It’s been five years since the first WUDC in Germany took place. Teams from all over the world met in Berlin to determine the best debaters in the world. But how was it for the volunteers and organisers? Read more of their memories in the second part of our feature. Jens Fischer [caption id="attachment_33315" align="alignleft" width="198"] © Henrik Maedler[/caption] Being the tabmaster of a tournament the size of Berlin Worlds with around 1200 participants is a strange situation: You feel like you're in the centre of a hurricane around which a lot of drama is circling but actually your job is "only" to ...

It is that time of year when debaters all around the world flock to virtual forums to discuss the merits of the bids for the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC). Most will argue that this year’s one horse race has already been decided. It probably has, and the Mexicans can be proud of the bid they have presented. This situation makes it all the easier for me to present what I believe to be a helpful metric in deciding on bids in general. With only one bid, I can hardly be accused of partisanship. I hope my words will resonate in ...

South Africa is currently applying to host the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) in 2017. Should the bid be successful, Dessislava Kirova would form the Chief Adjudication panel, together with Gemma Buckley from Australia and Syed Saddiq from Malaysia. Anne Gaa spoke with her about her plans for the Worlds.Achte Minute: How did you get to be nominated by the South African OrgCom? Is there a special relationship between the German and South African debating communities?Dessislava Kirova: It was quite surprising. At the Paris Open 2013, I met someone who was, at that time, part of the organizing team. That connection ...

The World Universities Debating Championship 2015 in Malaysia has its champions:And the winners are...The Open CategorySydney A (Edward Miller, Nick Chung) won the final in the Open Category. They debated the motion "This House believes that humanitarian organisations should, and should be allowed to, give funding, resources or services to illegal armed groups when this is made a condition for access to vulnerable civilians." and won against Oxford A (Patrick Bateman, Natasha Rachman) in Opening Government, BPP A  (Steven Rajavinothan, Michael O'Dwyer) in Opening Opposition and Harvard A (Bo Seo, Fanelesibonge Mashwama) in Closing Opposition. The final was adjudicated by Shafiq Bazari (chair), Dominic ...

Team break Out of the contingent of the Association of German Speaking University Debating Societies (VDCH) we are very happy to report the break of one team at this year’s Worlds in Malaysia! In the category "English as a foreign language" (EFL) the team Potsdam A (comprised of Mathias Hamann and Moritz Kirchner) broke in 4th place with 14 team points in total. The next round for them will be the EFL Semi Final on Friday, 2 January 2015. It will take place at 1 pm local time in Malaysia (which translates into 6 am local time in Germany) and will ...

Yesterday the 35th World University Debating Championships were officially started by the grand Opening Ceremony. The German speaking debating circuit is represented by a strong delegation this year. Seven members of the VDCH – the Association of German Speaking University Debating Societies are comprised of ten teams and ten adjudicators. Debating societies Berlin Debating Union (BDU, Berlin), Debattierclub Goethes Faust Frankfurt (Frankfurt), Debattierclub Kiel, Debattierclub München (Munich), Debattierclub Münster, Wortgefechte Potsdam, Debattierklub Wien (Vienna). [caption id="attachment_25445" align="alignright" width="400"] The Opening Ceremony. © 2014 Matthias Carcasona[/caption] Debate teams BDU A: Philip Schröder, Christina Dexel BDU B: Lilian Seffer, Alexander Hans BDU C: Pegah Maham, Christof Kebschull Frankfurt A: Andreas Dreher, Sven Schuppener Kiel ...

The break to the Finals at the European Universities Debating Championship 2014 has been announced. In the ESL category, Berlin A, Lund A, Belgrade B and BBU A made it through the semi-finals with the motion "This house believes that leaders of minority religions in Europe should strongly encourage their congregations to refrain from public displays of their faith". In the Open break, Oxford A, Sheffield A, Nottingham A, and Edinburgh A won the semi-finals with the motion "THBT the US should invade and forceably partition Iraq". Semi-finals of the Zagreb EUDC In the Open semi-final 1, the following teams competed: OG: Edinburgh A OO: ...

The break of the European Universities Debating Championship 2014 in Zagreb has been announced. The following teams will compete in the out-rounds on the 22nd of August (data might be inaccurate): Open Break 23: Cambridge C 22: Oxford B 21: Cambridge B 21: Oxford A 21: GUU A 20: Cambridge A 20: Oxford C 19: Edinburgh A 19: LSE A 19: Sheffield A 19: Durham B 19: KCL A 19: Hebrew A 19: Nottingham A 19: Durham C 18: BPP A ESL Break 19: Hebrew A 18; Belgrade B 18: Lund A 18: Tartu A 18: Berlin A 17: Tel Aviv B 17: Leiden A 17: Bucharest A 17: BBU A 17: Tilbury House A 17: Mannheim A 17: ELTE A 17 BGU A 16: Belgrade A 16: Tel Aviv A 16: tie of ...

[caption id="attachment_15088" align="alignleft" width="280"] Patrick Ehmann (Photo: Henrik Mädler)[/caption] Achte Minute was able to catch up with Patrick Ehmann, convener of the WUDC Berlin 2013, to talk about the challenges faced in hosting WUDC Berlin 2013, the legacy of the tournament, the general perspective of world debating and his personal evaluation. Achte Minute: Patrick, now that two months have passed after the WUDC Berlin 2013, how do you feel? Patrick Ehmann: Well, immediately after the tournament I wanted to have nothing to do with the WUDC Berlin 2013 ever again. I was physically and emotionally drained. Now, from a distance I can see ...

