Dortmund and Greifswald are the last two German language debating tournaments of this year's FDL season. Please read the German version of this to learn more about the details. More info is available from the FDL Blog. pst / apf

Julian Ohm and Barbara Schunicht from Debattierclub Hamburg won the Berlin Punk 2012. They defeated Andreas Lazar and Roxanna Noll from Debattierclub Stuttgart and two teams from Berlin Debating Union: Jonas Werner and Katja Krüger aswell as Christina Dexel and Lilian Seffer. The final motion read “Dieses Haus glaubt, dass Menschenversuche Richtern als Strafmaß zur Verfügung stehen sollten.“ ...

Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the Berlin Punk tourney.

The sparkling sun on wet skin, the smell of sun lotion and tasty food, motions challenging our debater-skills and interesting debates with people from Russia, Germany, Austria, Israel, Greece, England – this year’s Red Sea Open (RSO) was the perfect combination of all of that. ...

Extra, extra! The first women only debating tournament in the history of German debating took place: Jena hosted the girls from August 17 to 19. Chief adjudicators Andrea Gau (Mainz), Sarah Jaglitz (Greifswald) and Dessislava Kirova (Berlin) and female debaters from Greifswald, Halle, Münster, Mainz, Tübingen and Jena assembled in the Thuringian town to debate. Fun Fact No. 1:  It was the boys who were catering for the girls: Coffee, cake, and hot'n'spicy Curry à la Clemens Lechner. Yummy! Fun Fact No. 2: Half of the debaters for vegetarians. Hence, the vegetarian curry. Fun Fact No. 3: An ...

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 ...

The first ever women-only tournament on German soil: It's going to take place in Jena from August 17 to 19. Please read more on the tournament in the German version of this article and join the fierce debate on positive and negative discrimination, the advantages/disadvantages of affirmative action and add to the ongoing discussion in the comment section below. xzy / apf

“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 ...

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 ...

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The new ZEIT DEBATTEN series begins! This weekend, speakers and judges from Vienna, Munich, Mainz, Frankfurt and other cities in VDCH-land flock at Greifswald by the Baltic Sea. Language of the tournament, as in the whole series, is German, the ZEIT DEBATTE Greifswald will be held in British Parliamentary Style (BPS). Chief adjudicators are Isabelle Loewe (ESL European Champion 2006), Michael Saliba from Stuttgart, David Lamouroux from Göttingen and Sarah Jaglitz from Greifswald. The ZEIT DEBATTEN series is convened by VDCH in cooperation with the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT and Deutsche Telekom, supported through VDCH’s media partner ZDF, a German public ...

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

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: ...

Achte Minute scanned the tab distributed after the grand final. You can now find the EUDC 2010 Team Tab and the EUDC 2010 Speaker Tab online. Surely the tabs will be published officially soon. Top Ten Speaker: 1. Fred Cowell, ULU B (London) 2. Sam Block, Manchester A 3. Jack Watson, Cambridge A 4. Thomas Hosking, Oxford A 5. Harish Natarajan, Cambridge A 6. Gregg O'Neill, TCD Phil A (Dublin) 7. Rosie Unwin, ULU B (London) 8. Ben Woolgar, Oxford A 9. Daniel Swain, Team Australia (no break permission) 10. Kelly Butler, Team Australia (no break permission) Top Ten Speaker ESL: 1. Jeroen Heun, Erasmus A (Rotterdam) 2. Daniel Springer, Erasmus A (Rotterdam) 3. David ...

At a glance: Open and ESL Break to Semis of Amsterdam EUDC 2010! Sarah Jaglitz and Rafael Heinisch of Greifswald A made it to Semis!!! ESL Break to Semis: Athens A (Manos Moschopoulos, Kimon Ioannides) Babes-Bolyai A (Cluj-Napoca, Radu Cotarcea, Bianca Dragomir) Erasmus A (Rotterdam, Jeroen Heun, Daniel Springer) Galatasaray A (Istanbul, Leyla Orak, Engin Arikan) Greifswald A (Sarah Jaglitz, Rafael Heinisch) Haifa B (Michael Shapira, Meir Yarom) Kalliope A (Groningen, Steffy Roos du Maine, Floor de Koning) Ljubljana A (Maja Cimerman, Filip Muki Dobranic) Open Break to Semis: Cambridge A (Harish Natarajan, Jack Watson) Kings Inn A (Dublin, Eoghan Casey, Patrick Rooney) TCD Hist B (Dublin, Ruth Fallner, Catherine Murphy) TCD Phil B (Dublin, ...

At a glance: Main Break and ESL Break of Amsterdam EUDC 2010! Teams from Greifswald, Göttingen and Köln are going to compete the quaters of Amsterdam EUDC 2010: Sarah Jaglitz and Rafael Heinisch (DC Greifswald), David Lamouroux and Gabor Stefan (DC Göttingen) and Bianca Sterly and Sebastian Hagemann (Tilbury House Köln). As adjudicator of "VDCH country" broke Alena Asyamova, Jens Fischer and Isabelle Loewe. Congrats! Full ESL Break: Erasmus A (Rotterdam, Jeroen Heun, Daniel Springer) Kalliope A (Groningen, Steffy Roos du Maine, Floor de Koning) Babes-Bolyai A (Cluj-Napoca/Klausenburg, Radu Cotarcea, Bianca Dragomir) Ljubljana A (Maja Cimerman, Filip Muki Dobranic) Greifswald A (Sarah ...

Das Greifswalder "webmoritz" berichtet, im Stuttgarter Blog sind schon ein paar Fotos zu sehen und auch von den Debattierclubs in Frankfurt am Main und Mainz gibt es inzwischen Turnierberichte. Hier im Überblick.   ...

Die Ostsee Zeitung berichtet, die Debattierclubs in Karlsruhe, Wien, Bonn und Dortmund haben Turnierberichte auf ihre Internetseiten gestellt und die Stuttgarter haben ihre Pressemitteilung veröffentlicht. Hier im Überblick. ...

Sarah Jaglitz und Rafael Heinisch vom Debattierclub Greifswald haben die erste ZEIT DEBATTE des Jahres 2010 gewonnen. Im Stuttgarter Wilhelmspalais konnten sich die beiden am Sonntagnachmittag aus der Eröffnenden Regierung heraus gegen Tim Richter und Gudrun Lux vom Debattierclub Bonn (Eröffnende Opposition), Moritz Niehaus und Clemens Lechner von der Debattiergesellschaft Jena (Schließende Regierung) und Patrick Ehmann und Farid Schwuchow von der Berlin Debating Union (Schließende Opposition) durchsetzen. Zum besten Redner kürte die Ehrenjury Clemens Lechner. Ausgezeichnet: Rafael, Clemens und Sarah (v.l., Foto Kun Yin, DCS) Das Finalthema lautete "Dieses Haus würde Parteispenden verbieten"; juriert wurde das Finale von Isabelle Loewe (DC Bonn), ...