Europe shall be subject to debate. That is the spirit that drives the International Series of European Debates. The VDCH* and the society Bürger Europas e.V. initiated this series of debates about European topics. In cooperation with different local debating societies, public debates with European politicians have already been organised in a variety of cities in Germany and Austria. This year, in the run-up to the 2014 elections to the European Parliament, the European Debates will be hosted not only in German speaking countries, but all over Europe. Christoph Krakowiak, person in charge for the European Debates, has announced that ...

The general assembly of VDCH (Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen), the umbrella organisation of over 70 german-speaking debating clubs at universities, has elected a new executive board on August 31. Florian Umscheid (Berlin/Bamberg) was elected president by the representatives; vice presidents are Tobias Kube (Marburg), Jennifer Holm (Heidelberg) and Alexander Labinsky (Dresden).   The Achte Minute congratulates the new board and wishes them best of success for their term of office! kem

 

The German public broadcaster ZDF is featuring a TV show named "I can chancellor". Allison Jones, a debater of Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg from Mainz, made it to the final which will be broadcasted on May 1. See what she thinks on child beenfits and the like and watch the YouTube video featuring the four finalists.

The Berlin Debating Union (BDU) unite debating novices as well as old stagers with their January competitions: On 7 January 2011, they host an invitational which has to be understood literally – speakers get an invitation. With four prelims and a final all taking place on Friday, those old stagers get a good chance to compete with each other. This tournament will be held in German, the format will be BPS, chief adjudicators are Torsten Rössing (Klartext Halle) and Bastian Laubner (BDU). On the following two days, 8 and 9 January, Berlin will be stage to BDU’s Punk tournament. While everybody ...