The German Debating Championship is getting more and more exciting. The motion reads "Soll die Wikipedia Weltkulturerbe werden?", or "Should Wikiepedia become World Heritage?". Read here who made it to quarters in Heidelberg: ...

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. ...

This article is not available in English. Please read the German version to learn about how Patrick Ehmann loves trees. ...

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 ...

"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.

The break to finals of the ZEIT DEBATTE Jena is online! Please read the German version of this article to learn who made it to final. vro / apf ...

The Break of the ZEIT DEBATTE Jena is online! Please read the German version of this article to learn who made it to semis. apf / vro ...

“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 ...

Wanted: Your ideas and your money! Contribute the first at the WUDC 2013 Forum in Jena during the ZEIT DEBATTE tournament, akquire the latter through helping the Org Comm find sponsors for the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). Read the German version of this article to learn more about how the umbrella association VDCH and the WUDC org comm of Patrick Ehmann cooperate to make Worlds an all-German event. More detailed info is also available from Benedikt Nufer, vice-president of the VDCH, via benedikt.nufer@vdch.de and from Patrick himself via p.ehmann@wudcberlin.com. For sponsoring, turn to Torsten Rössing via t.roessing@wudcberlin.com. Die ...

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

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 ...

Please read the German version of this article to learn more about how our author saw the Eastern German Championship of mid-April and how he mocks the creativity of some judges when it came to knowing the rules of the format OPD, or open parliamentary debate.

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. ...

We are very sorry, this article is not yet available in English. Please read the German version to learn more about käsespätzle, org comm wearing dirndl and how Florian Prischl got sun burnt during a debate tournament. ...

Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the Southern German Championship in Bayreuth.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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