Berlin won the Vienna IV 2012! ...

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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 ...

SkypeDebate - online debates via Skype, initiated by Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg. Curious? Read more on this in the German version of this article.

Welcome the new executive board of Debattierklub Wien: Jakob Reiter is now president, he is assisted by Karoline Lutz as secretary and Regina Puthenpurayil as treasurer. Accountants are Matthias Moser und Lukas Grill.

Leonhard Weese of Debattierklub Wien is now doing his master studies in Hong Kong. Inbetween studies he finds time to take part in debating tournaments, for instance in Beijing. This time, he made it to the Hong Kong Open which was staged in Hong Kong for the second time. Read here his exklusive report from China. Being known for their academic achievements as much as their students’ performances in the natural sciences for years, Hong Kong schools look for other fields to distinguish their students. And tiger parents are too. Fully loaded with (almost) untaxed income from the plenty of booming ...

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 weekend around in mid-April could have been named the European weekend of debating. Beside the German Regional Championships, the Dutch Nationals and Lund Open the American College in Greece hosted this year's Athens Open. In addition to the usual high qualitiy debaters that the Balkans have to offer, the tourney featured quite a remarkable number of previously unseen institutions. For once there were various institutions from Paris who showed how this month’s Paris IV is both part and a catalyst of spreading BP debating around Europe. From Germany Aachen and Paderborn ...

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 ...

This is an article about debating evenings, regularly hold in Vienna with support of Citry of Vienna and the Chancellor of Austria. Please read the German version of this article.

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 ...

Debating does not have to stop because students have holidays. This is what Debattierklub Wien thought and invited to their 3rd debating seminar at the University of Economics in Vienna. ...

The Association of Debating Societies at Universities (VDCH) has now grown to 70 debating societies. The umbrella association represents debating societies in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. Jan Lüken, current president of VDCH, is proud to announce that just recently four new debating societies have become members of VDCH. These are AFA Wien, Debattierclub Zürich, DUEbattierclub Duisburg-Essen and Streitkultur Berlin. Streitkultur Berlin is a kind of "branch" of Streitkultur Tübingen and as such an advocat for the format OPD (open parliamentary debate, a format widely spread in Germany). The executive board is formed by Christoph Krakowiak, Helen Leutloff and Julia Dragon. ...

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. ...

The World Universities Debate Championships (WUDC or Worlds)have been held for the 31st time in a row. The first Worlds were staged in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1981. Back then, 43 teams from seven countriescompeted for the title, the registration fee was ten British Pound. The first WUDC winners back in 1981 were Steve Coughlan and Andrew Taylor from University of Toronto, Canada. Many English schools did not take part – they found Glasgow was too far away as is reported. Nota bene: The distance between London and Glasgow is 405 miles, or 650 kilometers. By the way, it was not ...

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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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 ...

In today's general assembly, the Debattierklub Wien elected a new executive board. Leonhard Weese, who lead the club through the last year, will remain as chairman of the board. He is flanked by Jakob Reiter as secretary, Melanie Sindelar as press secretary and Stefan Zweiker as treasurer. fnp / glx

Martin Zintl of Debattierclub München reports from the Red Sea Open 2010 from a Munich perspective (linked article in German only).

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 ...

Getting into Israel is not so hard at all. Even if you are alone and come by land through Syria, Lebanon and Jordan you will be very likely to be welcomed warmly by the surprisingly young girls at the border post – the boys all sit around customs for unknown reasons. That is, at least if you wave around your Hebrew invitation the team of the Red Sea Open (RSO) preemptively sent out. Having discussed this tiny strip of land and its politics so many times, I was in additionally mentally thrilled to debate not only about Israel, but also ...

A debater's lifestyle is usually manifested through traveling long distances to see old and meet new friends, arguing on sometimes high and sometimes low levels, lots of references to sex, alcohol and drugs and plenty of debating. Between August 8 and 14 about sixty debaters from Austria (Melanie Sindelar, Annabell Knoll, Rosie Halmi, Stefan Zweiker and Leonhard Weese from Debattierklub Wien), Germany (Fabian Farkas from Tilbury House Cologne), Greece, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and the United States all enjoyed the above mentioned genuine debater's lifestyle in the remote alpine area of southern Serbia. Just a few kilometers north of Kosovo, we were ...

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 ...