This summer, about 1000 people will travel to Vienna for the 17th European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros). The Debattierklub Wien (DK Wien) hosts the week-long tournament. Stefan Zweiker is the convener, overseeing 23 other members of the organising committee and international volunteers.One year after and 267 kilometres to the north of Zagreb EUDC, the championship is again up for grabs. Until then, Sheffield holds the title; in the category of English as a Second Language (ESL), the current champions are from Belgrade.The Blue Danube Euros, as the organisers call them, will last from August 2-8.The Chief Adjudicators (CAs) ...

The Organising Committee (OrgCom) of the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros) 2015 in Vienna published their call for international volunteers. Everyone can apply to support the existing crew and be part of the this year's EUDC.Stage one of the application process consists in reading the International Crew Recruitment Guideline and filling out the International Crew Recruitment Survey. In stage two beginning in mid-April, the OrgCom will contact the applicants if they have questions or need their expertise and knowledge. Stage three is the tournament itself.Everyone can apply for being an international volunteer - the OrgCom emphasizes that age, ...

The preparations for the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) 2015 in Vienna are in full swing. Stefan Zweiker convenes the event, which will host 800 participants in Austria’s capital. Press representative of Debattierklub Wien (DKWien) Damita Pressl conducted a short interview. Stefan, how is the organisation going at the moment? What details have been confirmed so far? For one thing, we have a key organisation committee, meaning that up to this point, we had around 20 people completing most tasks. That number is now set to grow, and I would guess around another 20 people are going to join us and take ...

Dan Lahav and Yair Har-Oz won the Tilbury House IV - the 2nd European Debates Conference. They beat Osnabrück A (Stefan Torges, Jan Dirk Capelle), Maastricht Guess The Novice (Srdjan Miletic, Evelyn Svingen) and BDU Die schweigenden Lämmer (Rebecca Irvine, Philippe Holzhey) in the final, debating the motion "This House would ban anti EU parties from participating in the EU elections."  The final was jugded by Senna Maatoug (Chair), Itay Ben Yair, John Harper, Leo Münstermann and Emma Hartholt. [caption id="attachment_25062" align="alignright" width="320"] The final of the Tilbury House IV 2014. © Achte Minute[/caption] The following teams broke to the semi-finals and ...

Yael Bell and Dan Lahav have won the first BBU Open that took place from the 11th to the 13th July 2014 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The team from Tel Aviv won from Closing Opposition in a debate with the motion: You are a scientist. You have discovered absolute conclusive proof that God does not exist. This house would destroy the information. [caption id="attachment_23996" align="alignleft" width="320"] Yael Bell and Dan Lahav(c) BBU DS[/caption] In Opening Government, Belgrade with Helena Ivanov and Stefan Siridžansky competed against Lund with Michael Saliba and Peer Klüßendorf in Opening Opposition and a Mixed team with Georgiana Mihut and ...

The Debattierklub Wien (DKWien), host of the European Universities Debating Championships 2015, has looked back on their experiences with the Vienna IV 2014. Chief Organizer Stefan Zweiker published an article titled "Lessons Learnt: A Résumé on Vienna IV 2014" reflecting the experiences with the tournament and what the DKWien learned for Vienna EUDC 2015. Achte Minute publishes Stefan's text. The full article including all of the photos is available on the website of the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) 2015. "Lessons Learnt: A Résumé on Vienna IV 2014 From 7th to 9th March 2014, DKWien hosted the largest IV that ever took place ...

Marija Simić and Djordje Jovicevic are the winners of the Vienna IV 2014. On Sunday, the team Belgrado in Closing Government won the final round with the motion: "This House believes that no state, in any situation, has the right to demand, encourage or promote its citizens to fight or die for their country." The following teams broke into the final: OG: Warsaw A (Karolina Partyga, Maja Łukomska) OO: Vermont GW (Rebecca White, Mariel Golden) CG: Belgrado (Marija Simić, Djordje Jovicevic) CO: Vermont SS. (Jacob Senghas, Franny Solnick) The CAs of the Vienna IV Stefan Zweiker, Christine Simpson and Nicole Loiter with the winners Marija Simić ...

