Anticipatory joy is the greatest joy: the date for the Masters’ Cup 2011 has already been fixed! The tournament will be held from 23 to 24 September in Eisenach. Afterwards, on 25 September, this year’s general meeting of the Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG) takes place.

There are a few preliminary rounds and the semis scheduled that will be fought out at Martin Luther grammar school. The final will take place at the historic Wartburg, which is a castle. On Friday evening there will be a visit to an Irish Pub, on Saturday evening the participants will have dinner at the Wartburg and continue partying at “The Beach” afterwards. Who still is able and wants to find some sleep is invited to do this in a room at the youth hostel. Stefan Hübner, board member of DDG, recommends Rainald Grebe’s contribution to the federal state of Germany Thuringia (which is only available in German).

The Masters’ Cup is the annual tournament, which is taking place in Eisenach since 2005. The venue for the final is the ballroom at the world heritage site Wartburg. The Masters’ style was specifically developed for the Masters’ Cup where teams will be allocated by drawing lots. In teams of two, every speaker gets a time of seven minutes. The adjudicators judge content, strategy and method equally. Chief adjudicators are traditionally the president of VDCH (Association of German and German speaking Debating Societies at Universities) and one member of the executive board of DDG. As speakers, all members of DDG as well as those awarded the DDG prize for the best junior speaker are welcome, while as judges, debaters from all societies are accepted. Jens Fischer won last year’s Masters’ Cup. An overview over the past Masters’ Cups can be found on the DDG homepage.

vro / tr