The final is over! Team Colgate Extra White, Austin Schwartz and Travis Steele, have won the Vienna IV 2011 from the position of Opening Government. The final motion read: "This house believes that parties' electoral campaigns should only be funded by the state." Their opponents were the following: ...

This is an article about the German Senior League in Schools Debating. This league is annually staged by the Debating Society Germany (DSG) in Würzburg. Marcus Ewald travelled to the Franconian town where he presented the Association of Debating Societies at Universities (VDCH). In the end, the two umbrella associations have come to the conclusion that they must work together. Read more on the tourny and the coop in the German version of this article. Unfortunately, the piece is not yet available in English.

In early February, Andreas Lazar (Debattierclub Stuttgart) shed some light on international debating for those interested of Debattierclub Aachen (DCA). Earlier this year, Andreas was top speaker at Worlds in Botswana in the category "English as a Foreign Language" (EFL) and made it to semis together with his team mate Michael Saliba. In the two-day workshop, the focus was on the basics of the internationally wide-spread format of British Parliamentary Style (BPS). Andreas told the 30 debaters from Aachen about tools to find, order and present arguments. Andreas was supported by Dutch debaters from Amsterdam University College: Roelant Stegmann, ...

We're very, very sorry this text is not available English. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about poetry among debaters and the final debate on two formats widely spread in Germany: BPS vs. OPD. apf / sol

Egyptian queen in the German capital - The motion of the second masters’ debate of Berlin Debating Union (BDU) was especially directed to a Berlin audience: "Who is owning Nefertiti? This house would give the bust of Nofretete back to Egypt!" Georg Sommerfeld and Johannes Häger (Opening Government) talked about the rude and somehow illegal methods that were used to bring the bust to Germany in 1913. They also explained that Nefertiti is an important symbol for the Egyptian history and identity and so would belong to Cairo. Juliane Mendelsohn and Niels Schröter (Opening Opposition) disagreed. Nefertiti's bust has been exhumed ...

After five prelims, team Freiburg Türme, Zsolt Szilagyi and Friedemann Groth, won the final of Stuttgart Punk on the past weekend. The motion read "Dieses Haus würde Vegetarier werden", or this house would become vegetarian. Best speaker of the final was Clemens Fucker from Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz. Chief adjudicators Sarah Kempf, Nils Haneklaus and Andreas Lazar made up motions for five prelims and a final: 1. Vorrunde: Dieses Haus würde Einwanderern die Staatsbürgerschaft verleihen, wenn sie im Einwanderungsland Militärdienst geleistet haben. 2. Vorrunde: Dieses Haus würde Handelsbeziehungen mit Ländern abbrechen, in denen Christen verfolgt werden. 3. Vorrunde: Dieses Haus lehnt den ...

Sorry, this article is not yet available in English. Please read the German version of this article to learn about the Second Bayreuth Varsity that was held in January.

We are sorry, this article is not available in English. Please read the German version and get to know how debaters from five German cities enjoyed the small tournament in Wartburg style in Jena.

The masters' debate of Berlin Debating Union (BDU) gets into its second round: on 10 February the societies' best speakers compete another time with each other in a public debate. This time, the motion reads "Who is the owner of Nofretete?" Like the last time, when the debate is closed and the speakers have left the room, the audience is allowed to follow the process of adjudication. The masters' debate takes place at 7 pm on 10 February, the venue is "Orbis Humboldtianus" situated above the Audimax at the main building of Humboldt University Berlin. vro / glx

Jonathan Scholbach, Severin Weingarten and Eva Schlindwein (Debattiergesellschaft Jena) have just won this year’s Jena Open defying the Pro side. The motion reads "Open Goverment statt Geheimdiplomatie? – Sollen staatliche Informationen frei verfügbar sein?". ...

Sorry, this article is not yet available in English. Please read the German version to learn more on how Andreas Lazar and his team mate from Debattierclub Stuttgart made it to ESL finals at WUDC 2011.

This article is not yet available in English. Please read the German version to learn more about wine tasting, masquerade and ... uhm ... yes, debating and motions at ZEIT DEBATTE 2011 in Mainz. It was a great tournament with amazing socials. ...

Leipzig won the final of ZEIT DEBATTE Mainz 2011! Please read more on this in the German version of this article. ...