On the website of DKWien, host of the European Universities Debating Championships 2015, convenor Stefan Zweiker has published a contemplation of the past year. In his article "2013 Retrospect – The Starting Position for 2014", he points out what DKWien has done in the past few months to organise a successful tournament. Already in the beginning he underlines that the text was written before Chennai Worlds 2014 and therefore cannot be seen as a reaction to the problems that occured there. Achte Minute publishes extracts from Stefan's article. The entire text can be read on the website of Vienna EUDC  2015. "What ...

Unless you were exiled to some sort of cave of Debateland, if you’re an European novice debater you probably heard about the Vienna Freshers’ that happened last week. True to the motto “Take off to your debating life” 32 teams from 9 countries were introduced to the debate tournament atmosphere, departing from Vienna, to… well, anywhere you want, or so I’ve heard. I’m looking forward to finding out how far the debating life can take someone. Friday afternoon we gathered at the WU campus, mentally thanking the one who came up with the great idea of getting free energy drinks for ...

For the first time Debattierklub Wien set up a tournament for Novices only: Vienna Freshers’ on 10-11 November 2012. The small competition was organised by Madlen Stottmeyer, a novice herself and teams were allowed to participate if the speakers have not been debating longer than one year. four rounds of five minute speeches with 25 minutes of prep-time gave fresh debaters an easy entry into British Parliamentary debating. A large international adjudication core lead by CAs Julia Mikić and Stefan Zweiker ensured that every participant got excellent feedback and could make the most of the tournament. ...

There is enough to say about SOAS IV 2012 itself. The tournament was outstandingly well organised for a British tournament. That is to say that it would still be considered very badly organised if we were to apply continental European standards. However, there was food and hostel accommodation close to the campus. With 140 teams SOAS IV is one of the largest tournaments on the Island. Because it enjoys a friendlier reputation than Oxford or Cambridge with regards to how it treats participants, about 30 ESL teams traveled to London to debate at SOAS IV. 3 of them were sent ...

Berlin won the Vienna IV 2012! ...

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In today's general assembly, the Debattierklub Wien elected a new executive board. Leonhard Weese, who lead the club through the last year, will remain as chairman of the board. He is flanked by Jakob Reiter as secretary, Melanie Sindelar as press secretary and Stefan Zweiker as treasurer. fnp / glx

Martin Zintl of Debattierclub München reports from the Red Sea Open 2010 from a Munich perspective (linked article in German only).

Stefan Zweiker of Debattierklub Wien reports from the Red Sea Open 2010 from a Vienna perspective. There he gives kudos to a very comfortable schedule and does not forget to mention the culinary amenities of the tournament: "We had the luxury of a whole day reserved for arrival and departure (travel planning support was included, too). There was the very comfortable fact that we did not have to finish with the generous breakfast buffet before 10am. A fully air-conditioned bus then carried us the 500m to the  campus of the Ben Gurion University, every day, so that we never had a ...

Getting into Israel is not so hard at all. Even if you are alone and come by land through Syria, Lebanon and Jordan you will be very likely to be welcomed warmly by the surprisingly young girls at the border post – the boys all sit around customs for unknown reasons. That is, at least if you wave around your Hebrew invitation the team of the Red Sea Open (RSO) preemptively sent out. Having discussed this tiny strip of land and its politics so many times, I was in additionally mentally thrilled to debate not only about Israel, but also ...

A debater's lifestyle is usually manifested through traveling long distances to see old and meet new friends, arguing on sometimes high and sometimes low levels, lots of references to sex, alcohol and drugs and plenty of debating. Between August 8 and 14 about sixty debaters from Austria (Melanie Sindelar, Annabell Knoll, Rosie Halmi, Stefan Zweiker and Leonhard Weese from Debattierklub Wien), Germany (Fabian Farkas from Tilbury House Cologne), Greece, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and the United States all enjoyed the above mentioned genuine debater's lifestyle in the remote alpine area of southern Serbia. Just a few kilometers north of Kosovo, we were ...

"Münster ist wohl sehenswert, obwohl es in nicht in Österreich liegt", urteilt der Wiener Club in seinem Bericht über die Deutsche Debattiermeisterschaft (DDM). Diese DDM-Nachlese bringt Euch nicht nur einen alpenländischen Eindruck von der DDM, sondern auch einen Gesamteindruck von allen zehn Meisterschaften, die es bisher gab - die Bildershow vom DDM-Samstagabend ist online! ...