February 29 is a date not so common, recurring only once in four years. This year, it'll be a day to remember for another reason, too: Registration for the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC or Euros) opens that day. Get your computers ready, check your internet connection and make sure eveything is in the right place on Wednesday, 12 o'clock CET, i.e. Central European Time. Convener Milan Vignjevic explains it more detailed: "That is 11:00 London/Dublin/Lisbon, 12:00 Belgrade/Paris/Amsterdam/Berlin, 13:00 Athens/Ankara/Tallinn and 14:00 Moscow/Doha time." And he's got another good advice: "Make sure your institutional representative has their clicking finger warmed ...

Heidelberg Debating A (Sven Hirschfeld, Daniel Sommer and Franzi Kriegelstein) won the final of the renown Streitkultur Cup 2011 in Tübingen. They defeated Streitkultur Pheme from Tübingen (Peter Croonenbroeck, Anne Suffel and Jonathan Spanos).Free speakers were Philipp Stiel, Lukas Windhager and Dominic Hildebrand. The final was judged by Vanessa Schilling, Tobias Kube, Oliver Hörtensteiner, Sarah Kempf and Leo Vogel. Mario Dießner functioned as president of the final debate. The audience chose Peter Croonenbroeck as best speaker of the final who was awarded with a traditional cactus. [caption id="attachment_11479" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The winners of the Streitkultur Cup 2011: Sven Hirschfeld, Franzi Kriegelstein ...

Two of the most prestigious debating tournaments took place over the last weekends, the Oxford (November 10 and 11) and the Cambridge IV (November 18 and 19), and Achte Minute was there! Because there is a long tradition of comparison between the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, also this report will try to compare both tournaments since IV stands for intervarsity, a competition between universities. The first tournament that took place was the Oxford IV – which started on Friday (for international arrivals on Thursday evening) and took place at the impressive Oxford ...

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 ...

The general assembly of Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG), the German alumni debating association, have elected a new executive board: President is now Stefan Hübner, his vice-presidents are Marietta Gädeke, Nicolas Eberle, Bastian Laubner and Oliver Hörtensteiner. ...

Change in the adjudication panel: Bernd Hoefer will replace Isabelle Loewe, currently vice-presidentof Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG), the German alumni debating society. Bernd really is an old stager on the German language debating circuit: He was a runner-up at the German debating championship in 2002, vice-president of the then newly founded Association of Debating Societies at Universities (Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen, VDCH) and sat in numerous panels as final judge and was chief adjudicator at tournaments of the renowned series ZEIT DEBATTEN, among them the German debating championship in 2004. Benedikt Nufer, currently VDCH president, is going to support him ...

Gudrun Lux, president of Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG), the German alumni association for debaters, announced the CA team of Masters' Cup 2011. Traditionally, one member each from VDCH and DDG executive boards are the chief adjudicators of Masters’ Cup. This year, this will be the recently elected president of VDCH Benedikt Nufer and Gudrun's deputy, DDG vice president Isabelle Loewe. The Masters’ Cup is the annual tournament which is staged at Eisenach since 2005. The venue for the final is the ballroom at the world heritage site Wartburg. The Masters’ style was specifically developed ...

Disclaimer: This article reflects my (Manos Moschopoulos’) own personal point of view, which does not necessarily reflect the opinion of anyone else involved with the Adjudication core or Organizing Committee of Belgrade EUDC 2012. Addendum: Manos' text refers to a Facebook group where a Dutch debater complains about the motion of the ESL final at the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros) at Galway, Ireland. This very debater, Eric Stam, has also voiced his opinion on the website of the Dutch debating assosication. By the way, the motion read "This house believes ...

One week of debating, nine preliminary rounds, quarters, semis and now the final! This year's European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros) held at Glaway, Ireland, produced new champions in the open break as well as in the category ESL, English as a Second Language. ...

Tel Aviv A is double breaking at Galway Euros! That is in the open and in the ESL break. Something that is only possible at Euros, not at Worlds. Find the rest of the break to quarter finals below - we have it all for you: The open break as well as the ESL break. That was one exciting announcement ... my goodness! OPEN BREAK The competitors of the open break have to be early birds: Debate starts at 9 a.m., ... Quarter final 1: TCD Hist B King's Inn A UCD L&H A UCC Philosoph B Quarter final 2: Oxford A KCL A UCC Law B Warwick ...

Leprechauns and a pot of gold - those of our appreciated readers who are travelling to Ireland this weekend are most probably not after goblins and treasures, but want one thing: the title as winners of the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros). From Sunday to Friday, Galway at the West coast of Ireland will be stage to Europe’s greatest debate tournament. 200 teams of two are going to compete; they are from all over Europe and as far as from Israel and Qatar. And, of course, from Germany. Language of debate is English, the format is called British ...

