New executive board in the German capital: The Berlin Debating Union (BDU) elected a new board. Dessislava Kirova was confirmed in her office as president. She is now supported by John Eltringham, Juliane Mendelsohn, Kai Dittmann und Juliane Zeuschner. Good luck to BDU, especially with the Worlds ahead!

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Mixing cocktails, strolling through Berlin, the German women football team losing to Japan, prospective Worlds and Euros convenors beating each other in distributing their giveaways ... All that and much more is the Berlin IV. Find here the motions, the break to (semi-)finals and the tab! And read the German version of this article to learn more about how Manuel Adams saw the Berlin IV or what it is called these days. The motions: [caption id="attachment_10365" align="alignright" width="226" caption="Convenor Dessislava Kirova talking to a participant of the Berlin IV.  (Picture: Manuel Adams)"][/caption] 1. Vorrunde: This house would financially incentivise parents to have two ...

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Please read the German version of this article to learn more on how Miriam Hauft experienced the Elbe Open in Magdeburg.

In their general assembly, the Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) elected a new executive board. Willy Carlos Witthaut is now president. He is flanked by Clemens Fucker as vice president and Andrea Gau as treasurer.

This article is not available in English. Please read the German version to learn about which teams, free speakers and adjudicators made it to octos at the Deutsche Debattiermeisterschaft (DDM), or German Championship in Heidelberg. ...

A lucky streak for the Berlin Debating Union (BDU): After winning the Potsdam PULS Punk, they managed to emerge as victors at the Training Tournament in Dortmund on 4 June. The opposition consisting of the WUDC 2013 convenor Patrcik Ehmann, Florian Umscheid and Manuel Adams defeated the government team from Potsdam with Jan-Dirk Capelle, Mathias Hamann and Jana Bachmann in the final. The topic was "Sex sells – is it legitimate to use sexual services to motivate employees and customers?" referring to a current sex scandal at a German insurance. The prelims topics thanks to the CAs Julian Schneider (Debattierclub ...

Berlin beats Berlin in the Potsdam PULS Punk final on the motion "Should all jobs be payed equally?". The opposition side with Annette Kirste, Emre Yildiz and Franz Müller (Berlin Debating Union) won the palm against the government speakers Kai Dittmann, Arne Windeler and Philipp Cragg (also BDU). The so-called free speakers in the final were Arash Alawi (BDU), Nikolai Badenkoop (Streitkultur Berlin) and Kai Nosbüsch (Debattierclub Stuttgart). Tournament style was the German open parliamentary debate (OPD). The CAs Nils Haneklaus (Debattierclub Stuttgart), Rafael Heinisch (S.A.E.C.L.O. Greifswald) and Christoph Krakowiak (Streitkultur Berlin) had th efollowing motion for the prelims up their sleeves: Round ...

"Embracing dissent" is the claim of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC, or Worlds). Please check back later for the English version of this article or read the German version of this piece meanwhile to learn about how Filip Bubenheimer and Matthias Winkelmann came up with this slogan, what they have to say about it and how they are qualified for brand management.

“Embracing Dissent“ is the motto of the WUDC Berlin 2013 – “We believe this reflects the enlightening and liberating clash of ideas that shaped European and German history - and, of course, what makes debate relevant and exciting”, the Facebook site of WUDC Berlin 2013 announced. No doubt, there is a natural dissent between the fractions of a parliamentary debate. Yet, there might also be dissent during the preparatory phase of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds), for instance in a heated debate about the motto. However, consent was the motto when now WUDC convenor Patrick Ehmann travelled the ...

This article is not available in English in full. Please read the German version of this article or look at the picture gallery by Manuel Adams!

Dessislava Kirova, convenor of the Berlin Humboldt IV 2011, announced the CA team of the tournament which will be hold July 8 to 10. CAs will be Simone van Elk, DCA of this year's WUDC in Galway, Ireland, and Filip Dobranic, current European champion (ESL). Patrick Ehmann, fifth best ESL speaker at the WUDC in Botsuana, will represent the host, the Berlin Debating Union (BDU). xzy / glx / apf

Team Texas A&M A (Syed Taha and Alya Al-Harthy) defeated teams from Stuttgart, Berlin and Utrecht in the Science Po IV 2011 final. Twenty BPS teams competed from May 7 to 9 at the tournament in Le Havre, France. Chief adjudicator at the ESL-only IV in France's Normandy was Manos Moschopoulos, his deputies were Anne Valkering, Isabelle Loewe, Milan Vignjevic and Rob Honig. The Tab is already online. All motions at a glance: Round 1: This House would invalidate any election result with a turnout below 70 per cent. Round 2: This House believes that children should be excluded from any religion ...