Shout-outs from across the planet for the world debating champions: Media in Australia, Israel and Russia are applauding the teams from Monash and Haifa who won the grand final and ESL-final respectively in Botswana where the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) where staged over New Year’s Eve. But there is also rumour that miscalculations in the tab led to teams not breaking mistakenly. At abc.net, people are proud that Fiona Prowse and Victor Finkel from team Monash A took home the title of world debating champions. On top of that, other Aussie teams had eminent results too: “Australian students ...

We’re sorry, this article is not or not yet available in English. Please read the German version.

Johanna Mai and Julian Schneider of Debattierclub Münster won Berlin Punk 2010. They faced in the final teams from Frankfurt, Münster and Magdeburg. Motions: Round 1: Dieses Haus würde eine Abstimmpflicht bei Volksentscheiden einführen. Round 2: Dieses Haus würde Organspenden nur noch an Menschen vergeben, die sich ebenfalls zu einer Organspende bereit erklärt haben. Round 3: Dieses Haus würde Briefe, Tagebücher und unveröffentlichte Manuskripte posthum nicht ohne die Einwilligung des/r SchriftstellerIn veröffentlichen. Round 4: Dieses Haus würde Menschen, die unter Alkoholkonsum ein Gewaltverbrechen begangen haben, den Alkoholkonsum verbieten. Round 5: Dieses Haus würde Einrichtungen verbieten, die eine Heilung von Homosexualität versprechen. Semis: Dieses Haus würde es Staaten verbieten, bei der Verteilung von Entwicklungshilfe ihre ehemaligen Kolonien zu bevorzugen. Final: Dieses Haus würde Menschen auch ...

Clemens Lechner and Moritz Niehaus from Debattiergesellschaft Jenahave just won this year's Berlin Invitational hosted by the Berlin Deabting Union (BDU) in the German capital. The motion read "Dieses Haus fordert nach drei Straftaten Haft bis ans Lebensende". They defeated the other teams (Debattierclub Magdeburg/BDU, BDU proper, Wortgefechte Potsdam) from the position of Opening Government. vro / apf

The following made it to the final of the Berlin Invitational 2011: Opening Government: Clemens Lechner and Moritz Niehaus (Debattiergesellschaft Jen) Opening Opposition: Jan-Dirk Capelle and Jonas Werner (Debattierclub Magdeburg/Berlin Debating Union) Closing Government: Dessislava Kirova and Filip Bubenheimer (Berlin Debating Union) Closing Opposition: Moritz Kirchner and Florian Umscheid (Wortgefechte Potsdam) Judges are Torsten Rössing (Klartext Halle), Daniel Sommer (Debating Club Heidelberg), Bernd Hoefer (Debattierclub Kiel), Patrick Ehmann (Berlin Debating Union) and Katharina Kleine-Tebbe (Debating Society Paderborn). The motions: Dieses Haus würde Haiti in die USA eingliedern. Dieses Haus würde die europäische Außenpolitik an Macchiavelli ausrichten. Dieses Haus fordert eine Erbschaftssteuer von 100% zugunsten ...

On December 21st, Christmas found its way to Dresden Debating Union (DDU): About 15 members of DDU came together at the annual Christmassy Debate in the Dark. This debate wasn’t really dark, but a fun debate with candlelight. There were motions offered like "Are only people who are paying church tax allowed to celebrate Christmas?", "Should Christmas take place twice a year?" and "Christ Child versus Santa Claus". Finally there was a debate about the appearance of Santa Claus with candle light, hot spiced wine and self-made biscuits. The government promoted a well-fed, easy-going Santa Claus with a big bushy beard ...

The term "Worlds" is used in its plural form because numerous winners have been awarded at Gaborone, Botswana last night. Foremost, the three best teams have to be mentioned who prevailed over the course of nine prelims. It is three best teams as there are three categories: "Open Break", "English as a Second Language" (ESL) and "English as a Foreign Language" (EFL). And the winners are ... Monash A from Australia, Haifa A from Israel and Tokyo B from Japan. There were about 300 teams from all over the globe competing for the title, 32 of which made it to ...

There’s a whole bunch of new world champions: Team Monash A from Australia won the grand final of the open break of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). That is Victor Finkel und Fiona Prowse. In the category English as a Second Language (ESL), Michael Shapira and Meir Yarom of team Haifa A from Israel defeated all other finalists. Then there is a third world champion team: Kazushige Yoshimaru and Yuki Tominaga of Tokyo B from Japan. All three winning teams triumphed from the position of opening government. The winners of the main break are experienced debaters: Victor was ...

