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. ...

Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the German regionals in Bayreuth (South), Frankfurt (West), Osnabrück (North) and Halle (East). 60 teams from all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland are expected to compete on the next two weekends for the titles - and additional teams for the German Debating Championship in Heidelberg in June. ...

The regional championships will take place from 16 to 17 April 2011 with exception of the South German Championship which will be held one week earlier.The Northern regionals will be hosted by Debattierclub Osnabrück, a society still not much older than a year. Convener of the Southern regionals is going to be Debattierclub Bayreuth which is located in Franconia. Host of the Eastern regionals will be Klartext Halle, acting Eastern regional champion and German debating champion of 2008. Stage to the Western regionals will be Frankfurt by the river Main, hosted by Debattierclub ...

We're very, very sorry this text is not available English. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about poetry among debaters and the final debate on two formats widely spread in Germany: BPS vs. OPD. apf / sol

A new debating union has been founded: last thursday, four students founded the "DUEbattierclub" in Duisburg: Paul Wypych, Philip Scharf, Markus Krümpel and Jörn Hahn, former vice-president of the debating union in Dortmund. During the first debates of this new union all four had strong support: vice-president of the VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy), Esther Reinert, Lukas Haffert, debater in Cologne and Oliver Knüpfler, president of the debatig union in Münster.

Leipzig won the final of ZEIT DEBATTE Mainz 2011! Please read more on this in the German version of this article. ...

The next big event of the ZEIT DEBATTEN series is just around the corner: Nicolas Eberle, president of Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg (DCJG), announced registration open for the ZEIT DEBATTE in Mainz from 14 to 16 January. The convenors allure to German speaking debaters with a system new to the format of OPD (open parliamentary debate) which allows all speakers to enjoy five debates instead of the usual three. On top of that, they show great hospitality so typical for Rhineland-Palatinate: accommodation in a four-star hotel, free cider for everybody, winetasting under the guidance of the wine queen representing the wine-growing ...

Please read the German version of this article on the adjudication workshop held in Wiesbaden from 26 to 28 November hosted by the Association of Debating Societies at Universities (VDCH).

Lukas Windhager, Almut Graebsch and Marco Niedermeier have won BaWü 2010. Best speaker of the final was Magnus Schmagold from Göttingen. More information soon on Achte Minute.

For the Baden-Württembergian Championship (BaWü), teams from Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Tübingen and Stuttgart flock to Heidelberg. But since BaWü is an open competition, teams from Bayreuth, Frankfurt/Main, Göttingen, Jena, Mainz, München and St. Gallen followed the invitation of Debating Club Heidelberg (DCH) - 21 teams are going to be fighting for the championship. The format will be Offene Parlamentarische Debatte, a set of debating rules widely spread in Germany, espacially in the South. Sunday might see two winning teams: Only teams from the federal state of Baden-Württemberg are eligible for the title BaWü champion, but any team may win ...

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 ...

“How far have you travelled?“is the starting sentence into any kind of conversation this weekend. It is the kick-off into the new season of ZEIT DEBATTEN series at Greifswald. Flirts, smalltalk - they all start with the "How long did it take you to get here" question. Indeed, the Hanseatic town by the Bodden, a bay at the Baltic Sea, is located in quite a remote area. However, about 65 debaters found their ways to Greifswald. Many of them split their journey - it took them a two-day's travel via Berlin or Hamburg to get to Meck-Pomm. To read more on ...

Mixed teams of all kind are welcome at the Streitkultur Cup 2010. That comprises novices and experienced speakers, male and female debaters, and even debaters from different institutions. The most renowned open competition on the German speaking debating circuit will take place on 11 December in Tübingen and will be held in the format of OPD (open parliamentary debate, a format developed by the hosting society), hence teams of three may now register via vorstand[at]streitkultur.net. Please let your host, the famous Streitkultur Tübingen, know how many teams your institution is going to send to the tournament. Registration fees are 10 Euros ...

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Pauline Leopold, Peter Croonenbroeck and Christoph Krakowiak from Streitkultur Tübingen scored the title “Master of Jokes”. Second time in a row, they won the Gutenberg Cup, the annual tournament of Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG). The motion of the final round reads “Do we need a new Robin Hood?”, where the debaters from Tübingen defeated a home team from Mainz. Best speaker of the final was Hauke Blume who fought in the final round as free speaker, i.e. a speaker with no beforehand appointed position in the debate, a characteristic of the German format OPD (Open Parliamentary Debate) in addition ...

VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, stages the first adjudication workshop of the current season 2010/2011 from 26 to 28 November 2010, the venue will be Wiesbaden by the river Rhine. Participants will be taught adjudication by Marcel Giersdorf (Mainz), Lukas Haffert (Cologne) and Torsten Rössing (Halle). Set on the schedule are OPD, BPS and giving feedback which will be practiced through exercises. Fees for participants are 10 Euros including the workshop, accommodation and meals. In addition, a guided tour through Wiesbaden is offered on Friday night. Saturday comes with a surprise in Mainz, just across the river. Debaters from ...

