Last weekend, the first EBS Open organized by Bhavesh Agarval took place in Wiesbaden. There were only 16 teams due to the fact that a lot of teams canceled only a few days before the tournament. However, all participants were happy with the small EBS Open! Chief Adjudicators were Marietta Gädeke and Michael Shapira. Motions: R1: THW make EU voting compulsory. R2: You are a 19 year old boy who just finished his Abitur. As this boy, THW join the Bundeswehr (an infoslide was provided). R3: THW ban private Universities. R4: THW grant all Ethnic Germans a full Right of Return (an infoslide was provided as ...

SkypeDebate - online debates via Skype, initiated by Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg. Curious? Read more on this in the German version of this article.

Please read the very, very entertaining report that Sven Hirschfeld has written for Achte Minute on the Gutenberg Cup, the expertise on carnival in Mainz and an obviously superb tournament. Please got the German version to do so. Pleeeeease!

The Gutenberg-Cup was the first round of the Freie Debattierliga, or free debating league (FDL). According to the rules of the FDL (in German only), the preliminary results are the following: Institutions: Mainz Freiburg Heidelberg (Debating) Frankfurt Marburg Speakers Victoria Reuter Zsolt Szilagyi Jan Papsch Robert Epple Michael Powala, Johannes Samlenski, Thore Wojke The Freie Debattierliga, or free debating league (FDL) is a loose association of debating societies staging local tournaments in German speaking Central Europe. It encompasses the year-round competition between both deb socs and speakers. This season is the second season after the founding during the course of the general assembly of the Association of Debating Societies at Universities (VDCH) in ...

Mainz won the Gutenberg Cup! Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the details.

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 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. ...

A lucky streak for the Berlin Debating Union (BDU): After winning the Potsdam PULS Punk, they managed to emerge as victors at the Training Tournament in Dortmund on 4 June. The opposition consisting of the WUDC 2013 convenor Patrcik Ehmann, Florian Umscheid and Manuel Adams defeated the government team from Potsdam with Jan-Dirk Capelle, Mathias Hamann and Jana Bachmann in the final. The topic was "Sex sells – is it legitimate to use sexual services to motivate employees and customers?" referring to a current sex scandal at a German insurance. The prelims topics thanks to the CAs Julian Schneider (Debattierclub ...

The debating society of Dortmund, DeBaDo Dortmund, invites nine teams, probably for three people (the debating format should be OPD), to have a training tournament in Dortmund on June 4th, 2011. ...

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. ...

Please read the German version.

Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the German regionals in Bayreuth (South), Frankfurt (West), Osnabrück (North) and Halle (East). 60 teams from all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland are expected to compete on the next two weekends for the titles - and additional teams for the German Debating Championship in Heidelberg in June. ...

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The regional championships will take place from 16 to 17 April 2011 with exception of the South German Championship which will be held one week earlier.The Northern regionals will be hosted by Debattierclub Osnabrück, a society still not much older than a year. Convener of the Southern regionals is going to be Debattierclub Bayreuth which is located in Franconia. Host of the Eastern regionals will be Klartext Halle, acting Eastern regional champion and German debating champion of 2008. Stage to the Western regionals will be Frankfurt by the river Main, hosted by Debattierclub ...

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

Leipzig won the final of ZEIT DEBATTE Mainz 2011! Please read more on this in the German version of this article. ...

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

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Shout outs to Heidelberg from all directions! Read more on how Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg (DCJG) and Debattierclub Freiburg hail Debating Club Heidelberg for hosting one of the best tournaments - see the German version of this article! apf / glx ...

Heidelberg is going to be stage to the German Debating Championship (DDM) 2011, so many debaters in Germany see the Baden-Württembergian Open (BaWü) 2010 as a kind of dress rehearsal for DDM 2011. But superstitious minds in Germany have it that traditionally the dress rehearsal has to be a terrible disaster – if the real event shall be fine. However, neither the grouches nor the superstitious could find anything to mock about at BaWü 2010 last weekend. After Maike Jung, Jenny Holm and Kristina Seebacher organized the whole event smoothly, our reporter Gudrun Lux is really afraid that DDM 2011 ...

Lukas Windhager, Almut Graebsch and Marco Niedermeier have won BaWü 2010. Best speaker of the final was Magnus Schmagold from Göttingen. More information soon on Achte Minute.

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Do we need Facebook & Co.? Do social networks make our lifes better?  Students and professors debated about these questions at the Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG)'s show debate on November 9th. While the students - Caroline Moll, Konrad Grießinger and Thore Wojke - tried to convince the audience that Facebook is dangerous and of no use, the professors - former German debating champion Hanna Proner and her collegues Oliver Quiring and Michael-Jörg Oesterle - said that the social networks on the internet are beneficial. About 250 people from the audience, hence the mayority, were convinced by the professors and voted ...

Stuss stands for nonsense: The first show debate in the comedy format STUSS will be held on 17 November at 8 p.m. at Kulturcafé on the campus of the University of Mainz. STUSS is an acronym and stands for "Stramme Thesen und studentischer Streit", but stuss itself means “nonsense”, which is way more important, explains Thore Woijke, one of the founders of STUSS. He and Nicolas Eberle, Marcus Ewald, Carsten Knittler and Clemens Fucker will be performing next Wednesday. STUSS consists of some short debates with teams of two on each side. Speeches should be between three and six minutes. One ...

Arguments by the river Rhine: On 9 November, the Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) hosts another show debate. Three speakers from DCJG versus three professors are going to debate at Audimax/Alte Mensa at 6.30 p.m. The motion reads: "Should social networks be prohibited?" Read more on this in the German version of this article. glx / apf

Christmas cookies and debating: The Debattierclub Münster offers both with their Santa Claus tournament. Saturday, 4 December, will see twelve teams competing. The tournament will be held in British Parliamentary Style (BPS) and comprises three pre-rounds and break into final. The former president of Debattierclub Münster, Katharina Röhm, is going to join Thore Wojke, former president of Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz, on the CA team. A third CA will be announced, Teresa Widlok from DC Münster reports. Costs for the tournament will be 5 Euros per capita. The first round will start at 9 p.m. Crash is available. Registration is open ...

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 ...

This weekend the Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) is looking for the “Master of Jokes” 2010: At the Gutenberg-Cup it is all about funny, bizarre and absurd things as at the tournament in the capital city of Rhineland-Palatine has only so-called “fun debates” to offer on the day’s schedule. The debate style of the tournament is the Offene Parlamentarische Debatte. There will be 15 teams competing in three preliminary rounds on Saturday. They arrive from all over Germany: Apart from one team of the Berlin Debating Union there will be – for the first time – one team of the just ...