It is impossible to find out when the first participants of WUDC 2013 arrived in Berlin – too many have already been around and have spent some days in Europe, Germany or Berlin. But just from a glimpse into the WUDC accommodation, Hotel BerlinBerlin, it is clearly visible: today was arrival day! Dozens of participants dropped into the Hotel each hour and stopped at the registration desk in order to check in to their “Worlds” 2013. And in less than 24 hours, Patrick Ehmann, Convener of WUDC Berlin 2013, will open the 33rd World Universities Debating Championship officially. Thus, the biggest ...

Tobias Kube was awarded for being the most promising debater new on the German language deating circuit at the German Language Debating Championship in Vienna in June this year. Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft, the alumni debating society of Germany, grants this award every year to one of the up-and-coming debaters. Read here the interview of a first year who will soon be debating with and against old stagers at the Masters’ Cup in Eisenach. Read the complete interview 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 ;)

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 ...

Wine, debates, WUDC and much much more - please read the German version of this article to learn more about the German language debating championship still going on in Vienna. Them motions of the first five prelims: Dieses Haus verpflichtet Pharmakonzerne, die Hälfte ihres Forschungsetats auf Krankheiten zu verwenden, die primär in Entwicklungsländern auftreten. Dieses Haus verbietet Inlandsgeheimdiensten, Parlamentsabgeordnete zu überwachen. Dieses Haus trägt die Fußballeuropameisterschaft weiterhin mit 16 Teams aus. Dieses Haus, das technisch dazu in der Lage ist, klont den Neandertaler. Dieses Haus führt Eurobonds ein. It's the first time the German language debating championship (Meisterschaft im deutschsprachigen Debattieren or MDD) is hosted outside Germany. ...

 

We're sorry: This article is not available in English. Please read the German version of this to learn the details about the regional championships, this on in Jena.

Georg Sommerfeld and Bruno Davids of Berlin Debating Union (BDU) won Saggsn Masders 2012, a tournament in the Saxonian capital Dresden. Georg was also awarded best speaker of the final. The other final teams were from Mainz (Willy Witthaut and Betty Braun) and of BDU: Sarah von Kaminietz and Martin Funck, and Hauke Blume and Marijana Todorovich). The top speakers of the tourney: Georg Sommerfeld Willy Witthaut Hauke Blume Sarah von Kaminietz, Dessislava Kirova The top team results of the league after Saggsn Masders: Mainz (53) Heidelberg Debating (44) Tübingen (44) Berlin Debating Union (36) Freiburg (26) Top speaker results after Saggsn Masders: Willy Witthaut (64) Almut Graebsch (45), Zsolt Szilagyi (45) Philipp Stiel (44) Please ...

Spring has just begun, but you better take care about this year's end already: Registration for World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC or Worlds) starts this Saturday, March 31, at 3pm Berlin time (GMT +2). Dessislava Kirova, participant affairs officer in Patrick Ehmann's org comm, announced that there will be a team cap of 400 with spots for 300 judges. Reg fees for WUDC Berlin 2013 from 27 December 2012 to 4 January 2013 are 400 Euros per capita. Registration comprises five phases: Phase 0: Please read the elligibility rules. Phase 1: Be quick and register on the WUDC Berlin 2013 blog, principle: first ...

Berlin won the Vienna IV 2012! ...

Please read the German version of this.

sorry, there is no English translation available. Please read the German version. ...

Trauma overcome! Worlds' runner-up Dessislava Kirova gives Achte Minute'e appreciated readers an insight on how she and her team mate Juliane Mendelsohn have overcome their trauma of being defeated in quarters - and how the proceed straight on to the finals of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) in Manila, Philippines. (The story is in German, please check back later for an English translation.) ...

Great start into the ZEIT DEBATTEN season 2011/2012 for Berlin Debating Union. Their speakers Georg Sommerfeld, Patrick Ehmann and Johannes Häger won the ZEIT DEBATTE's final against Marco Niedermaier, Lukas Windhager and Almut Graebsch who were competing for Debattierclub München. Georg Sommerfeld was the best speaker of the final. The motion was: Do we need the United Staates of Europe? The final was completed by the free speakers Willy Witthaut (Mainz), Sven Hirschfeld (Heidelberg) and Irene Adamski (Halle). The finals' adjudicators: Pauline Leopold (Tübingen), Yin Cai (Heidelberg), Christoph Krakowiak (SK Berlin), Mario Dießner (SK Berlin), Leonid Vogel (Karlsruhe) and ...

The Berlin invitational will be a tournament on January 20, 2012. It will be in German, so please switch to the German version of this article to learn more about the details.

Rain, rain, rain - all over Germany! But the brave debaters of the Boddencup never gave in and even did their BBQ in Greifswald. A short lesson on German geography: "Bodden are brackish bodies of water along the southwestern shores of the Baltic Sea, primarily in Germany's state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern around the island of Rügen," as Wikipedia has it. This year's Boddencup was staged by Greifwald's debating society for the third time in a row. It was also the final of the first season of Freie Debattierliga, or free debating league (FDL). Read more on a rainy weekend by the ...

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 ...

Sorry, this post is only available in German. xzy / tr