The weekend of May 26th and 27th featured this year's Vienna IV, chief-adjudicated by Alex Moise and Monica Forman and, as every year, complemented by a Schnitzel night and a post-final karaoke. In the final, judged by Elaye Karstadt (chair), Monica Forman, Alex Moise, Huyen Nguyen and Katrin Fallmann, BGU A (OO, Ayal Hayut-Man and Noa Ovadia) prevailed over The von Shap Family (OG, Yonathan Shapira and Michael Shapira), Belgrade DCA (CG, Ilija Ivanišević and Miloš Marjanović) and Jenseits von Vergleich und Analyse (CO, Philipp Müller and Calyxx Peucker) on the motion "This House believes that consent isn't the solitary ...

The Adjudication team of the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC) 2015 in Vienna, Austria, is now complete as the hosts have released the names of the three deputy chief adjudicators. Gavin Illsley, Emilia Carlqvist and Amanda Moorghen will join the Chief Adjudicators (CAs) Christine Simpson and Michael Shapira. Together, the five will set the motions for the tournament, set up the judging panels and select independent adjudicator for Euros. Gavin Illsley has won Euros in 2006 and has judged two finals of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC). Emilia Carlqvist has won Euros 2013 in Manchester in the category English ...

For the first time Debattierklub Wien set up a tournament for Novices only: Vienna Freshers’ on 10-11 November 2012. The small competition was organised by Madlen Stottmeyer, a novice herself and teams were allowed to participate if the speakers have not been debating longer than one year. four rounds of five minute speeches with 25 minutes of prep-time gave fresh debaters an easy entry into British Parliamentary debating. A large international adjudication core lead by CAs Julia Mikić and Stefan Zweiker ensured that every participant got excellent feedback and could make the most of the tournament. ...

There is enough to say about SOAS IV 2012 itself. The tournament was outstandingly well organised for a British tournament. That is to say that it would still be considered very badly organised if we were to apply continental European standards. However, there was food and hostel accommodation close to the campus. With 140 teams SOAS IV is one of the largest tournaments on the Island. Because it enjoys a friendlier reputation than Oxford or Cambridge with regards to how it treats participants, about 30 ESL teams traveled to London to debate at SOAS IV. 3 of them were sent ...

Live tweets full with tears - not only metaphoricly speaking - from the final party at Belgrade Euros were a teaser to what Andreas Prischl of Debattierklub Wien (DKW) describes at length: Freedom of speech is not a given in so many places of this world: The Serbs had to fight hard for it until very recently. Below, Andreas is giving his very personal impressions from his trip to the Serbian capital while the video by Open Communication shows how they've made Belgrade a place of exactly that: open communication. (Andreas' text was originally published on DKW's homepage.) ...

Save the date: March 8 to 10! On these three days, the Vienna IV 2013 is going to take place. Vienna calling: Following that call are debaters from all over the international debating circuit. Debattierklub Wien (DKW) is awaiting 60 teams from all over the world in Austria's capital. This will be the third time in a row a Vienna IV is held, so we could start writing about a new tradition. Vienna waits its visitors regulary (!) with culinary specialties: You should definitely enjoy a glass of wine in a “beisl”, a locale plenty with Viennese characters (the author of ...

Yep, the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC or Euros) is still going on. It's day 3, the last three prelims are scheduled for today. We've got an update on the results of most of the teams from under the roof of VDCH (Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen, or association of debating societies at universities). This is how they performed in the first six preliminary rounds: Results after round 6 Gutenberg, Nicolas and Robert, 9 points Gutenberg, Thore and Willy, 8 Tübingen, Konrad and Jonas, 8 Tübingen, Marie and Sophie, 6 Heidelberg, Lucas and Jan, (Sorry, no update available so far!) Stuttgart, Andreas and Gregor, 10 BDU, Dessi and ...

A little less hot in Belgrade, said the weather forecast. Only 31 degree Celsius, said the weather forecast. Must have felt like a fresh breeze after 40 degrees the day before. At least, today no one complained about the Serbian heat on Twitter. Rather, some obviously ate ice cream in between rounds for reasons of refreshment. Apart from the weather, there's more exciting news from the Serbian capital: Again, Willy Witthaut helped us gather the results for VDCH club - thank you! (Again, of some teams we only have the data after previous rounds. We're trying to collect more data.) Results after ...

