Konstantina Nathanail and Pegah Maham from the Berlin Debating Union have won the Bard College Berlin ProAm.

The winners of the Barc College Berlin Pro/Am: Konstantina Nathanail and Pegah Maham – © Elâ Marie Akay

The two from the team Constant Mayhem convinced the jury as Opening Opposition to the motion “This House would prefer to live in a world in which genetic engineering of fetuses is possible and widely accessible.” All three other teams in the final were from the Berlin Debating Union, too: Martian Law (Marcel John, Martijn Roo) in Opening Government, BDU Huggator (Kathrin Niederschuh, Jonas Huggins) in Closing Government and 2 carbs 1 dish (Elâ Marie Akay, Julian Stastny) in Closing Opposition.

The final was adjudicated by Matthias Carcasona as well as the Chief Adjudicators Callyxx Peucker and Kristina Georgieva. The third Chief Adjudicator, Ilija Ivanišević, had to miss the final because of a flight.

The tournament was the first to be organized at the Berlin branch of Bard College, a Liberal Arts College based in New York state. It was a Pro/Am-tournament; the requirement for the “Am” status being that the speaker had not broken at an English language tournament before.

The motions in overview:

Round 1: This House would remove the option for out of court settlements for cases relating to sexual violence.

Round 2: This House welcomes the rise of New Atheism (including an info slide).

Round 3: This House would incentivize drug addicts to take long term birth control, including sterilization.

Round 4: This House as a former East Berlin citizen would not request to see their [Stasi] file (including an info slide).

Round 5: This House believes that the public television should make a 24/7 reality TV channel documenting real life in prison.

Final: This House would prefer to live in a world in which genetic engineering of fetuses is possible and widely accessible.

hug/jm.