Becky West and Rogier Baart from the Leiden Debating Union won the Jacobs Open 2011. Their team Stop trying to make 'fetch' happen as Opening Opposition defeated three other teams from the Netherlands: Jeroen Heun and Daniël Springer (Erasmus Rotterdam), Setry Rabejaona and Liva Andersone (Erasmus Rotterdam) and Danique van Koppenhagen and Tomas Beerthuis (Utrecht Debating Society). Best final speaker as well as top of the tab was Daniël Springer. The tab of the Jacobs Open 2011 is online. All motions of the Jacobs Open at a glance: Round 1: This house would abolish monarchies. Round 2: This house believes that professional sports people ...

The date is set: This year's Berlin IV will be staged from July 8 to 10. With this BPS tournament, the German capital will thus be a good place to exercis for the Galway Euros in August. IV is not the Roman number 4, but stands for "InterVarsity", hence a competition between universities. Students from insitutions from all over the world are welcome to compete over six prelims with seven-minute speeches and break to open semis and final or to the ESL final where ESL stands for English as a Second Language. The team cap is 52, the first 40 of ...

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East, West and North have debated all day long in Halle, Frankfurt and Osnabrück to select the best debaters at German regional championships. Format of this year's regionals is OPD, or Offene Parlamentarische Debatte (open parliamentary debate). Achte Minute has all the results for you. ...

Take me to Manila! A first bunch of debating societies from under the umbrella of VDCH know for sure already: We are going to DLSU Worlds in Manila. In the recently published list, the convenors of the World Debating Universities Championships (WUDC or Worlds) at De La Salle University of Manila, Philippines have announced those deb socs followed their slogan “Take me to Manila”. It is a rough list of registration for DLSU Worlds only, containing many duplicates. But still, seven debating societies from the VDCH circuit made it to that list: Debattierclub Stuttgart, Berlin Debating Union, Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz, ...

“Oxbridge“ among the top ten debating societies of the world? Of course, one may assume to find those two oldest deb socs in that list – but who else is to be listed there? Colm Flynn, former chair of the WUDC Council, is the founder and editor of the internet blog World Debating Website. There he has published his “Worlds Debating Rankings 2011“. According to this, the top ten comprises four Australian institutions and only two English ones – Oxford and Cmabridge Unions. Even an institution from the Philippines is listed among them. The most successful debating society from under ...

Please read the German version of this article to find out who broke to semi-finals at ZEIT DEBATTE Stuttgart! ...

The Association of Debating Societies at Universities (VDCH) has now grown to 70 debating societies. The umbrella association represents debating societies in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. Jan Lüken, current president of VDCH, is proud to announce that just recently four new debating societies have become members of VDCH. These are AFA Wien, Debattierclub Zürich, DUEbattierclub Duisburg-Essen and Streitkultur Berlin. Streitkultur Berlin is a kind of "branch" of Streitkultur Tübingen and as such an advocat for the format OPD (open parliamentary debate, a format widely spread in Germany). The executive board is formed by Christoph Krakowiak, Helen Leutloff and Julia Dragon. ...

Berlin Debating Union (BDU) has elected a new board. Dessislava Kirova is the new president, leading the club by her side is now Jonas Werner. Patrick Ehmann resigned as BDU's president to concentrate his commitment on organizing the World Universities Debating Championships 2013, as is reported by Dessislava. Congratulations and good luck for your work! vro / apf

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 ...

We're sorry, this piece is not available in English. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about what deb socs from Stuttgart and Vienna have to say on Botswana Worlds 2011 and what Berliner Zeitung reports on the Berlin Debating Union, the future host of Worlds 2013. ...

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

The Berlin Humboldt Intervarsity 2010, formerly known as Berlin Open, was awarded an exemplary project for transnational youth initiatives in Europe by the EU programme “youth in action”. The former executive of VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, had encouraged the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) to apply for support of their competition. The tournament held by the BDU was subsidized by the commission of the European Union through “youth in action” among others such as film and theater projects. The website says the following about the Berlin Open: "'Berlin Open 2010: The European debate tournament‘ is the biggest and ...

This article is not available in English. Please read the German version of this article to see what various debating societies say about the ZEIT DEBATTE in Mainz on their websites! ...

On his blog, Manos Moschopoulos compiled unofficial tabs for ESL and EFL respectively for the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). He did so based on data provided by Leela Koenig, judge at Botswana Worlds, and the competition's language committee. So far, official ESL and EFL tabs have not yet been published by the adjudication team of CA Logandran Balavijendran. According to Manos’ compilation, a correction of the Top Five EFL Speakers has to be noted: “Simon Belak (Ljubljana C) and Andreas Lazar (Stuttgart A) are joint top EFL speakers (initially, they were announced as 2nd and 1st respectively),” Manos ...

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