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

This article is not available in English. Please read the German version to learn more about the forthcoming Elbe Open 2011. xzy / tr

The Scotsmen are calling! Let's go and compete at this year's Edinburgh Cup on October 8 and 9. It's an open, so you may "bring whoever you like for 5 rounds of 7-minute speeches over two days, with a break to a semi-final," the convenors promise on their Facebook website. They assembled a great team for adjudication: Isabelle Loewe (EUDC champiom 2006), Ben Woolgar (finalist at Euros and Worlds alike) and Dearbhail O' Crowley (chief adjudicator at the upcoming SOAS Open). They make it a fine start into the new season in fall, being "a great opportunity to get back into ...

This article is not available in english. Please read the german version.

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. ...

It's because of the copyright: The former "The double Otto" tournament is going to take place as "Elbe Open" and is named after the River Elbe that flows through Magdeburg. Debattierclub Magdeburg shortly announced, the date remains 2 and 3 July. The convenors changend not only the name of the tournament, but also the style. Instead of the Open Parliamentary Debate (OPD) the style is now BPS with five prelims, semis and a final. Isabelle Loewe, Miriam Hauft and Torsten Rössing are certainly worthy of note. Isabelle is EUDC winner 2006 (ESL) and was one of the CAs at the Vienna IV ...

“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 ...

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 ...

Today starts in Bremen this year's Jacobs Open. Please read our article in german language.

The final is over! Team Colgate Extra White, Austin Schwartz and Travis Steele, have won the Vienna IV 2011 from the position of Opening Government. The final motion read: "This house believes that parties' electoral campaigns should only be funded by the state." Their opponents were the following: ...

Semi-finalists have just been announced in Vienna! Semis break Vienna IV 2011 Colgate Extra Weiß (16 Ranking Points, 955 Speaker Points, Austin Schwartz, Travis Steele) Bonn Schumeter (14, 935, Lukas Haffert, Volker Tjaden) Galatasaray Ottomans (13, 929, Engin Arikan, Denizhan Kilic) Deree B (13, 921, Jim Kotzias, Eirini Damianaki) Heidelberg Early Blossom (13, 911, Jan Lüken, Marcus Ewald) Brits It means nothing to me (12, 921, Oscar Avery, Feng Cai) Belgrade Tik Tok (12, 907, Goran Jankuloski, Tijana Mejalkovic) SciencePo (12, 907, Stephane Wakeford, xxx) Adjudication Christoph Jäger (DK Wien) Derek Lande Filip Muki Dobranic Gudrun Lux (DC Bonn) Isabelle Loewe (DC Bonn) Kimon Ioannides Leonhard Weese (DK Wien) Lio Kaufman Maja Cimerman Manos Moschopoulos Marietta Gädeke Marko Cirovic Michael Shapira Milan Vidnjevic Rosie Halmie ...

Vienna calling: Following that call are debaters from all over the international debating circuit. From Friday to Sunday, the Austrian capital will see speakers and judges flocking in from the Netherlands, Ukraine, Greece, Slovenia, Germany, Turkey, Romania, Serbia, England, Ireland, Russia, Croatia, Macedonia, France, Kosovo and the USA. The all assemble at the first Vienna IV ever to be held by Debattierklub Wien (DKW). Six prelims will be staged at Vienna’s University of Economics and Business with seven-minute speeches. The format is British Parliamentary Style (BPS), language of debate is English. The final will be held in the Festsaal of ...

We're very, very sorry this text is not available English. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about poetry among debaters and the final debate on two formats widely spread in Germany: BPS vs. OPD. apf / sol

Isabelle Loewe (DC Bonn), Benedikt Nufer (DC Hamburg) and Daniel Grotzky (DC München) as team Die Zwillinge vom Zillertal won the Rheingötter-Debattierwettstreit. This article is not yet available in English, please check back later or read the German version.

There is no sit-down on the international debate circuit: On 23 February, registration for the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros) will open. This year’s EUDC will be held in Galway on Ireland's west coast. Set your clocks for 12 a.m. GMT (that is 1 p.m. in Germany) that day when registration phase one starts, since in previous years the team cap of 200 has been filled quickly. In that first phase you only have to submit five points: institution name, country, delegate leader’s name, contact e-mail and number of teams and judges registering. Please keep in mind that the ...

After nine years of absence the Euros shall return to the Balkans if everything goes accordingly to Serbian plans. In 2003 the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros) had been hosted in the Croatian capital Zagreb. Now Belgrade wants to be stage to the 14th Euros to be held in 2012. The convenors expect 220 teams by the river Danube. Belgrade allures to the party package the European debating circuit always produces with a wild nightlife. The org comm of Milan Vignjević will do the very best within their power to get the most out of it for the ...

Let the competition begin: Two cities bid for hosting the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros) 2012. The bidders are Leeds from the English county West Yorkshire and the Serbian captial Belgrade. In addition to that, there's an alleged bid from London's BPP Debating Society - rumour has it that this a hoax. Belgrade composed a prominent team. Convenor is Milan Vignjević. His bid is backed-up by the University of Belgrade. But he himself has gained a lot of experience as both debater and convenor: He broke to ESL qurters at Amsterdam Euros 2010 and is co-convenor of the Belgrade ...