Together with his club mates John Eltringham and Cloud Ramasendaran, Patrick Ehmann, president of the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) has travelled to England for the Oxford IV this weekend. On his agenda: Of course taking part in the most prestigious and biggest debating competition in Europe – besides Euros. But much more important: Patrick and his companions are going to shake lots of hands since they just started their PR tour across Europe to advertise their bid for the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC a.k.a. Worlds) 2013. To gain a broad majority for their project, they chose to start in ...

Do we need Facebook & Co.? Do social networks make our lifes better?  Students and professors debated about these questions at the Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG)'s show debate on November 9th. While the students - Caroline Moll, Konrad Grießinger and Thore Wojke - tried to convince the audience that Facebook is dangerous and of no use, the professors - former German debating champion Hanna Proner and her collegues Oliver Quiring and Michael-Jörg Oesterle - said that the social networks on the internet are beneficial. About 250 people from the audience, hence the mayority, were convinced by the professors and voted ...

The Debattierclub Bayreuth presents their new webpage – web admin Jana Deppe gave the old website a total makeover. Officially a workshop (Arbeitskreis) on European culture of debate, the debating society splits into two groups: the English speaking Debating Union (DU) and the German speaking Debattierclub (DC). You can visit both on the re-designed web pages. Moreover, the executive board introduce themselves: Maria Raßmann as the president of the Arbeitskreis, Patrick Held as the head of the DC and Sebastian Becker as the head of the DU. On top of that, you may browse the bloomers of past seasons’ debates ...

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Old stagers from Tübingen wrote another book on rhetoric, this time on "key competence in argumentation". Daniel Sommer, himself a veteran on the German debating circuit, penned a review on the book by Markus Herrmann, Michael Hoppmann, Karsten Stölzgen and Jasmin Taraman. Interested in the book? ...

Students at ETH Zurich founded a debating society this winter term. To find out more about the club debates, the format and how Daniel Grotzky is related to Debattierklub Zürich, please read the German version of this article.

The professors claimed the victory of the show debate organized by the Wortkombinat Ilmenau on Tuesday, 2nd November. The audience decided upon the winners and the losers. About 60 guests enjoyed the debate in Wartburg style and gave their vote through thunderous applause. Also the motion "Should the Ilmenau train station be lowered under the ground?“ was decided upon by the audience. The teacher fraction was consisting of the professors Karlheinz Brandenburg, director of the faculty of Elektronische Medientechnik and director of  Fraunhofer Institute of Digitale Medientechnologie, Wolfgang Schweiger, director of Public Relations & Technikkommunikation and Jeffrey Wimmer, assistant professor of ...

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Nils Haneklaus and Kai Nosbüsch are the new champions of Debattierclub Stuttgart (DCS)! They won the final at Internationales Zentrum in Vaihingen and defeated Isabel Spieth and Sven Hein. The motion read "This house would penalise blasphemy", as is reported on the DCS website. The DCS follows a sophisticated system to nominate the semi-finalists of their internal championship every semester. Debaters have to take part in the weekly debates regularly, either as speaker or as judge, and collect points. At the end of the semester, the club champion is to be found in a semi final and final held in the ...

"New Walls" built in Münster: For the first time, on 30 and 31 October, the Westfalian town and its municipal theater were stage to a festival of student and academic culture called "Neue Wände", new walls. Dozens of student societies of all Münster universities and colleges took part in this, one of which was the Debattierclub Münster that hosted various events. Read more on this in the German version of this article. Gerrit Gottschalk / apf

In a few days time, Stuttgart will be stage to the EurOpen 2010, the open European schools debating championship. Students from schools all over the world will flock in the south-western town from 6 to 12 November. University students are not allowed to take part as speakers, but are warmly welcome as judges, as Jana Gilke reports, president of Mannheim Debating Union and co-convenor of EurOpen 2010. Those interested in sharing their experience may write an e-mail to Jana via jana[at]dwtranslations.de. Eight prelims, quarters and the final take place in Stuttgart while the semi finals will be staged in Tübingen where ...

