Athena: This is the goddess of Wisdom and Strategy – and first and foremost the patron of Athens, the city in which the Athens Open 2011 is going to be held from 15 to 17 April. Until now it seems as if the Greek gods are regarding the team of Eirini Damianaki, Convenor of the Athens Open and current president of the Deree Debating Club, with favour: Besides a 4-star accommodation offered in the heart of Athens there will be a number of remarkably good adjudicators: Maja Cimerman (EUDC ESL Champion, WUDC ESL finalist), Manos Moschopoulos (WUDC ESL Best Speaker, ...

Warm-up for the ZEIT DEBATTE in May: the Debattiergesellschaft Jena (DGJ) hosts a friendship tournament from 22 to 23 January in the "City of Light" situated at the river Saale. There are three preliminaries and a final scheduled. The debates are going to be held in Wartburg style. So all the speakers and adjudicators can get to know the format better and prepare their selves for the ZEIT DEBATTE in Jena. Members of DGJ and debaters from other societies, who can find an invitation in their mailbox, are allowed to participate. For those who are in need of a place to sleep, ...

Belgrade, the “white city”, will probably still be white from snow in February when the Belgrade Open 2011 will be held from 25 to 27 February. Language of debate is English, the format is British Parliamentary Style (BPS). Registration is open from 5 January. Please register online on the homepage of the Belgrade Open 2011. Nota bene: The n-1 rule is applied for judges! The registration fee is 45 Euros per person and includes accommodation, meals and socials. The convenors promise a CA team of eminent and experienced adjudicators: Steven Nolan, Marko Cirovic, Frederick Cowell, Lucinda David, Lewis Iwu, Isabelle Loewe ...

In summer 2011, a world debating championship in Spanish will be held in Caracas, Venezuela. Venue will be the Universidad Central de Venezuela, itself UNESCO world heritage site. From 25 to 31 July, Spanish speaking debaters are going to compete for the title, as is reported on the University's website. Details are scarce so far, but the Achte Minute editorial board is doing thorough research on the tournament. Try to find out if debaters from your institution feel confident enough to debate in Spanish and compete for the Spanish worlds title in Caracas. glx / apf

The Aberystwyth Debating Union invites to the Aberystwyth Open 2011, taking place on the 2nd of April 2011 at the Welsh Coast. Chief Adjudicator is going to be Matt Szeto, the format will be British Parliamentary. The Residents of Aberystwyth call their city simply “Aber” – it´s a Welsh seaside resort with approximately eleventhousand five hundred inhabitants, of which Prince Charles was one of them: he studied at the Aberystwyth University, whose Debating Union is hosting the ABER OPEN 2011. Because of the city being small, the organizers were kind enough to provide debaters with a “Traveler´s Guide to Wales”, ...

Candlelight instead of electric light: The Dresden Debating Union (DDU) turns off the electric light for its Christmas party on 21st December and debates just with candlelight. The debating society not only offers debates with Christmassy fun motions in the Open Parliamentary Style (OPD) but also hot spiced wine and biscuits. Usually DDU publishes two days before each debate three motions, but this time the motions will be presented and chosen on the evening of the event itself. Originally thought as St Nicholas Debate, the Christmassy Debate in the Dark takes place since 2005 yearly in the Advent season. The event ...

A limerick is not just a witty five-line poem, but also the name of an Irish town that hosts the University of Limerick (UL) where the UL Open 2011 will take place on 11 and 12 March. This competition is intended to be “undoubtedly the most fun IV of the year,” as is reported on the Facebook website of that Irish open. The team cap is 32 teams, format will be British Parliamentary Style, language of the debates is English. Chief adjudicators are Niall Sherry, winner of the Irish Times Debate 2010, and Patrick Rooney, octo-finalist of Worlds 2010 and winner ...

