[caption id="attachment_30718" align="alignright" width="400"] This lovely picture from Warsaw EUDC 2016 can now be seen at the new facebook page. - © Kuba Mozolewski[/caption] In the new year the Achte Minute will strongly expand the international (English) section. Changes include the following areas: The international editory is growing In preparation of our expansion we recruited some editors for the international section over the last months. Those are not necessarily German speaking because we want and need voluntary editors all across Europe. We are looking forward to introducing Achte Minute at WUDC and hope to meet more future editors soon. If you are reading ...

Kai Dittmann began cautiously. “It often is not easy to argue for free trade,” said the 2014 World Champion in the category English as a Second Language (ESL). “But it is the marginal benefits that sum up.” Together with John Eltringham, who works at the American Academy in Berlin, he represented the government side in a public debate on the first evening of the Berlin Intervarsity. The question debated was: “Does Europe need the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)?” Speakers at the public debate (from left to right): John Eltringham, Kai Dittmann, Christoph Krakowiak, Rebecca Irvine and Philipp Stiel (c) ...

The general assembly of VDCH (Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen), the umbrella organisation of over 70 german-speaking debating clubs at universities, has elected a new executive board on August 31. Florian Umscheid (Berlin/Bamberg) was elected president by the representatives; vice presidents are Tobias Kube (Marburg), Jennifer Holm (Heidelberg) and Alexander Labinsky (Dresden).   The Achte Minute congratulates the new board and wishes them best of success for their term of office! kem

While most debaters were still recovering form the WUDC-fever, another debating highlight took place in Berlin: on Januray 16th politics and competitive debating clashed. Streitkultur Berlin hosted an event where they debated professional politicians. The motion before the house was:" Should journalisim be publicly funded?" This article is only available in English. Please read more on this in the German version of this article.

The WUDC Berlin 2013 is creating a massive press echo. Mayor German newspapers write about the Championships, radio stations have live interviews with WUDC staff and even the first camera team came to the TU yesterday. For the press review, please read the German verision of this article.

Isabelle Fischer (born Loewe) is Deputy Chief Adjudicator (DCA) at this year’s World University Debating Championship in Berlin. She started debating in 2003, with the debating society of the University of Bonn and has been living in Berlin for five years. After her career as a debater, which led her into the final of the European Univerities Debating Championship in 2006, she started an impressive career as an adjudicator. Lately, she has worked as DCA at the European Championships in Tallin 2008 and Belgrade 2012. Philipp Stiel talked with her for the Achte Minute about the upcomig event. [caption id="attachment_13800" align="alignleft" ...

The new ZEIT DEBATTEN series begins! This weekend (November 23 to 25), speakers and judges from all over Germany, Switzerland, Austria and even France flock at Tübingen. Language of the tournament, as in the whole series, is German, the ZEIT DEBATTE Tübingen will be held in Offene Parlamentarische Debatte (open parliamentary debate, OPD). Chief adjudicators are Philipp Stiel (German Champion 2010, Tübingen/Berlin) sowie Wiebke Nadler (Leipzig/Heidelberg) and Leonid Vogel (Karlsruhe). 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 ...

A good judging pool at tournaments is eminent for the competitions - and for excellent feedback. Achte Minute talked to Philipp Stiel and Leo Vogel, president and vice-president of the association of debating societies at universities (VDCH, or Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen). Please read more on this in the German version of this article.

The general assembly of VDCH (the Association of Debating Societies at Universities) elected a new president and his deputies: Philipp Stiel , Leonid Vogel, Nils Haneklaus and Anna Mattes constitute the new VDCH executive board.

The next big event of the ZEIT DEBATTEN is already announced: Streitkultur Tübingen will convene the first ZEIT DEBATTE in the 2012/2013 season. The German speaking debating circuit will meet in Tübingen from November 23 to 25. Language of the tournament, as in the whole series, is German, the ZEIT DEBATTE Tübingen will be held in OPD (open parliamentary debate). Chief adjudicators are 2010 German champion Philipp Stiel (Tübingen/Berlin), Wiebke Nadler (Leipzig/Heidelberg) and Leo Vogel (Karlsruhe) 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 ...

