Unless you were exiled to some sort of cave of Debateland, if you’re an European novice debater you probably heard about the Vienna Freshers’ that happened last week. True to the motto “Take off to your debating life” 32 teams from 9 countries were introduced to the debate tournament atmosphere, departing from Vienna, to… well, anywhere you want, or so I’ve heard. I’m looking forward to finding out how far the debating life can take someone. Friday afternoon we gathered at the WU campus, mentally thanking the one who came up with the great idea of getting free energy drinks for ...

Berlin won the Vienna IV 2012! ...

Debaters from all over the world are flocking in to Manila, Philippines. From 27 December 2011 to 4 January 2012, they assemble at De La Salle University (DLSU) to compete for the title of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). From under the roof of VDCH there will be the following debating society competing with around 400 teams from about 70 countries - all in a peaceful competition, the WUDC 2012 or DLSU Worlds: Berlin Debating Union: John Eltringham, Narendran Ramasendaran, Dessislava Kirova, Juliane Mendelsohn, Kai Dittmann, Matthias Winkelmann S.A.E.C.L.O. Greifswald: Rafael Heinisch, Ida Heidecker Debattierclub Mannheim: Jana Gilke, Katrin Sadroschinski Debattierclub Johannes ...

In simplified Chinese, the set of letters so strongly supported to replace a much more complex set of characters, the word China is written as 中国. The first sign meaning center, the second meaning country. The second character looks like the sign 王, meaning monarch (and also one of the most common last names), but can be also used to describe something precious, like a crown, that is sheltered by a wall. The translation of China being “The Middle Kingdom” or “Das Reich der Mitte” is an old one, but the introduction of the simplified characters started in 1952 by Mao ...

Since we guess that our appreciated readers follow us on Twitter your head will most probably be replete with impressions from Galway Euros. But what are the facts and figures about the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros)? Or maybe you have been there yourself and want to sort things out now? Your Achte Minute team provides you with all you might want to know - and even beyond. By the way, you still might wanna follow the Hashtag #EUDC on Twitter - you'll find funny stories and how everybody copes with the ...

Achtung, the Germans! The teams from the German speaking regions make up one of the largest groups here at Galway Euros, the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC and Euros) held in Ireland this year. 17 teams from Germany and Austria are competing for the title at the western coast of the Emerald Isle. To make sure you keep your fingers crossed for the right teams, we are presenting you with the names: ...

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: ...

Paris is very, very beautiful. Plus, it is the political, economic and social center of the French nation. It is de facto impossible to get the full impression in just one weekend. But the convenors of Louisa Leila Zhang’s team helped us get a good first glimpse on the first weekend of April. The about 150 participants of the Paris IV were offered hospitality and French cuisine, impressive technology and the art of partying plus a city tour – and all that in just under 45 hours. The debaters – from the Wordls finalist John Ashbourne from the London School ...

Semi-finalists have just been announced in Vienna! Semis break Vienna IV 2011 Colgate Extra Weiß (16 Ranking Points, 955 Speaker Points, Austin Schwartz, Travis Steele) Bonn Schumeter (14, 935, Lukas Haffert, Volker Tjaden) Galatasaray Ottomans (13, 929, Engin Arikan, Denizhan Kilic) Deree B (13, 921, Jim Kotzias, Eirini Damianaki) Heidelberg Early Blossom (13, 911, Jan Lüken, Marcus Ewald) Brits It means nothing to me (12, 921, Oscar Avery, Feng Cai) Belgrade Tik Tok (12, 907, Goran Jankuloski, Tijana Mejalkovic) SciencePo (12, 907, Stephane Wakeford, xxx) Adjudication Christoph Jäger (DK Wien) Derek Lande Filip Muki Dobranic Gudrun Lux (DC Bonn) Isabelle Loewe (DC Bonn) Kimon Ioannides Leonhard Weese (DK Wien) Lio Kaufman Maja Cimerman Manos Moschopoulos Marietta Gädeke Marko Cirovic Michael Shapira Milan Vidnjevic Rosie Halmie ...

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

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. ...

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 ...

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. ...

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? ...

“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 ...

We are sorry, this article is not or not yet available in English.

Die Europäischen Debattiermeisterschaften (EUDC) in Amsterdam stehen kurz bevor, gute Vorbereitung ist nun also Gold wert. Diese Erkenntnis setzte der Debattierklub Wien (DKW) direkt in Organisationsenergie um und lud zum ersten Vienna Debating Workshop in Österreichs Hauptstadt. Zwei Teams des DKW treten in Amsterdam an und  und setzen damit für den Verein einen internationalen Höhepunkt dieses Jahres. Der Vienna Debating Workshop gab ihnen die Möglichkeit, zwei ganze Tage lang mehr über das Debattieren zu lernen und das Gelernte sofort in die Praxis umzusetzen; als Trainer konnten dafür rennommierte international erfahrenen Trainer gewonnen werden, die ihr Wissen und ihre Erfahrung gerne ...

"Münster ist wohl sehenswert, obwohl es in nicht in Österreich liegt", urteilt der Wiener Club in seinem Bericht über die Deutsche Debattiermeisterschaft (DDM). Diese DDM-Nachlese bringt Euch nicht nur einen alpenländischen Eindruck von der DDM, sondern auch einen Gesamteindruck von allen zehn Meisterschaften, die es bisher gab - die Bildershow vom DDM-Samstagabend ist online! ...