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The gods by the river Rhine invite debaters to their "Rheingötter-Debattierwettstreit". It will be held in the OPD-style (three-speaker-teams) in Bonn from 12 to 13 of Februar. The chief adjudicators are Southers German Champion 2008 Volker Tjaden and German Champion 2007 Gudrun Lux. Welcome are mixed teams of all shades - experienced and unexperienced, male and female, old stagers and debutants on the German speaking debating circuit! Read the German poem which the initiators made up for welcoming debaters. sol / apf

Fairy-tale romantic, business-like activity and ambitious ideas: all of this and even more offers the Hanseatic City of Bremen. If you want to experience more of this city, you are invited to participate in the Jacobs Open of Jacobs University Bremen Debating Society (JUB Debating Society). The tournament in English takes place from 28 to 30 January 2011 and will be held in British Parliamentary Style (BPS). Chief Adjudicator (CA) is Jens Fischer (Berlin Debating Union), who won the Jacobs Open 2010 together with Henrik Maedler (JUB Debating Society). Jens already served as CA at the European Championships 2006 in Berlin, ...

The debating society S.A.E.C.L.O. Greifswald is going to host a public debate between fraternity representatives and the students' council on Wednesday, 1 December. Read more on the tensions between the two parties which are the reason for this debate in the German version of this article. msi / apf

Berlin Debating Union (BDU) hosts its first masters’ debate on 2 December. The society's best speakers compete with each other in a public debate. Interested people may copy arguments and tricks from the pros. It is very particular for this event that the speakers have to leave the room after the debate and the audience may follow the process of adjudication. Usually the evaluation of a debate happens exclusively in the circle of adjudicators, so now there is the rare possibility to get an insight in the assessment criteria. That is helpful for speakers as well as other adjudicators. The ...

On 23 November, the Debattierclub Hartshornes House Marburg hosts another show debate. Three speakers from the club versus three professors are going to debate at Rathaussaal at 8 p.m.

Stuss stands for nonsense: The first show debate in the comedy format STUSS will be held on 17 November at 8 p.m. at Kulturcafé on the campus of the University of Mainz. STUSS is an acronym and stands for "Stramme Thesen und studentischer Streit", but stuss itself means “nonsense”, which is way more important, explains Thore Woijke, one of the founders of STUSS. He and Nicolas Eberle, Marcus Ewald, Carsten Knittler and Clemens Fucker will be performing next Wednesday. STUSS consists of some short debates with teams of two on each side. Speeches should be between three and six minutes. One ...

Hrvatsko Debatno Društvo -that is Croatian and means Croatian Debating Society. They are the convenors of the Zagreb Open on 10 and 11 December in the Croatian capital. Format will be British Parliamentary Style (BPS), there will be four prelims with five-minute speeches and a break to semis and finals. Chief adjudicator is Branka Marušić, Worlds finalist in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) in 2009 and 2010. Her deputy is going to be Filip Muki Dobranić, quarter-finalist in ESL (English a a second language) of this year's Worlds and European Champion and Best Speaker (ESL) at Amsterdam's Euros 2010. Fees ...

Arguments by the river Rhine: On 9 November, the Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) hosts another show debate. Three speakers from DCJG versus three professors are going to debate at Audimax/Alte Mensa at 6.30 p.m. The motion reads: "Should social networks be prohibited?" Read more on this in the German version of this article. glx / apf

The Debattiergesellschaft Jena invites everybody to the annual public debate with professors on Thursday, 4 November.  This time, before the debate begins the audience can not only choose the motion to be discussed, but they also decide upon the winner after the debate. Three  students will speak against the professors Eberhard Eichenhofer (Law), Alfred Fahr (Biology/Pharmaceutics) and Andreas Freytag (Economics). Let's see if the students can win this time: Last year the team consisting of the professors beat the students with a small lead. The debate evening starts at 8.15 pm. The venue is auditorium 3, located in Carl-Zeiss-Straße 3. vro ...

