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 ...

Cheshire cats and Schweppes faces: Just eight teams out of 48 had the chance to break at this year’s edition of Berlin Punk. Here are the teams that compete for the break to finals on Sunday. This is the break into the semis: 1. Magdeburg: Jan-Dirk Capelle und Jana Bachmann 2. Berlin/München: Jan Fischer und Martin Zintl 3. Jena: Severin Weingarten und Jakob Horn 4. Münster: Julian Schneider und Johanna Mai 5. Hannover: Katharina Kleine-Tebbe und Katharina Handke 6. Frankfurt: Willy Witthaut und Robert Epple 7. Münster: Silke Bode und Markus Hässelbarth 8. Jena: Friederike Meyer zu Wendischhoff und Robert Stendel The Top 10 speakers are: 1. Lukas Haffert, 381 points 2. ...

Fritz, the radio station for youth by Radio Berlin Brandenburg (RBB), visited the Berlin Debating Union (BDU). On the website of Fritz you can find a short article and an audio file in German language about the visit. The speaker of the story explains the issue "debating" in an interview with Georg Sommerfeld, who is a member of BDU, to the listener. There are also some live recordings of a debate where Georg, who is a vegan in reality, had to argue for the consumption of meat on the side of the opposition. vro / tr

They have got a master-class coach: The Streitkultur Berlin could win Peter Croonenbroeck, German debating champion 2010, as a coach for their novice nights. He will introduce the art of sovereign appearance and effective arguing and also the fun of debating to all the interested novices. The novice nights take place on 12, 19 and 26 January at 7.15 pm at the “En Passant”, which is situated in Schönhauser Allee 58. Afterwards there will be the regular debate at 8.15 pm on all three days. More information is available on the website of Streitkultur Berlin. vro / tr

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 ...

This article is not yet available in English. Please read the German version to learn more about the Berlin Invitational and Berlin Punk, both hosted this weekend by the Berlin Debating Union.

The full tab of the World Universities Debating Championships 2011 has been made available online already! The CA team put it on the homepage of Botswana Worlds. Naturally, Achte Minute does have a focus on the results of  VDCH teams and speakers. Hence, to lighten the burden for you, our loyal readers, we compiled their results. ...

Cheers, New Year: The Berlin Debating Union (BDU) welcomes year 2011 in its own way and hosts the Invitational on 7 January, as already announced. Speakers who could find an invitation by the board of BDU in their mailbox are allowed to participate. Now the list with the teams that accepted the invitation was released on the blog of BDU. Everyone is invited to join the public final on the evening of 7 January. You may listen to the best of these invited speakers. The final begins at 7.00 pm, venue is Orbis Humboldtianus, which is situated above the Audimax at the ...

This article is a wrap-up of what German and international media write about the World Universities Debating Championships in Gaborone, Botswana. Please read the German version to learn about Israeli pride in their debaters, De Nederlands Debatbond and Justice Mothlabani's address to the debaters at Worlds. apf / glx ...

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 ...

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 ...

Berlin has defeated Zagreb! The Council of delegates at the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) in Gaborone, Botswana, has made a decision: Berlin is going to host the Worlds 2013. The OrgComm around Patrick Ehmann (Berlin Debating Union) presented their bid successfully and got 87 vs 11 votes. Several hundred teams of two from all over the world plus judges and supporters are expected in the German capital around New Year’s Eve 2012/13 – these Worlds are going to be one of the biggest competitions in the WUDC series. On board with the Berlin based team are chief ...

Breaking news from Botswana: Results of our VDCH teams after round 6 leaked from Gabs and we have it all here for our loyal readers. Colm Flynn provided photographs of the tab on his World Debating Website. So how are our German and Austrian teams doing in Gaborone? ...

This is an imperative: Keep your fingers crossed until New Year’s Day! This is when the WUDC Council is going to decide on who will be host of World Universities Debating Championships 2013. The Berlin Debating Union (BDU) have toured around Europe and probably still shake a lot of hands to show that they are the ones to do it! This Tuesday, they have already presented their bid at the Pre-Council Meeting in Botswana. In a letter addressed to the debate community worldwide, BDU president Patrick Ehmann explains that in the past decade the German debating circuit profited a lot from ...