Look who came up with preliminary results from the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC or Euros): It's Willy Witthaut! Find below the results of most of the teams from under the umbrella of VDCH, or Verband der Debattierclubs an Hochschulen (association of debating societies at universities). Thanks, Willy! We also stumbled across the results of our Dutch neigbours - see below. Please do not hesitate to help us gather information on results or give us snipets of gossip to entertain those at home. Oh, something that everyone at home might envy those down in Belgrade: It's around 40°C in the ...

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

Please see the German version to get a fuller coverage of the media review. It's the first time the German language debating championship (Meisterschaft im deutschsprachigen Debattieren or MDD) is hosted outside Germany. The MDD is part of the ZEIT DEBATTEN series. Behind it are VDCH in cooperation with the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT, with the support of Deutsche Telekom and the media partner of a major public German broadcaster (ZDF). The series has been staged in alternating cities for more than a decade under the patronage of the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

German language debating championship (MDD) - Break to Quarters: Berlin Kai & Flo (Kai Dittmann und Florian Umscheid) Berlin Flauschpfote (Hauke Blume und Niels Schröter) Hamburg Loki (Kira Lancker und Barbara Schunicht) München Alpha (Valerio Morelli und Marco Witzmann) Berlin Babes Bolay Dessislava Kirova und Juliane Mendelsohn) Berlin HS (Johannes Häger und Georg Sommerfeld) Stuttgart CNC (Igor Gilitschenski und Michael Saliba) Münster Lamberti (Johannes Haug und Adrian Gombert) Mainz Anton (Daniil Pakhomenko und Andrea Gau) Berlin SW (Farid Schwuchow und Jonas Werner) München A (Wladislaw Jachtschenko und Markus Dankerl) Stuttgart A (Andreas Lazar und Sven Moritz Hein) Jena - Die Untergeher (Jonathan Scholbach und Friederike Meyer zu Wendischhoff) Karls Ruhe vor dem Sturm (Leonid ...

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. ...

The German language debating championship is about to start in Vienna, Austria. Competing for the title are 68 teams from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, or debating societies from Aachen, Bayreuth, Berlin, Bonn, Dresden, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Graz, Göttingen, Halle, Hamburg, Hannover, Heidelberg, Ingolstadt, Jena, Karlsruhe, Kiel, Klagenfurt, Köln, Konstanz, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Mainz, Marburg, München, Münster, Potsdam, Regensburg, Salzburg, Stuttgart, St. Gallen, Tübingen, Wien, Würzburg and Zürich. Learn more about MDD in the German version of this article and follow us on Facebook and Twitter (hashtag #MDD12). It's the first time the German language debating championship (Meisterschaft im deutschsprachigen Debattieren or MDD) is hosted ...

 

 

 

 

Assume you receive an email on a Monday at about 1am offering you a team slot at a good tournament in the Netherlands, which starts off 4 days later. What would you do? The correct answer is looking up a flight of course. At for Melanie Sindelar and Stefan Zweiker who confirmed the slot immediately and thus hopped over to the Dutch Debating Open in Leiden, Netherlands (30th to 31st March 2012). Whether the trip was worth the flight and how Dutch the Dutch Debating Open really were can be read in this article. Debates. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Later Winner Arielle Dundas ...

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.

Berlin won the Vienna IV 2012! ...

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.

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 ...

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Nicolas Eberle, member of the executive board of Deutsche Debattiergeselschaft (DDG), prepped Austrian debaters in Vienna. Please 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.

Save the date: March 9 to 11! On these three days, the Vienna IV 2012 is going to take place as Debattierklub Wien announced. Further details will be promoted on Achte Minute as soon as possible. This year, Austin Schwartz and Travis Steele won the Vienna IV final as Colgate Extra White from the position of Opening Government on the motion "This house believes that parties’ electoral campaigns should only be funded by the state". Their counterparts were Galatasaray, Heidelberg and Belgrade. The final is also available online. About three months after the IV, Vienna is going to be the venue ...

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, three regional championships and the German debating championship (MDD) 2012. An overview over the coming season 2011/12 is provided here: ZEIT DEBATTE Karlsruhe, 25 to 27 November 2011 Organised by Debatte Karlsruhe, CAs Yin Cai (DC Heidelberg), Christoph Krakowiak and Mario Dießner (both SK Berlin), ormat OPD. ZEIT DEBATTE Hamburg, 13. to 15. Januar 2012 Organised by Debattierclub Hamburg, ...

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 ...