Willy Witthaut on his experience at Belgrade Euros - his first major international tournament. Please read the complete article 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 ;)

Debattierclub Münster seeks the strongest debaters: Be part of the first German language Ironman tournament. The tournament will take place the day before the traditional Santa Claus tournament in Münster. The tournament will be held in German on Friday, 30 November, in British Parliamentary Style (BPS). You may register via e-mail to mcarcasona+nt12@gmail.com. Get more information in the German version of this article.

You went to Manila but didn’t see enough of the South Asian region? You can now catch up and fly to Malaysia to the 5th Malaysian Debate Open in the City of Malakka, the capital of the south-east province of Malaysia. The Debating Society of the Multimedia University of Malakka hosts the tournament from the 8th to the 12th of March 2013 and has a team cap of 124 teams. The Promo-Video promises a tournament in a city that is rich of history. The Malaccan 15th century empire had its rise in in this place which was characterized by Chinese ...

We are sorry, this post is not available in English. Please check the German version.

The third season of the Free Debating League begins with two new coordinators Irene Adamski and Florian Umscheid. FDL is a series of opens and smaller tournaments in addition to the big tournaments of the ZEIT DEBATTEN series. FDL tournaments have to be held in German, so please check the German version for mor information.

Save the date: Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) is looking for the “Jokes Champion”. The annual Gutenberg-Cup in Mainz is a tournament with exclusively funny motions. This year it is held on October 20 and 21, debating style is Offene Parlamentarische Debatte (OPD; teams consist of tree speakers and one adjudicator), language is German. If you want to be part of the tournament, please check the German version.

Christmas cookies and debating: The Debattierclub Münster offers both with their Santa Claus tournament. The tournament will be held in German on Saturday, 1 December, in British Parliamentary Style (BPS) and comprises three pre-rounds and break into final. Registration is not yet posible but please save the date! Facts: Münsteraner Nikolausturnier 1. December BPS, German Pro-Am CAs: Manuel Adams and Marietta Gädeke Reg not yet posible

You may now register for the Tilbury House IV in Cologne. Your chance to prepare for Berlin Worlds! The competition will be staged on December 7 to 9. Language of debate is English, the format is BPS. Team cap is 36. World's DCA Isabelle Fischer (née Loewe) is going to be chief adjudicator together with Danique van Koppenhagen and Dessislava Kirova. Facts: Tilbury House IV 2012 December 7 to 9 Cologne, Germany BPS, English CAs: Isabelle Fischer, Danique van Koppenhagen and Dissislava Kirova Registration is open now.

Have you ever been to Salzburg? Well, you should visit the beautiful austrian city. A good oportunity to do so could be the Austrian Debating Championship, in German Österreichische Debattiermeisterschaft or ÖDM. The Tournament is to be held on february 8 to 10. Language of the tournament is German, the format will be OPD. At least 15 teams can participate. The tournament is an open. Chief adjudicators are Salzburgs very own KayMichael Dankl and Nicolas Eberle from Mainz. Registration will be able from october on. Facts: Österreichische Debattiermeisterschaft (ÖDM), Salzburg february 8. to 10., 2013 OPD, German CAs: Nicolas Eberle and Kay-Michael Dankl Registration starts in october

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). ...

"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): ...

Berlin! Berlin! Berlin! Again we're cheering for Berlin: Team A of the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) made it to the semis: Jonas Werner and Niels Schröter - yay! In quarters, they were closing opp in a debate on "This house supports life sentences without the possibility of parole for serial re-offenders." Now, they're debating the motion "This house believes that the militaries in newly democratized Arab countries should act as the guardian angels of society" from closing gov. ...

Save the date: March 8 to 10! On these three days, the Vienna IV 2013 is going to take place. Vienna calling: Following that call are debaters from all over the international debating circuit. Debattierklub Wien (DKW) is awaiting 60 teams from all over the world in Austria's capital. This will be the third time in a row a Vienna IV is held, so we could start writing about a new tradition. Vienna waits its visitors regulary (!) with culinary specialties: You should definitely enjoy a glass of wine in a “beisl”, a locale plenty with Viennese characters (the author of ...