 

Georg Sommerfeld and Bruno Davids of Berlin Debating Union (BDU) won Saggsn Masders 2012, a tournament in the Saxonian capital Dresden. Georg was also awarded best speaker of the final. The other final teams were from Mainz (Willy Witthaut and Betty Braun) and of BDU: Sarah von Kaminietz and Martin Funck, and Hauke Blume and Marijana Todorovich). The top speakers of the tourney: Georg Sommerfeld Willy Witthaut Hauke Blume Sarah von Kaminietz, Dessislava Kirova The top team results of the league after Saggsn Masders: Mainz (53) Heidelberg Debating (44) Tübingen (44) Berlin Debating Union (36) Freiburg (26) Top speaker results after Saggsn Masders: Willy Witthaut (64) Almut Graebsch (45), Zsolt Szilagyi (45) Philipp Stiel (44) Please ...

Sorry, this article is not available in English. Please read the German version. Thank you.

New FDL results: Tübingen (44) Mainz (37) Heidelberg Debating (34) AFA Wien (20), Hamburg (20) Top speakers FDL: Philipp Stiel (44) Willy Witthaut (38) Zsolt Szilagyi (35) Read more in this in the German version.

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.“ ...

Heidelberg Debating A (Sven Hirschfeld, Daniel Sommer and Franzi Kriegelstein) won the final of the renown Streitkultur Cup 2011 in Tübingen. They defeated Streitkultur Pheme from Tübingen (Peter Croonenbroeck, Anne Suffel and Jonathan Spanos).Free speakers were Philipp Stiel, Lukas Windhager and Dominic Hildebrand. The final was judged by Vanessa Schilling, Tobias Kube, Oliver Hörtensteiner, Sarah Kempf and Leo Vogel. Mario Dießner functioned as president of the final debate. The audience chose Peter Croonenbroeck as best speaker of the final who was awarded with a traditional cactus. [caption id="attachment_11479" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The winners of the Streitkultur Cup 2011: Sven Hirschfeld, Franzi Kriegelstein ...

The break of Streitkultur-Cup is here: The first team to break in Tübingen is Heidelberg Debating A (Sven Hirschfeld, Daniel Sommer, Franzi Kriegelstein), the second is Streitkultur Pheme (Peter Croonenbroeck, Anne Suffel, Jonathan Spanos). Free speakers breaking: Philipp Stiel, Lukas Windhager and Dominic Hildebrand. The top-of-the-tab team Xavers Zamperl from Munich (Franziska Schuster-Städter, Almut Graebsch, Jan-Felix Schneider)were not eligible to break since the broke something else: the pro-am rule. The fresher in the team must not have started debating before September 2011. Read more on this in the German version of this article.

Germany's oldest debating society is becoming 20 years - celebrations of the anniversarystarting this weekend. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the details.

Debating in Germany is just 20 years old - the oldest debating society being Streitkultur Tübingen, founded in 1991. For their anniversary they take a whole weekend to celebrate. Kick-off for the celebrations is a show debate between on one side Ansgar Kemmann and Thomas Schwarz Wentzer, of the generation of the founding fathers, and on the other side Philipp Stiel and Peter Croonenbroeck, winner of the German national championship 2010. The show debate will take place on Friday, December 9. Guest of honor will be Asfa-Wossen Asserate, honorary senator of the University of Tübingen and grandnephew of Haile Selassie. The ...

Pirates have boarded the senate of Berlin. With 8.9 percent, the Pirate Party made it to the Berlin City Parliament. Philipp Stiel, vice president of the Association of Debating Sociaties at Universities, or VDCH, talked to Sebastian Jabbusch, member of the Pirate Party. Please read the interview in German, harr, harr.

This article is not available in English. Please read the german version.

The general assembly of VDCH (the Association of Debating Societies at Universities) elected a new president and his deputies: Benedikt Nufer, Tom-Michael Hesse, Simeon Reusch and Philipp Stiel constitute the new VDCH executive board. Benedikt has already been part of the executive bord last year. He is a member of the debating society at Hamburg University where he works on his Ph.D. thesis in history. Simeon Reusch will be in charge of the German debating tournament series ZEIT DEBATTEN for the forthcoming year. He is doing his Bachelor studies in Philosophy and Politics in Halle where ...

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: ...

This article is not avalaible in English. Please read the german post. ...

When I started my year abroad at the US-American East coast I was really thrilled by the idea that Yale, my new alma mater to be, hosted one of the best debating societies in the world. I dreamt away, driven by my winning the German debating championship in Münster: exciting debates with great guest speakers and members of various secret societies in dreary vaults. I was quickly disappointed when I realized it was not that easy to get a mere impression of how debating is carried out on campus. Two reasons for being disappointed: Firstly, I was not granted admission into ...

We are sorry, this article is not available in English. Please read the German version of this article to learn more about the re-furbished website of Streitkultur Tübingen. xzy / apf