Eisenach is neither very big nor is it very exciting. Out-of-towners attract attention. A bewildered taxi driver asks a party-hungry debater whether he has arrived today. He has not. He has arrived here the day before. What for? To do the same thing, the Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft  (DDG), the German alumni association of former student debaters, has done every year in this small but lovely Thuringian town: Convene its Masters’ Cup. [caption id="attachment_5488" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Die neu eingeführten Manschettenknöpfe mit DDG-Vereinsabzeichen. Daneben gibt es auch Pins fürs Revers und Magnetpins. (Foto: Oliver Hörtensteiner)"][/caption] All DDG members are allowed to compete, all others are ...

Jens Fischer won the Masters' Cup 2010 of Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG), the German Debating Society for Alumni. Saturday night he prevailed opposing the motion "This House would operate the Loveparade 2011". His opponents in the final where Sebastian Berg, Lukas Haffert and Patrick Ehmann. CAs Jan Lüken and Gudrun Lux judged the final with Caroline Moll, Wiebke Nadler and Anja Pfeffermann. ...

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The next season of the German debating ZEIT DEBATTEN series is set: the general assembly of VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, came together in August and decided upon dates and locations of four ZEIT DEBATTEN tournaments, four regional championships and the German debating championship (DDM) 2011. An overview over the coming season 2010/11 is provided here: ...

On Saturday, August 21, thirteen clubs founded the Free Debating League (FDL). The FDL is a decentralized association of debating tournaments aimed at encouraging tournaments outside the ZEIT DEBATTEN series. At the end of each season the most successful clubs and speakers will be acknowledged. The general assembly of VDCH (Association of Debating Societies at Universities) received the initiative with a broad majority. The FDL charter states: “We believe that our project provides long-term planning options, raises the reputation of decentralized tournaments and increases the incentive to take part in these. All debaters in Germany are offered new opportunities to experience ...

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Photos and reports of the EUDC 2010 – here you get the links and insights into the tournament! ...

Julian Schneider and Lukas Haffert from Debattierclub Münster won the tournament Boddencup 2010. ...

In the interview series  “EUDC talk” we met Lukas Haffert of the Swiss DebatingClub St. Gallen who told us about his first EUDC debate where he spoke twice. ...

Der Debattierclub Stuttgart (DCS) hat auch in diesem Jahr einen Clubausflug unternommen. Am Wochenende nach der Deutschen Debattiermeisterschaft (DDM) reiste gut ein Dutzend Stuttgarter Debattanten wie im vergangenen Jahr nach Bad Wildbad. Wie im Vorjahr Pauline Leopold (Streitkultur Tübingen), so begleitete diesmal Lukas Haffert (DC St. Gallen) den DCS als externer Referent. Ein Bericht über das Stuttgarter Clubwochenende ist auf der DCS-Internetseite nachlesbar. Kurz zuvor übrigens hatte der Stuttgarter Club Besuch: Studenten der Stuttgarter Partneruniversität, der University of Virginia, waren im Schwabenland zu Gast und besuchten für ein paar Stunden den DCS. Ein ...

Die Berlin Debating Union (BDU) hat die ZEIT DEBATTE Tübingen 2010 gewonnen. Ein Team des Clubs setzte sich im Finale gegen ein Team des Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) durch. Die Auszeichnung der Ehrenjury als bester Redner des Finales ging an Marcus Ewald vom DCJG, der auch von einer Mehrheit des Publikums als bester Redner bewertet wurde und so zudem die Auszeichnung als Publikumsliebling - bei der Streitkultur Tübingen traditionell ein Kaktus - mit nach Mainz nehmen konnte. "Soll die Ganzkörperverhüllung in Deutschland verboten werden?" lautete die Streitfrage, mit der sich sechs Redner und drei Rednerinnen am Sonntagnachmittag im Tübinger Rathaus ...

Nach einem Sieg gegen den FC Augsburg am Montagabend steht der FC St. Pauli nun praktisch als Aufsteiger in die Fußball-Bundesliga fest. Damit wird es im nächsten Jahr erstmals seit 2004 wieder zwei erstklassige Teams aus derselben Stadt geben. Im Debattieren ist das nichts Neues: Bereits seit Langem gibt es in Heidelberg zwei Vereine. Mit Beginn dieses Semesters darf sich auch Bremen zweier Debattierclubs rühmen: Zur etablierten JUB Debating Society an der Jacobs University gesellt sich die Hanse Debating Union an der Universität Bremen. Zur Auftaktveranstaltung des neugegründeten Vereins durften die Clubgründer Lars Brückner und Manuel Adams am Dienstagabend etwa 50 Zuschauer ...

Der Masters' Cup 2010 wird am 24. und 25. September in Eisenach ausgetragen. Im Anschluss findet am 26. September die diesjährige Mitgliederversammlung der Deutschen Debattiergesellschaft (DDG) statt. ...