The general assembly of VDCH (Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen), the umbrella organisation of over 70 german-speaking debating clubs at universities, has elected a new executive board on August 31. Florian Umscheid (Berlin/Bamberg) was elected president by the representatives; vice presidents are Tobias Kube (Marburg), Jennifer Holm (Heidelberg) and Alexander Labinsky (Dresden).   The Achte Minute congratulates the new board and wishes them best of success for their term of office! kem

This article is only available in German.

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.

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.

The new ZEIT DEBATTEN series begins! This weekend (November 23 to 25), speakers and judges from all over Germany, Switzerland, Austria and even France flock at Tübingen. Language of the tournament, as in the whole series, is German, the ZEIT DEBATTE Tübingen will be held in Offene Parlamentarische Debatte (open parliamentary debate, OPD). Chief adjudicators are Philipp Stiel (German Champion 2010, Tübingen/Berlin) sowie Wiebke Nadler (Leipzig/Heidelberg) and Leonid Vogel (Karlsruhe). The tournament series ZEIT DEBATTEN is organised by VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, in cooperation with the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT and German Telekom as well as with the ...

Various and peripheral judging workshops add to the quality of debates in tournaments and at home in the debating societies. Please read the German version of this to learn about the details of this season's first VDCH judging workshop to be held in Würzburg.

A good judging pool at tournaments is eminent for the competitions - and for excellent feedback. Achte Minute talked to Philipp Stiel and Leo Vogel, president and vice-president of the association of debating societies at universities (VDCH, or Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen). Please read more on this in the German version of this article.

The general assembly of VDCH (the Association of Debating Societies at Universities) elected a new president and his deputies: Philipp Stiel , Leonid Vogel, Nils Haneklaus and Anna Mattes constitute the new VDCH executive board.

The next big event of the ZEIT DEBATTEN is already announced: Streitkultur Tübingen will convene the first ZEIT DEBATTE in the 2012/2013 season. The German speaking debating circuit will meet in Tübingen from November 23 to 25. Language of the tournament, as in the whole series, is German, the ZEIT DEBATTE Tübingen will be held in OPD (open parliamentary debate). Chief adjudicators are 2010 German champion Philipp Stiel (Tübingen/Berlin), Wiebke Nadler (Leipzig/Heidelberg) and Leo Vogel (Karlsruhe) The tournament series ZEIT DEBATTEN is organised by VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, in cooperation with the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT and ...

The new executive board of Debatte Karlsruhe consists of Johannes Janosovits, Moritz Klammler, Thank Thank Nguyen, Jan Kaufmann, and Frederik Diehl. Congratulations and good luck with your work!

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 ...

The break of Streitkultur-Cup is here: The first team to break in Tübingen is Heidelberg Debating A (Sven Hirschfeld, Daniel Sommer, Franzi Kriegelstein), the second is Streitkultur Pheme (Peter Croonenbroeck, Anne Suffel, Jonathan Spanos). Free speakers breaking: Philipp Stiel, Lukas Windhager and Dominic Hildebrand. The top-of-the-tab team Xavers Zamperl from Munich (Franziska Schuster-Städter, Almut Graebsch, Jan-Felix Schneider)were not eligible to break since the broke something else: the pro-am rule. The fresher in the team must not have started debating before September 2011. Read more on this in the German version of this article.

Germany's oldest debating society is becoming 20 years - celebrations of the anniversarystarting this weekend. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the details.

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 ...

Streitkultur Tübingen is becoming 20 - and celebrating this anniversary with a huge Streitkultur Cup on December 9 to 11. Be part of it and read the German version of this to learn more about it.

The new executive board of Debatte Karlsruhe is composed of Johannes Janosovits, Leo Vogel, Moritz Klammler, Frederik Diehl and Jan Kaufmann.

Please read the German version of this article to learn about winners, runner-ups, motions, special awards and to find pics from the black-tie party that the DebatingClub Heidelberg threw during the German Debating Championship, or Deutsche Debattiermeisterschaft (DDM). ...

Sina Strupp from Mainz won the award for being the up-and-coming debater awarded by Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG), the German alumni society. ...

Severin Weingarten, Moritz Niehaus and Clemens Lechner of Debattiergesellschaft Jena won the 11th German Debating Championship. More informations to follow soon. Please read the German version meanwhile.

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. ...

This article is not available in English. Please read the German version of this article to see what various debating societies say about the ZEIT DEBATTE in Mainz on their websites! ...

Debatte Karlsruhe elected a new executive board. Leo Vogel was elected as the new board member, joining Christian Zimpelmann, whose period on the board will expire in half a year. The Karlsruhe club elects one of its two board members every university semester, each for the duration of one year. Congratulations and good luck for your work!