News from Stuttgart: His Excellency, the Ambassadorof the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Germany, Simon McDonald, is now patron of the Debating Society Germany (DSG). DSG chairman David Whitehead is really delighted to have the ambassador as patron: “This is a huge step forward for the society and we are deeply humbled by and grateful for this act. Such a patronage will permit us to promote the cause of English-language debating in Germany with more vigour than ever before.” The amabassador has agreed to be the patron of the society during his term of office in Germany.

The Debating Society Germany (DSG) was founded in the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg in 1996 and spread from there all over Germany. Today, “schools debating”, English language debating at schools, may be found in Bavaria, Hessen, Saxony, Berlin, Brandenburg and Hamburg. German schools debaters have been taking part at numerous international competitions such as the World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC or Worlds). In 2004, Worlds have been staged by DSG at Stuttgart. On top of that, DSG hosts an annual open for national schools teams from all over the world. This tournament was renamed EurOpen in 2010. David Whitehead and Chris Sanchez form the DSG executive board. Together with Jana Gilke (president of Debattierclub Mannheim and former schools debater) and VDCH vice-president Marcus Ewald the promoted a cooperation between VDCH and DSG. School students shall be informed about university debating to help them find or found a debating society at their later universities. Moreover, cooperation on a local level between university deb societies and schools debating is more than welcome, for instance with judges helping out at schools tournaments.