This is an imperative: Keep your fingers crossed until New Year’s Day! This is when the WUDC Council is going to decide on who will be host of World Universities Debating Championships 2013. The Berlin Debating Union (BDU) have toured around Europe and probably still shake a lot of hands to show that they are the ones to do it! This Tuesday, they have already presented their bid at the Pre-Council Meeting in Botswana.

In a letter addressed to the debate community worldwide, BDU president Patrick Ehmann explains that in the past decade the German debating circuit profited a lot from international debate tournaments. This is now the time to payback. Willing to do so, Berlin builds upon the experience from 2006 when the German capital was stage to the Euros. Moreover, they stand on the shoulder of giants: The German weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT facilitated kicking off the bid, while Technische Universität of Berlin assures the debaters of their support. Plus, in early December, Annette Schavan, Federal Minister of Education and Research, made clear in a letter to Patrick that her Ministry will not only support the bid but also the event of Worlds in the German capital. Finally, the designated chief adjudicators Sharmila Parmanand and Doug Cochran announced their adjudication policy for Worlds 2013 and promise fair motions.

The other bidder for staging the World Universities Debating Championships 2013 is the Croatian capital Zagreb. Their convenor Petar Bezjak was very much contented lately. New Year’s Day will show who is going to host the Worlds. So keep your fingers crossed, VDCH debaters and Germany will see the Worlds 2013.

Since 1981, debaters from all over the world have been competing at the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) at alternating locations across the planet. It was not before 1996 that the British Parliamentary Style became the mandatory format for this annual tournament. The African continent has been host to previous Worlds and stages the Worlds now for a third time, this year from 27 December 2010 to 4 January 2011 at the University of Botswana, Gaborone. Language of debate is English and there are three categories: “Main” for native speakers, “ESL” (English as a Second Language, for those who prove great proficiency in English) and “EFL” (English as a Foreign Language, for those who studied English as a mere subject).

In 1999, the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) was founded by Jens Fischer and Kai Monheim, back then with the name “Streitzeit (Berlin Debating Union)”. Since then, the society has gained some experience in convening national and international tournaments: BDU has twice been host of the German Debating Championship (2001 and 2008), the biggest tournament on the German speaking debating circuit. In 2006, Berlin was stage of the European Universities Championships (EUDC). In addition to that, the Berlin Debating Union invented the Central and Eastern European Debating Tournament, later renamed Berlin Open and then Berlin IV, thus open to debaters from Western Europe as well as to Israel.

apf / glx