Team Stuttgart A made it to ESL semis at World Universities Debating Championships in Botsuana. Congratulations to Michael Saliba and Andreas Lazar. Please read more on this in the German version of this article! apf / glx ...

One quarter of the teams of the ESL break are from Germany! That would make one German team in each room, one could think. But in final rounds, the tab is folded. That means that for instance room one assembles teams ranking on 1, 7, 8 and 16. Thanks to this folding, room three of the ESL qurter finals will see two German teams: Stuttgart A (Andreas Lazar and Michael Saliba) and Berlin B (Patrick Ehmann and Bastian Laubner). Other German teams in the quarters are Berlin B (Florian Umscheid and Dessislava Kirova) and Gutenberg A (Marcus Ewald and Marietta ...

That sure is a good start into the new year for VDCH country: Four German teams broke to ESL quarter finals of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) in Gaborone. Here are the lucky ones: Stuttgart A, Michael Saliba, Andreas Lazar, 15 points Berlin B, Dessislava Kirova, Florian Umscheid, 14 points Gutenberg A (Mainz), Marcus Ewald, Marietta Gädeke, 14 points Berlin A, Bastian Laubner, Patrick Ehmann, 13 points Jens Henning Fischer and Isabelle Loewe broke as judges. The complete break was compiled by Stephen M. Llano on his Blog. The draws for the main break are available on Colm Flynn's  World Debating Website. Congratulations to ...

Six preliminary rounds are over, night has fallen over Botswana. Tomorrow will bring three more pre-rounds at Worlds 2011. These are going to be closed rounds – no feedback and no info on the ranking will leak from the judges. Socials tonight feature a “culture night”. No more complaints about waiting and queuing are to be heard in Gaborone, but speculations on the ranking of teams and institutions. The teams of Debattierclub Stuttgart feel fine with their performance, Andreas C. Lazar reported this morning: “Gaborone, 32 degrees Celsius. Both Michael [Saliba] and I (Stuttgart A) as well as Jana [Gilke] and ...

And the evening and the morning were the fourth day of Botswana Worlds 2011. Participants in Gaborone had just registered when the motion of round four was announced: “This house believes that independent central banks should set limits on government spending.“ Is the org comm in better control of the schedule today? Last night’s talent show must have been great – our correspondent Henrik Maedler seems to have liked it a lot: “Last night was ‘Recreation/Talent Night‘. Never thought I'd get to see Jamaican song, Jewish rap, and Botswanan dance in one evening ... good fun!” And always an issue ...

And the evening and the morning were the third day of Botswana Worlds 2011. A delay usual for events of this size collided with today’s schedule. But after all, today brought on what all those hundreds of debaters came to Botswana for: The first three of a total of nine preliminary rounds were held today. But most of the day meant waiting for speakers as well as for judges – waiting for registration, waiting for debates to commence, waiting for meals. However, the atmosphere is still great, thanks to good weather and friendly supporters. Even those at home had to wait. ...

And the evening and the morning were the third day of Botswana Worlds 2011. People have just recovered from the ice breaking party when there are complaints about paranoia, the African heat and a belated adjudicators’ briefing – still more surprises for the international debating community from Worlds in Gaborone. However, the atmosphere is great thanks to good weather and friendly people all around, everybody appreciates. Henrik Maedler (Jacobs University Bremen Debating Society), being on his annual leave now in Botswana, felt followed around by his employer as a picture on “Your German Correspondent” proves. The Achte Minute editorial team sincerely ...

Show your judging skills - judges at this year's World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC, or Worlds) in Botswana have to do an adjudication test today! A sample of the adjudication test may be watched on Botswana Worlds website. The real test has to be done virtually as well. The motion of the adjudication test reads "This house supports the trade with organs for profit." The test is compuslory for everyone judging at Worlds in Gaborone. Those who will not do the test until today will be regarded as "unreliable judges", as is reported in an e-mail from the chief adjudicators' ...

Contrary to the saying "The devil takes the hindmost" John Engle and Declan Meehan from Trinity College Dublin won the final debate of the SSE Riga IV 2010. John and Declan only made it to the bottomof the speakers' tab because their flight was late to arrive in the Latvian capital which is why they missed the first two prelims on Friday. But the chief adjudicators were indulgent enough to let them have the chance of one extra round after lunch on Saturday. A team from London who had missed a prelim, too, was also allowed in. Tricky: It was the ...