The next big event of the ZEIT DEBATTEN is already announced: Streitkultur Tübingen will convene the first ZEIT DEBATTE in the 2012/2013 season. The German speaking debating circuit will meet in Tübingen from November 23 to 25. Language of the tournament, as in the whole series, is German, the ZEIT DEBATTE Tübingen will be held in OPD (open parliamentary debate). Chief adjudicators are 2010 German champion Philipp Stiel (Tübingen/Berlin), Wiebke Nadler (Leipzig/Heidelberg) and Leo Vogel (Karlsruhe) The tournament series ZEIT DEBATTEN is organised by VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, in cooperation with the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT and ...

And here is the even more so awaited open break to quarters at the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC or Euros). It's called "open" because it's open to any team that's good enough to compete with Oxbridge or TCD Hist or any of the big names. Please find the ranking and the draw below. ...

Long awaited, heavily fought for, now it's here: Theeeeeeeeeee brrrrrrreak! Please find below the teams that made it to the quarter-finals of the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC or Euros) 2012 in Belgrade Serbia. As usual, there are two categorie, ESL (English as a Second Language) and Open (open to everybody who is good enough). Here's the ESL break and the draw. ...

Yep, the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC or Euros) is still going on. It's day 3, the last three prelims are scheduled for today. We've got an update on the results of most of the teams from under the roof of VDCH (Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen, or association of debating societies at universities). This is how they performed in the first six preliminary rounds: Results after round 6 Gutenberg, Nicolas and Robert, 9 points Gutenberg, Thore and Willy, 8 Tübingen, Konrad and Jonas, 8 Tübingen, Marie and Sophie, 6 Heidelberg, Lucas and Jan, (Sorry, no update available so far!) Stuttgart, Andreas and Gregor, 10 BDU, Dessi and ...

A little less hot in Belgrade, said the weather forecast. Only 31 degree Celsius, said the weather forecast. Must have felt like a fresh breeze after 40 degrees the day before. At least, today no one complained about the Serbian heat on Twitter. Rather, some obviously ate ice cream in between rounds for reasons of refreshment. Apart from the weather, there's more exciting news from the Serbian capital: Again, Willy Witthaut helped us gather the results for VDCH club - thank you! (Again, of some teams we only have the data after previous rounds. We're trying to collect more data.) Results after ...

Save the date and prepare for Worlds in Cologne: The Tilbury House Debating Society is going to host the Tilbury House IV 2012. The competition will be staged on December 7 to 9. Language of debate is English, the format is BPS. Team cap is 36. World's DCA Isabelle Fischer (née Loewe) is going to be chief adjudicator together with Danique van Koppenhagen and Dessislava Kirova. To get more information visit the societies homepage where it shall be postet asap. You may also join the facebook event or contact the convenor Lea Pyhel viamail to lea.pyhel@tilburyhouse.de. Facts: Tilbury House IV 2012 December 7 to ...

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 ...

Alright, guys, London Olympics is out - all eyes on Belgrade now: "#EUDC is officially open!" Debaters of Europe have assembled in the Serbian capital to compete for the title of the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC or Euros). Numbers include 200 teams, nine preliminary rounds, two quarters (in the categories "open" and "English as a Second Language," ESL), two semi-finals and two finals. That makes a schedule as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday three prelims each Thursday both open and ESL quarters, ESL semis Friday open semis, both open and ESL finals A European debating championship needs motions need a chief adjudicator: Art Ward. ...

Have you ever been to Kyiv? The Kyiv Open is to be held the 5th time this year on september 28 to 30. It is hosted by the Ukrainian Youth non-governmental organization Debate Academy. Language of the tournament by the river Dnieper is English, the format will be BPS. Registration fees are 15 Euros for members of the Ukrainian Debate Academy, 30 Euros for all other debaters and 15 Euros for judges. Participants are offered accommodation, meals and transfer around Kyiv. The team cap is 40, the convenors insist on the n-1 rule. The Kyiv Open offers five prelims, semis ...

Have you ever been to Utrecht? Well, you should! Here's your opportunity: The UCU Open 2012! The Tournament will be hosted  for the third time by the Dutch University College Utrecht (UCU) Debating Union on November 2 and 3. Registration opens on september 1st. More information is available on the UC U Debating Society's homepage , on Facebook and via ucuopen@gmail.com. Facts and figures: UCU Open 2012, Utrecht November2. and 3. English, BPS CAs: Danique van Koppenhagen and Harish Natarajan, DCAs Manos Moschopoulos and Michael Shapira fee: 50 Euros per team, adjudicators free