The European Debating League (EDL) was created by the representatives of ten European countries at a meeting in Split, Croatia. Teams from all over Europe are invited to compete at EDL tournaments that will be held in the British Parliamentary Style (BPS). The first official season will start in the academic year 2011/2012. But already in the current academic year 2010/2011 a test season will be run. The countries present via Sykpe or physically were Austria (Rosi Halmi), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Vedran Arapovic), Croatia (Julia Mikic), Germany (Marcus Ewald), Greece (Manos Moschopoulos) Latvia (Robert Bernans), Macedonia (Georgi Velkoski), Serbia (Milan Vignevic), ...

The Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) has elected a new vice president at their general asembley on 27th October. Katharina Tschirner is now on board with president Nicolas Eberle and treasurer Caroline Moll. Former vice president Sarah Kempf resigned. Congratulations and good luck with your work! kem / glx / apf

Tuesday, 26th November, the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) opened the new debating semester with the motion "This House would jaywalk“. About 60 guests were curious about the topic and were able to join an exciting debate about the borders of citizens duties. On the side of the Government, Julian Ohm (finalist North-German Championships 2010), Jonas Werner (German Champion 2009) and Johannes Häger (semi-finalist SOAS IV 2010) were stating that a responsible handling of governmental rules also implies to trespass them in particular cases. Only in this way can a healthy relationship to the governmental power be created and the citizens are ...

“There's no money in Debateland!“ – pieces of wisdom abound in genuine debateland as they do in our beautiful ZEIT DEBATTEN country. I knew that from the very beginning of my British debating career when I started to attend the Leeds Debatin Union. And of course I appreciate the refreshing pint after a fervid debate. As an Erasmus student at University of Leeds I began exploring the British debating circuit a few weeks ago. Bad news first: There is no OPD (open parliamentary debate, a format developed in Tübingen, Germany) on this island! No kontaktfähigkeit (interpersonal skills), no sprachkraft (expressiveness), ...

The team Do not disturb! Seriously!, comprising of Anne Valkering from Amsterdam and Jens Fischer from Berlin won the UCU Open 2010. The competition was held on October 22 and 23 at the University College Utrecht, 36 teams competed over five prelims. Further teams in the final were PTB I (Sam Block and Maddie Grieve), Hot like Mexico, Enjoy (Vignesh Ashok and John Ashbourne) and Erasmus A (Lucien de Bruin and Daniël Springer). Into the semifinal had also progressed the teams The Real Real Deree (Chris Papadopoulos and Sophia Simunec), Erasmus C (Setry Rabejaona and Milen Petkov), Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ...

Schnitzel and debating in Vienna: For the first time ever, the Debattierklub Wien (DKW) is going to host the Vienna IV in the Austrian capital from 4 to 6 March 2011. Pre-rounds and semi-finals will be staged at Vienna’s Wirtschaftsuniversität while the final will take place at the downtown campus of Hauptuni. Chief adjudicators are Isabelle Loewe (EUDC-Champion ESL, English as a Second Language), Manos Moschopoulos (acting ESL runner-up) and Steven Nolan (CA Galway Euros 2011). Language of the tournament is going to be English, debates will be held in BPS. In case many non-native debaters register there will be ...

Christmas cookies and debating: The Debattierclub Münster offers both with their Santa Claus tournament. Saturday, 4 December, will see twelve teams competing. The tournament will be held in British Parliamentary Style (BPS) and comprises three pre-rounds and break into final. The former president of Debattierclub Münster, Katharina Röhm, is going to join Thore Wojke, former president of Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz, on the CA team. A third CA will be announced, Teresa Widlok from DC Münster reports. Costs for the tournament will be 5 Euros per capita. The first round will start at 9 p.m. Crash is available. Registration is open ...

