The second ZEIT DEBATTE is on. Read more about the tournament in Hamburg in the German version.

Learn how the students-vs-professors debate on the motion "Do we need the United States of Europe?" went - please read the German version of this article.

Please read the very, very entertaining report that Sven Hirschfeld has written for Achte Minute on the Gutenberg Cup, the expertise on carnival in Mainz and an obviously superb tournament. Please got the German version to do so. Pleeeeease!

The Gutenberg-Cup was the first round of the Freie Debattierliga, or free debating league (FDL). According to the rules of the FDL (in German only), the preliminary results are the following: Institutions: Mainz Freiburg Heidelberg (Debating) Frankfurt Marburg Speakers Victoria Reuter Zsolt Szilagyi Jan Papsch Robert Epple Michael Powala, Johannes Samlenski, Thore Wojke The Freie Debattierliga, or free debating league (FDL) is a loose association of debating societies staging local tournaments in German speaking Central Europe. It encompasses the year-round competition between both deb socs and speakers. This season is the second season after the founding during the course of the general assembly of the Association of Debating Societies at Universities (VDCH) in ...

Pirates have boarded the senate of Berlin. With 8.9 percent, the Pirate Party made it to the Berlin City Parliament. Philipp Stiel, vice president of the Association of Debating Sociaties at Universities, or VDCH, talked to Sebastian Jabbusch, member of the Pirate Party. Please read the interview in German, harr, harr.

Mainz won the Gutenberg Cup! Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the details.

The final break at the Gutenberg Cup in Mainz: Mainz (prop) vs. Freiburg (opp), Free Speakers are Robert Epple (Frankfurt), Michael Powala (Mannheim) and Victoria Reuter (Heidelberg). On the panel are CAs Sarah Kempf and Torsten Rössing, by their sides Marion Seiche (president), Pauline Leopold (chair), Ruben Brandhofer, Sven Hirschfeld and Daniel Jurjew. The final motion: God is a woman.

Debating is starting in VDCH country!Gutenberg Cup is welcoming those who love to do fun debates. Sarah Kempf and Torsten Rössing are going to present a set of joke motions. And teams from 14 societies are going to compete for the title "Master of the Jokes". Follow @achteminute on Twitter for the motions (in German). Read the German version of this to learn more about the Gutenberg Cup in Mainz.

DiBa, a German Bank, is goinig to awardthe 1.000 most popular societies with a price of 1.000 euros each. Help voting for the two debating societies Streitkultur Tübingen and Debattierclub Stuttgart. Read the German version of this articles to learn the details.

Welcome the new executive board of Debattierklub Wien: Jakob Reiter is now president, he is assisted by Karoline Lutz as secretary and Regina Puthenpurayil as treasurer. Accountants are Matthias Moser und Lukas Grill.

Leonhard Weese of Debattierklub Wien is now doing his master studies in Hong Kong. Inbetween studies he finds time to take part in debating tournaments, for instance in Beijing. This time, he made it to the Hong Kong Open which was staged in Hong Kong for the second time. Read here his exklusive report from China. Being known for their academic achievements as much as their students’ performances in the natural sciences for years, Hong Kong schools look for other fields to distinguish their students. And tiger parents are too. Fully loaded with (almost) untaxed income from the plenty of booming ...

"An amazing experience in culture and debate", the sixth annual tournament in Beijing from December 16 to 18 is being advertised by the International Debate Education Association (IDEA). IDEA and the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) are co-organizers of this tournament in the heart of China's capital city. The tournament will feature an English division, a Mandarin division, and a Moot Court division. That means there will be three competitions: one in English, one in Mandarin plus a Moot Court competion. Moot court stands for some practice at law schools where participants simulate court proceedings including oral argument.  IDEA promises ...

Wanna know what Lenny Kravitz, a piggy bank and Jesus all have to do with DDG, the German debating alumni association? Well... read the German version of this! The Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG) – the German association of alumni debaters – provides a network for alumni debaters as well as it promotes student debating in German speaking regions. Moreover, DDG is co-editor of our debating magazine Achte Minute. DDG’s general assembly of 2011 elected their executive board: Stefan Hübner is now president of the alumni association supported by Marietta Gädeke, Oliver Hörtensteiner, Nicolas Eberle and Bastian Laubner. ...

Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the Berlin Punk tourney.

The public debate between professors and students in Kaiserslautern will be on the motion "Should Dagobert Duck share his fortune with Donald?". Please read the German version of this announcement to learn more about the details.

New semester, new executive board in Hannover. The president of Debattierclub Hannover is Alexander Johnston, vice-president Jacob Klages. Also on board: Burkhard Brüggebors (treasurer), Björn Feldhaus, Carmen-Alexandra Sautter and Alexander Hannemann. Congratulations, everybody, and good luck with your work!

In simplified Chinese, the set of letters so strongly supported to replace a much more complex set of characters, the word China is written as 中国. The first sign meaning center, the second meaning country. The second character looks like the sign 王, meaning monarch (and also one of the most common last names), but can be also used to describe something precious, like a crown, that is sheltered by a wall. The translation of China being “The Middle Kingdom” or “Das Reich der Mitte” is an old one, but the introduction of the simplified characters started in 1952 by Mao ...

The Debating Society Paderborn elected a new executive board: The new president is Linda Englisch, in charge of marketing is Sarah-Maria Humburg. New and old treasurer is Elias Ojanperä. Good luck!

Streitkultur Tübingen is becoming 20 - and celebrating this anniversary with a huge Streitkultur Cup on December 9 to 11. Be part of it and read the German version of this to learn more about it.

Where are ZEIT DEBATTEN going? How is hosting tournaments attractive? How can knowledge be transferred from society to society? How do whipped cream and a baking cakes competition fit into all of this? Please read the German version of Philipp Stiel's sum-up of the VDCH Presidents' Day in Hamburg.

New executive board for Debating Club Heidelberg: President is now Maren Popovic. Her deputy is Jan Ohmstedt, Robin Azinovic serves as treasurer.

This weekend, many presidents of the local debating societies from under the umbrella of VDCH (the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, or Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen) have assembled at the publishing house of DIE ZEIT in Hamburg. The main sponsor of the tournament series ZEIT DEBATTEN gives insight into the work of the editorial team of one of the largest weekly newspapers in Germany. The debaters have been talking to the editor-at-large, the chief editors of theprint as well as the online issue and many others. For more details, please read the German version of this article by ...

The Berlin invitational will be a tournament on January 20, 2012. It will be in German, so please switch to the German version of this article to learn more about the details.

перемогли!That's Ukrainian and means "Won!" Uuuhmm... Since when does Achte Minute teach Ukrainian? Since Moritz Kirchner and Mathias Hamann from Wortgefechte Potsdam won the Kyiv Open. They defeated their opponents on the final motion "This house believes that even in an oppressive state citizens should not use violence as a force of opposition."

An exclusive tournament in the Thuringian Forest with the final in the famous fortress Wartburg - read more in the German version of this sum-up of impressions of one of our up-and-coming among old stagers. ...

A workshop on BPS was the reason why debaters from all over Germany assembled in Mainz where Marcus Ewald and Lukas Haffert coached participants on how to make an economy argument out of any motion. In exercises such as switch debate and oppy proppy debaters learned a lot, Teresa Widlok summed up the past weekend. Read more on this in her report in German.

[caption id="attachment_11004" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Die Berlin Debating Union leistet Aufbauhilfe im Norden Europas. Der deutsche Hauptstadtclub debattiert, trainiert und tauscht Tipps aus mit Debattanten aus der norwegischen Hauptstadt. (Foto: Manuel Adams)"][/caption] Norway is one of those geek countries who always appear superior in statistics. No other country is that richt, that educated, that peaceful and that fair. Or so so Manuel Adams sees it. Please read the German version of this article to find out what kind of development aid Berlin provided in Oslo.

Philipp Stiel, Vice President of the VDCH, the umbrella Association of Debating Societies at Universities (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy), reports from Berlin where on Sept. 14, 2011, the first public IQ²-Debate took place. ...