Tobias Kube was awarded for being the most promising debater new on the German language deating circuit at the German Language Debating Championship in Vienna in June this year. Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft, the alumni debating society of Germany, grants this award every year to one of the up-and-coming debaters. Read here the interview of a first year who will soon be debating with and against old stagers at the Masters’ Cup in Eisenach. Read the complete interview in German.

We are sorry, this post is only available in German. We strongly recomend yo to study that beautiful language and read our magazin in German. This is, because our German is way better than our English ;)

Debate goes German TV - yay! Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the details. ...

Live tweets full with tears - not only metaphoricly speaking - from the final party at Belgrade Euros were a teaser to what Andreas Prischl of Debattierklub Wien (DKW) describes at length: Freedom of speech is not a given in so many places of this world: The Serbs had to fight hard for it until very recently. Below, Andreas is giving his very personal impressions from his trip to the Serbian capital while the video by Open Communication shows how they've made Belgrade a place of exactly that: open communication. (Andreas' text was originally published on DKW's homepage.) ...

A refreshing shower in late summer: The Open Society Foundation (OSF) is supporting the World Universitites Debating Championship (WUDC) Berlin 2013. The OSF is actually a group of foundations of the US-American billionaire George Soros which fosters the idea of an open society - hence the name. They support initiatives of the civil society to spread the idea. Patrick Ehmann, convener of WUDC Berlin 2013, appreciates the OSF as a partner since both the foundation and the WUDC aim at make debating relevant to a broader public, as Patrick explains. "We've had the idea at Worlds in Botswana where there ...

Ewald for president! Again, after Jens Fischer, a German debater is now holding the office as president of the EUDC Council sitting at the annual European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC or Euros): Marcus Ewald is the new EUDC president! He answered Willy Witthaut's question about his agenda about a European debating league and the new and complicated break system at Worlds. ...

Prepping at Cambridge, studying The Economist, scrutinizing mechanisms - this and much more is what Jonas Werner (winner of German language debating championship 2009) and Niels Schröter (both from the Belrin Debating Union, or BDU) revealed when our Belgrade correspondent Willy Witthaut interviewed them after they made it to the ESL final at the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC or Euros). ...

The German public broadcaster ZDF and its daughter 3sat are starting a new debate show - after the model of Cambridge and Oxford debate. For more details, please read the German version of ths article.

"Debating was a huge part of my educational life. That was its home, as a competitive activity." explained Joe Roussos, South African debater, who just recently was a finalist at Belgrade Euros, together with his team mate Ashish Kumar. Joe published a text on his Facebook page saying farewell to debating - he finished his education and is now going to enter professional life. His very touching words may be motivation for debaters worldwide - we are delighted to publish them here for our appreciated readers.  ...

And the winners are... Some tears, standing ovations and two exciting and excellent final debates - a lot of emotions at the finals of this year's European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC or Euros). Now, really, without further ado, here are the winners from two categories, ESL (English as a Second Language) and Open (open to everybody proficient enought): ...

Look who came up with preliminary results from the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC or Euros): It's Willy Witthaut! Find below the results of most of the teams from under the umbrella of VDCH, or Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen (association of debating societies at universities). Thanks, Willy! We also stumbled across the results of our Dutch neigbours - see below. Please do not hesitate to help us gather information on results or give us snipets of gossip to entertain those at home. Oh, something that everyone at home might envy those down in Belgrade: It's around 40°C in the ...

VDCH is calling the representatives of all debating societies under its roof. President Benedikt Nufer informed that the annual general assembly will take place in Bonn on the weekend of 25 and 26 August this year. Please read the German version of this to learn more about the details.

New executive board for Debattierclub Greifswald: The president is now Janis Oberlechner, his deputy is Oliver Gladrow. Lorenz von Hasseln was confirmed in his office as treasurer.

Executive board in Marburg elected: Tobias Kube is the old and new president of the Brüder Grimm Debattierclub Marburg. He is joined by Ruben Brandhofer, Tobias Kappey and Benedikt Kunz from hisold team. New on the board is Sabrina Göpel who follows Hannah Söffing. Good luck! apf

The Berlin Debating Union (BDU) has elected a new executive board: Niels Schröter is the new president. He is supported by Bruno Davids (treasurer) and Julian Ohm, Christina Dexel and Marijana Todorović. They follow Dessislava Kirova (president) and Juliane Mendelsohn (treasurer), Kai Dittmann, John-Thomas Eltringham and Juliane Zeuschner. apf

 

Profs vs. students - a show debate about how celeb thesis cheaters like Guttenberg should be pilloried or not. Please red the German version of this piece to learn more about the Paderborn show debate.

About 1,400 people will assemble in Berlin in December to compete at the World Universities Debating Championship 2013 (a.k.a. WUDC or Worlds). Kai Dittman from Berlin Debating Union is in charge of the finance department. Viviane Clarin talked to him about what the guests will need and how he is raising the funds. Please read the German version of the interview to learn more about the details. The Berlin Debating Union bid for hosting the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC or Worlds) was confirmed in Botswana 2011 and reconfirmed in Manila 2012. The hosts expect about 1.400 Debattierer from around 70 ...

Deb socs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland - get your applications ready for hosting a ZEIT DEBATTE in the upcoming season of 2012/2013! Please read more on the details in the German version of this article. More info is also available on the VDCH website. The ZEIT DEBATTEN series with at least five major tournaments has been staged in alternating cities for more than a decade under the patronage of the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Part of it is also the German language debating championship (Meisterschaft im deutschsprachigen Debattieren or MDD) Behind the serie are VDCH (Verband der Debattierclubs an ...

Tobias Kube from Marburg was awarded best junior speaker at this year's German language debating championship (Meisterschaft im deutschsprachigen Debattieren or MDD) in Vienna. This award is a cup engraved with the names of all former laureates. It is assigned by the German alumni debating society DDG (short for Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft) since 2004. Please learn more about DDG's committment in the MDD in the German version of this article. apf

Please see the German version to get a fuller coverage of the media review. It's the first time the German language debating championship (Meisterschaft im deutschsprachigen Debattieren or MDD) is hosted outside Germany. The MDD is part of the ZEIT DEBATTEN series. Behind it are VDCH in cooperation with the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT, with the support of Deutsche Telekom and the media partner of a major public German broadcaster (ZDF). The series has been staged in alternating cities for more than a decade under the patronage of the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

 

Dortmund and Greifswald are the last two German language debating tournaments of this year's FDL season. Please read the German version of this to learn more about the details. More info is available from the FDL Blog. pst / apf

68 teams, seven prelims and a quarters round make up for semis in Vienna. The following eight teams made it to semis of the German language debating championship (Meisterschaft im deutschsprachigen Debattieren or MDD): Berlin Stadt im Norden (Annette Kirste, Julian Ohm) Mainz Anton (Andrea Gau, Daniil Pakhomenko) Stuttgart CNC (Michael Saliba, Igor Gilitschenski) Berlin Flauschpfote (Hauke Blume, Niels Schröter) MS Hamburg Loki (Kira Lancker, Barbara Schunicht) Berlin HS (Johannes Häger, Georg Sommerfeld) Berlin Babes Bolay (Dessislava Kirova, Juliane Mendelsohn) München Alpha (Valerio Morelli, Marco Witzmann) (This is not a ranking. ) Learn more about MDD in the German version of this article and follow us on Facebook and Twitter ...