Mixed teams of all kind are welcome at the Streitkultur Cup 2010. That comprises novices and experienced speakers, male and female debaters, and even debaters from different institutions. The most renowned open competition on the German speaking debating circuit will take place on 11 December in Tübingen and will be held in the format of OPD (open parliamentary debate, a format developed by the hosting society), hence teams of three may now register via vorstand[at]streitkultur.net. Please let your host, the famous Streitkultur Tübingen, know how many teams your institution is going to send to the tournament. Registration fees are 10 Euros ...

“Manager in the morning, human being in the afternoon – we need part time working!” – This is the slogan of a show debate the Debattierclub München hosts on Monday, 25 October. Not a lecture hall is the venue of this debate, but the club Atomic Café in Munich. Lukas Windhager and Valerio Morelli are the speakers who are not too shy to compete rhetorically in front of an audience. Their counterparts are representatives from media and politics. Who wins is decided upon by the audience. The Atomic Café can be found in Neuturmstraße 5, Munich. The club is open ...

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 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 ...

The Berlin Debating Union starts the new term with a kick-off: Berlin’s debating societies allures to freshmen with their best speakers and free drinks. The venue is Orbis Humboldtianus on Tuesday, 26 October at 8 p.m. The motion of that night’s debate reads as follows: “This house would cross the road with the traffic lights red.” glx / apf

The Debatte Karlsruhe hosts an information night on in October 20. Venue is the building 20.13, room 109 at Karlsruhe University.

The Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) hosts two novice nights on Tuesday, 26 October and 2 November, starting at 6 p.m. Welcome to Altes ReWi at Mainz campus are freshmen as well as older students interested in debating. Guests will be introduced to the idea behind debating, the rules of debating plus they will debate themselves. More information may be found on DCJG's website.

Manchester calling: From 25 to 27 February, the British town will be stage to the Manchester IV 2011. The conveners advertise their tournament with a funny music vid. In the past, VDCH teams have been quite successful in Manchester: In 2010, they outnumbered other associations or countries in the ESL final, while in 2009, a team from a VDCH society even won the ESL final. CAs of this coming Manchester IV are going to be Ruth Faller (CA EUDC 2011) and Sam Block (CA WUDC 2012). More information on the competition is available via iv[at]mdu.manchester.ac.uk and soon on ...

The Debattierclub Magdeburg kicks off the new semester on Wednesday, 20 October, starting at 7 p.m. Debate, wine, cheese and cookies may help to join the new term. Welcome to the event (building 22A, room 111 at Otto-von-Guericke-Universität) are Magdeburg debaters as well as freshmen and older students interested in debating. glx / apf

The Debating Society Paderborn (DSP) hosts two information nights in October on Tuesdays at 7.30 p.m., starting October 19, followed by Ocotber 26. Venue is the room D1.328 of Paderborn University. Absatz

VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, stages the first adjudication workshop of the current season 2010/2011 from 26 to 28 November 2010, the venue will be Wiesbaden by the river Rhine. Participants will be taught adjudication by Marcel Giersdorf (Mainz), Lukas Haffert (Cologne) and Torsten Rössing (Halle). Set on the schedule are OPD, BPS and giving feedback which will be practiced through exercises. Fees for participants are 10 Euros including the workshop, accommodation and meals. In addition, a guided tour through Wiesbaden is offered on Friday night. Saturday comes with a surprise in Mainz, just across the river. Debaters from ...

A weekend filled with fun and debate – this is what the Debattiergesellschaft Jena (DGJ) offers from 12 to 14 November in their Thuringian hometown. Participants get to know various formats, from Wartburg (a special format developped in Thuringia and named after the famous castle), OPD (Open Parliamentary Debate, widely spread in Germany), and BPS (British Parliamentary Style) to Disputation (a format of strict rules based on Aristotle’s disputation). Aim of the non-competitive debaters’ meeting is to experience and learn – especially for adjudicators, since they should not focus on ranking teams during any tournament, but should rather exercise constructive ...