Berlin to bid for Worlds 2013

From Achteminute and facebook

The Berlin Debating Union (BDU) has made a decision: They want to bring the Worlds to Germany! On Saturday, Patrick Ehmann, John Eltringham and Cloud Ramasendaran are going to present their bid for convening the World Universities Debating Championships at the Oxford IV.


The support of VDCH, the Association of Debating Societies at Universities, facilitated the decision of Berlin Debating Union: “Only because we know we have the German debating circuit to support us we dare to do this,” BDU president Patrick admits. He is even more delighted to have other German debaters at the Oxford IV to back BDU’s presentation of their bid.

More encouraging support comes from the German weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT: They subsidize BDU with a contribution. “We are really happy that DIE ZEIT is constantly promoting the development of the German speaking debating circuit. In the past years, DIE ZEIT appreciated VDCH as a committed partner – thanks to preceding executive boards,” VDCH vice-president Benedikt Nufer tells Achte Minute. Benedikt emphasizes the trust between the two parties and thanks them for their contribution which permits BDU to present their bid.

Since advertising their project is the first task now, the debaters from Berlin will have to travel to other tournaments too: IVs in Cambridge, Cork and the Latvian capital Riga are on their itinerary. Thus, they intend to create a majority for their bid before the official ballot takes place at this year’s Worlds in Gaborone, Botswana, on 1 January 2011. If the delegates vote for the Berlin bid, the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC aka Worlds) 2013 are going to be staged in the German capital from 27 December 2012 to 4 January 2013.

Since 1981, debaters from all over the world have been competing at the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) at alternating locations across the planet. It was not before 1996 that the British Parliamentary Style became the mandatory format for this annual tournament. The African continent has been host to previous Worlds and stages the Worlds now for a third time, this year from 27 December 2010 to 4 January 2011 at the University of Botswana, Gaborone. Language of debate is English and there are three categories: “Main” for native speakers, “ESL” (English as a Second Language, for those who prove great proficiency in English) and “EFL” (English as a Foreign Language, for those who studied English as a mere subject).

In 1999, the Berlin Debating Union (BDU) was founded by Jens Fischer and Kai Monheim, back then with the name “Streitzeit (Berlin Debating Union)”. Since then, the society has gained some experience in convening national and international tournaments: BDU has twice been host of the German Debating Championship (2001 and 2008), the biggest tournament on the German speaking debating circuit. In 2006, Berlin was stage of the European Universities Championships (EUDC). In addition to that, the Berlin Debating Union invented the Central and Eastern European Debating Tournament, later renamed Berlin Open and then Berlin IV, thus open to debaters from Western Europe as well as to Israel.