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. ...

A new debating union has been founded: last thursday, four students founded the "DUEbattierclub" in Duisburg: Paul Wypych, Philip Scharf, Markus Krümpel and Jörn Hahn, former vice-president of the debating union in Dortmund. During the first debates of this new union all four had strong support: vice-president of the VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy), Esther Reinert, Lukas Haffert, debater in Cologne and Oliver Knüpfler, president of the debatig union in Münster.