The SOAS Debating Society continues to establish its IV as one of the largest debate competitions in Europe. On October 16th and 17th, 116 teams competed over six preliminary rounds at the School of African an Oriental Studies near King’s Cross in London. For VDCH-debaters, this was a particularly successful weekend. The final was won by Harish Natarjan and Matilda Wnek (Cambridge H). They triumphed over Cambridge E (Maria English and Jack Watson), Loyola (Emily Ravencroft and Bobby Cashen) and KCL A (Daniel Berman and Jordan Anderson). The ESL final was won by the German vice-champion and current exchange student Filip Bubenheimer ...

The Wortkombinat Ilmenau will face professors from Ilmenau University of Technology in their third annual campus debate. Since the teacher fraction have won in the past two years, the speakers from Wortkombinat are determined to defeat them this year. Funny motions – decided upon by the audience – as well as free champagne allure to the public to come to Audimax on 2 November at 9 p.m. The debate will be held in Wartburg style, a special format developed in Thuringia named after the famous castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible into German.  Debating on the professors side will ...

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In today's general assembly, the Debattierklub Wien elected a new executive board. Leonhard Weese, who lead the club through the last year, will remain as chairman of the board. He is flanked by Jakob Reiter as secretary, Melanie Sindelar as press secretary and Stefan Zweiker as treasurer. fnp / glx

Debating in Ireland – then roll with the Trinity IV 2011 from 27 to 29 January hosted by the University Philosophical Society in Dublin. The team cap allows the incredible amount of 100 teams in. The tournament allures to speakers in a twofold way: On 27 January, the Irish capital will be stage to the Kingsmill Moore Invitational, while on 28 and 29 January there will be the chance to join the Claire Stewart Memorial Intervarsity. Language of both the Invitational and the IV will be English, the format is going to be BPS. While the Claire Stewart Memorial Intervarsity is ...

The University of Birmingham Debating Society invites to their annual Birmingham IV 2010: Just before Christmas, on 18 and 19 December, debaters will battle in 7-minute speeches for breaking into semi-finals and final at Birmingham’s Edgbaston Campus. The great social will be a Christmas dinner on the last night of the competition. Chief adjudicator will be Sam Block from Cambridge. Crash will be available for all in need. The registration fee will be 40 British Pound (46 Euros) if paid in advance or 45 Pound (51 Euros) if paid on the day of arrival. More information is to be ...

To take German debating to public attention, the Debattierclub Hannover (DCH) is going to host two show debates in late October. Thursday, 28 October, the art society Kestnergesellschaft is host to a debate on art: “The art of talking and talking about art” – together with DCH the art society wants to show how art provokes and how it is received, the society reports on their website. Entrance fees are 5 Euros regularly and 3 Euros reduced. The following day, Friday, 29 October, DCH is guest to a festive event at Isernhagen, just outside Hannover, Lower Saxony’s capital. The topic of the ...

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Another debating event at a venue heavy with culture: Bath, located in the south west of England and UNESCO's world heritage site, is stage to the Bath IV on 26 and 27 March 2011 hosted by the Bath University Debating Society. ...

The almost 170-years-old Durham Union Society (DUS) is happy to present their Durham Newcastle IV 2010 on 6 and 7 November 2010. Durham University, sited in the Northeast of England, is host of a tournament reported to have “one of the strongest CA teams of the year” with Ruth Faller, chief adjudicator of Galway Euros 2011, Doug Cochran, deputy chief adjudicator at Amsterdam Euros 2010, and Neil Dewar, EUDC finalist at Amsterdam Euros 2010 and Newcastle 2009 on board. Pre rounds will be staged at Newcastle on Saturday while the final rounds will be held in the historic Durham Union ...

Did you ever debate with colleagues from the Baltics? If you haven´t, then there is a wonderful opportunity in December to change that: the Debating Club of the Stockholm School for Economics in Riga invites you to the Capital of Latvia from 10 to 11 December to enjoy one of the most prestigious debating tournaments in Eastern Europe. Participants will be accommodated in a 3-star-hotel, furthermore you will be part of parties and city tours with your hosts from Riga. Martins Vaivars, who already succeeded in numerous tournaments (3rd best ESL speaker, European Universities Debating Championships, Newcastle, to mention but ...