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 ...

Belgrade, the “white city”, will probably still be white from snow in February when the Belgrade Open 2011 will be held from 25 to 27 February. Language of debate is English, the format is British Parliamentary Style (BPS). Registration is open from 5 January. Please register online on the homepage of the Belgrade Open 2011. Nota bene: The n-1 rule is applied for judges! The registration fee is 45 Euros per person and includes accommodation, meals and socials. The convenors promise a CA team of eminent and experienced adjudicators: Steven Nolan, Marko Cirovic, Frederick Cowell, Lucinda David, Lewis Iwu, Isabelle Loewe ...

No water, no bread! A team from Serbia who wanted to immigrate fromSouth Africa to Botswana was - despite valid visas - defeated late last night by African bureaucracy, as Manos Moschopolous from Greece reported to Achte Minute. No drinks and food available at first for the Serbs around Milan Vignjevic, ESL quarterfinalist at the previous Worlds and co-convenor of the Belgrade Open 2011. Meanwhile, the OrgComm of Botswana Worlds talked to the Serbs, made food and drinks available and will help with all obstacles on early Tuesday morning, Manos released. Isabelle Loewe, Jens Henning Fischer and Henrik Maedler faced similar ...

Read more on Tübingen's Streitkultur Cup in the German version of this article and find out how Marcus Ewald won the audience, how Natalie Wieseotte won a version of "Who wants to be a millionaire" on OPD (the German format of open parliamentary debate) and how Pauline Leopold won in a competition on the rules of OPD but still felt ashamed. ...

Marc Lenzke, Marcus Ewald and Isabelle Loewe (DC Bonn) won the prestigious Streitkultur Cup in Tübingen. They defeated as team for Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz (DCJG) another DCJG team consisting of Sina Strupp, Jan Papsch and Nicolas Eberle. The final was completed by the three Free Speakers Lea Weitekamp (Bonn), Hauke Blume (Berlin) and Wladi Jachtschenko (München). Judges of the final were Mario Dießner, Jenny Bachmann (Karlsruhe) and Daniel Grotzky (München/Zürich), president was Gudrun Lux (Mainz/Bonn). The motions were: Round 1:  Sollen Volksentscheide bei Großprojekten verpflichtend werden? Round 2: Soll die Pressefreiheit bei Terrorgefahr eingeschränkt werden? Round 3:  Brauchen wir wieder Militärparaden in Deutschland? Final: ...

The Berlin Debating Union won the Preußen Punk Potsdam tournament. The competition was held in German, the format was British Parliamentary Style (BPS). ...

“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 ...

Registration for the Vienna IV is now open - save your spot for the first international intervarsity in Austria, to be held March 4th to 6th, 2011. The participation fee is 30 Euros per person (speakers and adjudicators), which includes accommodation at the youth hostel Brigittenau and all meals. Debates will be held in English, under the rules of British Parliamentary Style. To register, send an email to info[at]debattierklubwien.at with the following information: Institution, number of teams, number of judges, and contact details. Institution may send adjudicators, but there is no obligation to do so. The team cap per institution is three. ...

The team Do not disturb! Seriously!, comprising of Anne Valkering from Amsterdam and Jens Fischer from Berlin won the UCU Open 2010. The competition was held on October 22 and 23 at the University College Utrecht, 36 teams competed over five prelims. Further teams in the final were PTB I (Sam Block and Maddie Grieve), Hot like Mexico, Enjoy (Vignesh Ashok and John Ashbourne) and Erasmus A (Lucien de Bruin and Daniël Springer). Into the semifinal had also progressed the teams The Real Real Deree (Chris Papadopoulos and Sophia Simunec), Erasmus C (Setry Rabejaona and Milen Petkov), Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ...

Schnitzel and debating in Vienna: For the first time ever, the Debattierklub Wien (DKW) is going to host the Vienna IV in the Austrian capital from 4 to 6 March 2011. Pre-rounds and semi-finals will be staged at Vienna’s Wirtschaftsuniversität while the final will take place at the downtown campus of Hauptuni. Chief adjudicators are Isabelle Loewe (EUDC-Champion ESL, English as a Second Language), Manos Moschopoulos (acting ESL runner-up) and Steven Nolan (CA Galway Euros 2011). Language of the tournament is going to be English, debates will be held in BPS. In case many non-native debaters register there will be ...

