Achte Minute invites you to get to know some participants of the European Universities Debating Championship 2010. Therefore, during the EUDC-days we’ll have the series of interviews “EUDC talk”. Here we get in contact with debaters from all over Europe – whether participating as adjudicators, speakers or organisers. We start with interviewing Marcus Ewald and Thore Wojke of German Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG), who for the first time debate at EUDC – and count on irish luck.

Achte Minute: Marcus, you have been German Champion in 2008 – will you be European Champion (ESL) in 2010?

Marcus: Well, probably not. The competition is quite strong. We expect some fierce competitions and if the god of adjudicating abide to our prayers we might be able to cheat our way into the final.

Achte Minute: Thore, I guess for you it’s an honour to debate with Marcus?

Thore: Well it is a really challenging experience to debate with Marcus, because I used to care for the content and he cares for the delivery. However, it’s good to know that there is somebody in your team who understands at least a minimum about BPS.

Achte Minute: Marcus, what do you think about how the tournament is organised? Would you recommend to come to Amsterdam again?

Marcus: First of all I have to stress that Amsterdam is always worth a visit. Such a brilliant city would not even need an excuse like the EUDC 2010 Championships to be travelled to. However, the organisers made a really brilliant job so far to even enhance that wonderful expercience of being in Amsterdam.

Achte Minute: Thore, if there would be one characterising thing to be mentioned about this championship so far, what would you say?

Thore: My first answer would be: Spread the love. However, it still has to be clarified how to spread it on a bun. It’s a very exciting tournament with a brilliant speaker, Daniel Schut, who is able to lead through the tournament with a very entertaining kind of humour. Bravo!

Achte Minute: How are the VDCH-teams doing at the international stage?

Marcus: Well, first of all, the VDCH ist international in itself, because it comprises of clubs from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Secondly, its brilliant to be able to compete with so many other wonderful clubs from all over Europe and so far nearly all of the VDCH-clubs are still able to break – if they perform well on wednesday.

Achte Minute: So then: Good luck tomorrow and thank you for the interview!

Marcus: Thank you very much, we’ll surely need some luck. I already bought five tulips, thus at least the Dutch gods of debating will surely be supporting our course.

Thore: Well, most of the Irish vote in favor for us (at least since the German worldcup match against England). And even an anonymous octopus predicted that at least one VDCH teams will break into the ESL-final!

The Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen (VDCH), engl. Association of Debating Societies at Universities, is the umbrella organisation of debating clubs in germanspeaking countries and regions in Europe.

Die European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC) 2010 are held in Amsterdam from July 12 to July 17. The tournament’s slogan is “Spread the love”. The motions and amore infos around the tournament can be seen on Twitter, look for hashtag #EUDC.