celsius. Both Michael [Saliba] and I (Stuttgart A) as well as Jana [Gilke] and ...