The day of reckoning is near - on New Year's Day, the WUDC Council is going to sit in Gaborone, Botswana, and decide over who will be hosting the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC, or Worlds) in 2013. So far, two candidates from Europe bid for Worlds 2013: Berlin and Zagreb. The OrgComm from Berlin Debating Union (BDU) started their PR tour in mid-November. Therefore, they made a video that shows the strong will of Berlin for peaceful freedom and her inhabitants' penchant for big words such as in JFK's "Ich bin ein Berliner." According to the video, when it comes ...

Only two weeks until Christimas Eve: The debating societies in Berlin and Jena are very curious and arranged on Tuesday 14th December Christmas parties for their members. ...

We are sorry, this article is not or not yet available in English. Please check back later.

Reaching a broad public, debating controversial social topics, provoke thoughts – that’s the idea behind the Masters’ Debate. In this way the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) wants to perform its sociopolitical role. Furthermore the members of BDU want to show what is possible in a really good debate and that even difficult, controversial and contra intuitive motions can be discussed in a reasonable, ambitious and entertaining way. So early December's motion was a heavy one: “This house would allow disabled parents (in countries where pre-implantation diagnostics are allowed) to choose embryos with the same disability.” The Opening Government with Annette Kirste and ...

Georg Sommerfeld and Johannes Häger won for the Berlin Debating Union the Santa Claus Tournament in Münster.

Chief adjudicators of the Berlin bid for Worlds 2013 are now announced: Sharmila Parmanand and Doug Cochran will be in charge of the motions of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC a.k.a. Worlds) 2013 in Berlin as is reported by Patrick Ehmann, president of the Berlin Debating Union. Both Sharmila and Doug have gained a lot of experience on the international debating circuit: Sharmila, a political scientist from Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines, was octo-finalist at Dublin Worlds 2007. At this year's Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championships in Auckland, New Zealand, she was deputy chief adjudicator. The "Australs" see themselves as one ...

Two debaters from Debatte Dortmund (DebaDo) set out in summer to visit debating clubs all over Germany. Jörn Hahn and Jens Schulze now presented a video about their trip. Have fun watching Es gibt immer eine Begründung - Gespräche mit deutschen Debattierern. (In German, no subtitles.) msi / glx

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 ...

You may now register for the Berlin Punk Tournament in January. It will be held in German and in BPS. Team-Cap is 48. To register mail to Johannes Häger joiio.taefer[at]gmail.com. CAs are Dessislava Kirova and Andrea Gau. Pro-Am teams requested.

This is a bit on stories and rumours behind the BaWü 2010, for instance how a team from Berlin called and said how they're stuck in a traffic jam near Frankfurt - unfortunately, this team hadn't registered before! Read more on this and other stories in the German version of this article! ...

Irish Interruption and a bid from Berlin: Last weekend LSE (John Ashbourne and Anser Aftab) won the Oxford IV, with Erasmus (Daniel Springer and Jeroen Heun) taking home the ESL title. Over 120 teams had come to take part in one of the most prestigious debating competition of the year. This year's CA's Ben Jasper (EUDC finalist 2008 in Tallinn) and Shengwu Li (EUDC champion 2009 in Newcastle), with DCA Jo Farmer (EUDC finalist 2009) set interesting motions and topics for debate, and despite the usual Oxford difficulties of a last minute dash to Wadham College for your round, the ...

Preußen Punk Potsdam's Tab is now online.

Together with his club mates John Eltringham and Cloud Ramasendaran, Patrick Ehmann, president of the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) has travelled to England for the Oxford IV this weekend. On his agenda: Of course taking part in the most prestigious and biggest debating competition in Europe – besides Euros. But much more important: Patrick and his companions are going to shake lots of hands since they just started their PR tour across Europe to advertise their bid for the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC a.k.a. Worlds) 2013. To gain a broad majority for their project, they chose to start in ...

The Berlin Debating Union (BDU) has made a decision: They want to bring the Worlds to Germany! On Saturday, Patrick Ehmann, John Eltringham and Cloud Ramasendaran are going to present their bid for convening the World Universities Debating Championships at the Oxford IV. The support of VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, facilitated the decision of Berlin Debating Union: “Only because we know we have the German debating circuit to support us we dare to do this,” BDU president Patrick admits. He is even more delighted to have other German debaters at the Oxford IV to back BDU’s presentation ...