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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 ...

The German Debating Society for Alumni Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG) has elected a new executive board. Gudrun Lux is now president, Stefan Hübner, Oliver Hörtensteiner and Isabelle Loewe her deputies. [caption id="attachment_5457" align="alignleft" width="288" caption="The new executive board of DDG: Gudrun, Isa, Stefan and Oliver. (Foto: Anna Hörtensteiner)"][/caption] ...

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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Less than four months until the worldwide debating circuit assembles in Gaborone, Botswana for the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC, a.k.a. Worlds) 2011 from 27 December 2010 until 4 January 2011! But before you open your new textbooks and work on your Setswana, the official language besides English, stop and check the technicalities. You need to make sure you have made your final payments. The conveners point out that banks charge a fee up to 25 US-Dollars for international wire transfer. Those who forgot about that fee may pay cash or with a check during physical check-in in Gaborone in ...

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: ...

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Debattierclub Bonn won the Schobbe Cup 2010! In the final round, the team “Die Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo” from Berlin Debating Union in the proposition argued with “Bonn Generations” about net neutrality at Campus Westend of Frankfurt Goethe University. The team of Isabelle Loewe,  Gudrun Lux and Jens Fischer from the former German capital defeated Georg Sommerfeld, Dessislava Kirova and Kai Dietmann from the now capital. Awarded the title as best speaker of the final were two: Jens Fischer from the winning team and Nicolas Eberle from Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, a so-called Fraktionsfreier Redner, free speaker. There are usually ...

Late at night the Schobbe Cup CA-Team Pauline Leopold and Florian Prischl announced the break to semis. Here it is! Team break: 1. Bonn Generations (Jens Fischer, Isabelle Loewe, Gudrun Lux; 665 Points) 2. Die Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (Berlin, Kai Dittmann, Dessislava Kirova, Georg Sommerfeld, 622) 3. Eo Ipso Jena (Severin Weingarten, Friederike Meyer zu Wendischhoff, Jonathan Scholbach, 588) 4. Quantenmechanische Juristen (Mainz, Nicolas Eberle, Max Fritz, Natalie Wieseotte, 580) Independent Speakers: Florian Umscheid (Potsdam, 139 Speaker Points) Moritz Kirchner (Potsdam, 139) Peter Etges (Mainz, 135) Daniil Pakhomenko (Mainz, 134) Friederike Ditzen (Mainz, 133) Till Kröger (Heidelberg, 132) Top Ten: 1. Isabelle Loewe (154 Speaker Points) 2. Nicolas Eberle and Gudrun Lux (je 151) 4. Jens Fischer ...

With the Amsterdam Euros still going on - final rounds (ESL and main break) are still to be held in the Dutch capital on Friday - next year’s host is fixed: the National University of Ireland (NUI) at Galway, sited on the Emerald Isle’s west coast. The Law Society and the Literary and Debating Society of NUI at Galway cooperated in bidding for staging the Euros in 2011. Being the only bidders, the council being in session at Amsterdam European Universities Debating Championship Thursday night accepted their bid. Those wanting to take part in next year’s Euros may want to allocate the ...

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 ...

In the interview series “EUDC talk” we met Daniel Schut of Amsterdam's famous debating society Bonaparte. He told us of his speaker job at Amsterdam EUDC and his loss to a German team four years ago. ...

32 teams found themselves in tropical heat - far above 32 Celsius - when they gathered in Cologne, Germany for the Tilbury House Summer Open on the first weekend in July. Tilbury House, the organizers, had forecast that weather and thankfully supplied the thirsty debaters with ample cool Kölsch (the local type of beer), of which there was no shortage even during the debates. Teams hailing from nine different countries fought in five preliminary rounds, a semifinal and a final over topics such as the legalization of drugs, the right to strike and - in the final - the European ...

University College Utrecht Debating Society invites all debaters to its UCU Open on October 22 and 23, 2010. The tournament will feature 5 preliminary rounds with 5-minute speeches and a beak to semifinals. There will be no separate ESL break, although an extra prize will be awarded to the best ESL team in the tab, just like for the the best rookie team at the tournament. The tournament will be in BP, with spots for about 40 teams. Crash will be provided, so don't forget your sleeping bag and mat! The Chief Adjudicators will be Adriaan Andringa, Manos Moschopoulos and Stevan ...