There is a time for everything. After more than five years working for and with Achte Minute, we, Gudrun and Tim, are going to retire by the end of the year 2012 from editorial work. Since in September 2007 in Hamburg, the first post of a digital Achte Minute went online the magazine - and a lot has changed. Many - an estimated hundred - freelancers, writers and video journalists, whistleblowers and twitterers, designers and graphic across VDCH country, young people wrote about "old warriors" as well as others have written pieces about "baby vegetables". peer-reviewed each others work and published ...

Tobias Kube from Marburg was awarded best junior speaker at this year's German language debating championship (Meisterschaft im deutschsprachigen Debattieren or MDD) in Vienna. This award is a cup engraved with the names of all former laureates. It is assigned by the German alumni debating society DDG (short for Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft) since 2004. Please learn more about DDG's committment in the MDD in the German version of this article. apf

Wine, debates, WUDC and much much more - please read the German version of this article to learn more about the German language debating championship still going on in Vienna. Them motions of the first five prelims: Dieses Haus verpflichtet Pharmakonzerne, die Hälfte ihres Forschungsetats auf Krankheiten zu verwenden, die primär in Entwicklungsländern auftreten. Dieses Haus verbietet Inlandsgeheimdiensten, Parlamentsabgeordnete zu überwachen. Dieses Haus trägt die Fußballeuropameisterschaft weiterhin mit 16 Teams aus. Dieses Haus, das technisch dazu in der Lage ist, klont den Neandertaler. Dieses Haus führt Eurobonds ein. It's the first time the German language debating championship (Meisterschaft im deutschsprachigen Debattieren or MDD) is hosted outside Germany. ...

 

We're sorry, this article is not available in English - please read the German version of this piece to learn more about the German Language Debating Championship hosted by AFA Debattierclub of Vienna.

The general assembly of Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG), the German alumni debating association, have elected a new executive board: President is now Stefan Hübner, his vice-presidents are Marietta Gädeke, Nicolas Eberle, Bastian Laubner and Oliver Hörtensteiner. ...

Gudrun Lux, president of Deutsche Debattiergesellschaft (DDG), the German alumni association for debaters, announced the CA team of Masters' Cup 2011. Traditionally, one member each from VDCH and DDG executive boards are the chief adjudicators of Masters’ Cup. This year, this will be the recently elected president of VDCH Benedikt Nufer and Gudrun's deputy, DDG vice president Isabelle Loewe. The Masters’ Cup is the annual tournament which is staged at Eisenach since 2005. The venue for the final is the ballroom at the world heritage site Wartburg. The Masters’ style was specifically developed ...

Severin Weingarten, Moritz Niehaus and Clemens Lechner of Debattiergesellschaft Jena won the 11th German Debating Championship. More informations to follow soon. Please read the German version meanwhile.

For teams qualified for semis of the Deutsche Debattiermeisterschaft (DDM), or German Debating Championship. Read here who competed on a sunny Sunday morning for the title of Deutscher Meister. The motion read "Brauchen wir einen europäischen Marshallplan für Nordafrika?", or "Do we need a Marshall Plan for North Africa?". ...

Heidelberg calling: Debaters from all places on the German language debating circuit assemble by the river Neckar to compete for the title at German Nationals, or Deutsche Debattiermeisterschaft (DDM). 45 Teams from 34 debating societies follow the call of Debating Club Heidelberg: Aachen, Bayreuth, Berlin, Bonn, Dortmund, Dresden, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Göttingen, Graz, Halle, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Ingolstadt, Jena, Karlsruhe, Kiel, Köln, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Mainz, Marburg, Mannheim, München, Münster, Potsdam, Salzburg, Stuttgart, St. Gallen, Tübingen, Wien and Zürich. Internationally speaking, the 11. DDM gets more attention than ever: Four societies from Austria and two from Switzerland will participate in the tournament held ...

Streitkultur Tübingen (Simon Lehle, Steffen Jenner and Sarah John) won the final of ZEIT DEBATTE Jena 2011!Simon also was awarded Best Speaker. Please read more on this in the German version of this article. vro / apf ...

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 ...

To learn more on ZEIT DEBATTE Jena 2011, please do not hesitate to read the German version of this article. The tournament series ZEIT DEBATTEN is organised by VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, in cooperation with the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT and German Telekom as well as with the support of ZDF, a German public broadcaster. It has been a decade now since the first ZEIT DEBATTEN series started with at least five big annual competitions. One of these is the German debating championship. Honorary patron of the series is the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. tr

We're sorry, this article is not available in English. Please got to the German version of this article to learn about how teams are allocated for DDM (German National, or Deutsche Debattiermeisterschaft).

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.

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 next big event of the ZEIT DEBATTEN series is looking just around the corner: The ZEIT DEBATTE in Jena is open for registration. From 20 to 22nd May this tournament will take place in Jena, Germany. The convenors allure to German speaking debaters with the "Wartburg" style where no proposals are allowed so you have to create questions that can be answered clearly with “yes” or “no”. ...

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 ...

The final is over! Team Colgate Extra White, Austin Schwartz and Travis Steele, have won the Vienna IV 2011 from the position of Opening Government. The final motion read: "This house believes that parties' electoral campaigns should only be funded by the state." Their opponents were the following: ...

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 ...

Vienna calling: Following that call are debaters from all over the international debating circuit. From Friday to Sunday, the Austrian capital will see speakers and judges flocking in from the Netherlands, Ukraine, Greece, Slovenia, Germany, Turkey, Romania, Serbia, England, Ireland, Russia, Croatia, Macedonia, France, Kosovo and the USA. The all assemble at the first Vienna IV ever to be held by Debattierklub Wien (DKW). Six prelims will be staged at Vienna’s University of Economics and Business with seven-minute speeches. The format is British Parliamentary Style (BPS), language of debate is English. The final will be held in the Festsaal of ...

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

Isabelle Loewe (DC Bonn), Benedikt Nufer (DC Hamburg) and Daniel Grotzky (DC München) as team Die Zwillinge vom Zillertal won the Rheingötter-Debattierwettstreit. This article is not yet available in English, please check back later or read the German version.

The Southern German championship (SDM) 2011 will be staged in Bayreuth. After DebattierClub St. Gallen had to cancel their plans to host the SDM – due to an international conference they have no rooms for prelims – Debattierclub Bayreuth (DCBT) will now fill in for the Swiss to save the competition for the southern part of German speaking debate societies. However, accommodating debaters appropriately makes it necessary to reschedule that tournament: Debaters from southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and northern Italy will have to come to Bayreuth on the weekend of 9 and 10 April. Usually being held simultaneously, the other regional ...

Please read the German version of this article to find out who broke to semi-finals at ZEIT DEBATTE Mainz!

Dear readers of Achte Minute, dear friends, we wish you merry holidays and a happy new year! On top of that, we would like to thank you for being such devoted readers. We hope that after the holidays we will be your up-to-date and reliable reporters that you are used to when it comes to debate related issues on the German speaking debating circuit and beyond. Achte Minute is a honorary project which is supported by the commitment of many. We thank you all for your commitment that makes Achte Minute what it is. We are always happy about recent information and ...

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: ...

Please read the German version of this article if you want to learn more on the requirements for the qualification of judges for the German debating championship (DDM) of 2011. The German debating Championship will be staged in Heidelberg from 9 to 12 June 2011. Format will be OPD, the open parliamentary debate widely spread on the German speaking debating circuit. The Debating Club Heidelberg (DCH), then German debating champion in 2004, will now be host to Germany’s largest tournament where at least 45 teams will participate. The ZEIT DEBATTEN series is convened by VDCH in ...