It’s been five years since the first WUDC in Germany took place. Teams from all over the world met in Berlin to determine the best debaters in the world. But how was it for the volunteers and organisers? We have asked some witnesses about their memories.  Florian Umscheid [caption id="attachment_33284" align="alignright" width="400"] © Henrik Maedler[/caption] At Worlds 2013, I was Chief of Runners. The ballot handing happened analog back then which meant that the running-team had to hand out 100 ballots to 100 rooms in six or seven buildings of the TU (Technical University) and collect them after in each round. My most ...

Over the weekend I have been up north, where I heared about a famous debater who could only surpass the fromidable beginning of his speech by his closing remarks. This modus vivendi holds true for the ZEIT DEBATTE Hamburg as well - a tournament which raised a lot of expectations, fullfilled them all and even went far beyond what was expected. This review has not been published in English. Please read more on this in the German version of this article.

Tobias Kube from Marburg was awarded best junior speaker at this year's German language debating championship (Meisterschaft im deutschsprachigen Debattieren or MDD) in Vienna. This award is a cup engraved with the names of all former laureates. It is assigned by the German alumni debating society DDG (short for Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft) since 2004. Please learn more about DDG's committment in the MDD in the German version of this article. apf

[caption id="attachment_12607" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Strahlende Sieger: Valerio Morelli und Marco Witzmann aus München (c) Foto: Debattierclub AFA Wien"][/caption] Valerio Morelli und Marco Witzmann haben für den Debattierclub der Münchener Universitäten die Meisterschaft im Deutschsprachigen Debattieren in Wien 2012 gewonnen. Sie siegten im Finale der Hochschulmeisterschaft gegen zwei Teams der Berlin Debating Union (Annette Kirste und Julian Ohm sowie Georg Sommerfeld und Johannes Häger) und ein Team der Universität Hamburg (Kira Lancker und Barbara Schunicht). Der 24-jährige Valerio Morelli, Mathematikstudent und gebürtiger Südtiroler aus Bozen und der 24-jährige Maschienenbaustudent Marco Witzmann sicherten sich mit ihrem Sieg den Titel des Meisters im Deutschsprachigen Debattierens. [caption ...

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 ...

 

Georg Sommerfeld and Bruno Davids of Berlin Debating Union (BDU) won Saggsn Masders 2012, a tournament in the Saxonian capital Dresden. Georg was also awarded best speaker of the final. The other final teams were from Mainz (Willy Witthaut and Betty Braun) and of BDU: Sarah von Kaminietz and Martin Funck, and Hauke Blume and Marijana Todorovich). The top speakers of the tourney: Georg Sommerfeld Willy Witthaut Hauke Blume Sarah von Kaminietz, Dessislava Kirova The top team results of the league after Saggsn Masders: Mainz (53) Heidelberg Debating (44) Tübingen (44) Berlin Debating Union (36) Freiburg (26) Top speaker results after Saggsn Masders: Willy Witthaut (64) Almut Graebsch (45), Zsolt Szilagyi (45) Philipp Stiel (44) Please ...

 

 

We proudly present the winners of this year’s German regionals: Heidelberg won the Southern German regional. Berlin won the Northern German regional. Mainz won the Middle German regional. Congrats to everyone! In the South, Wiebke Nadler und Till Kroeger from Debating Club Heidelberg defeated Teams from Munich an Vienna. Jakob Reiter (Debattierklub Wien) was awarded most popular speaker of the final; Sven Hirschfeld (Heidelberg) and Konrad Gütschow (Tübingen) topped the tab. In the North, Georg Sommerfeld and Johannes Häger from BDU Berlin defeated Teams from Potsdam and other Teams from Berlin. Jonas Werner was awarded best speaker of the final. In the Middle, Andrea Gau and Daniil ...

Please read the German version of this.

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 ...

Rain, rain, rain - all over Germany! But the brave debaters of the Boddencup never gave in and even did their BBQ in Greifswald. A short lesson on German geography: "Bodden are brackish bodies of water along the southwestern shores of the Baltic Sea, primarily in Germany's state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern around the island of Rügen," as Wikipedia has it. This year's Boddencup was staged by Greifwald's debating society for the third time in a row. It was also the final of the first season of Freie Debattierliga, or free debating league (FDL). Read more on a rainy weekend by the ...

“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. ...

Egyptian queen in the German capital - The motion of the second masters’ debate of Berlin Debating Union (BDU) was especially directed to a Berlin audience: "Who is owning Nefertiti? This house would give the bust of Nofretete back to Egypt!" Georg Sommerfeld and Johannes Häger (Opening Government) talked about the rude and somehow illegal methods that were used to bring the bust to Germany in 1913. They also explained that Nefertiti is an important symbol for the Egyptian history and identity and so would belong to Cairo. Juliane Mendelsohn and Niels Schröter (Opening Opposition) disagreed. Nefertiti's bust has been exhumed ...

Fritz, the radio station for youth by Radio Berlin Brandenburg (RBB), visited the Berlin Debating Union (BDU). On the website of Fritz you can find a short article and an audio file in German language about the visit. The speaker of the story explains the issue "debating" in an interview with Georg Sommerfeld, who is a member of BDU, to the listener. There are also some live recordings of a debate where Georg, who is a vegan in reality, had to argue for the consumption of meat on the side of the opposition. vro / tr

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 ...

Georg Sommerfeld and Johannes Häger won for the Berlin Debating Union the Santa Claus Tournament in Münster.

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 ...

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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 ...

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