Results of final challenge - and the futility of it all

Yesterday, the final BDU-internal challenge for spots at the German Debating Championships (DDM) brought at last a final list of teams that will be going there. As a reminder: Richtershorn (Georg&Johannes), then on 6th place in the ranking table and therefore just outside of the BDU's 5 spots at DDM, had challenged Klarahöh (Patrick&Bastian, 1st), Amalienstraße (Dessi&Filip, 2nd), and Platz der Pariser Kommune (Matthias&Niels, 4th). Since Olli&Juliane had withdrawn from the challenge round for DDM, this was the last decisive debate for who would be filling the BDU's spots.

Based on the team's points accumulated throughout the last debating season, the individual team duels were decided by the following criteria:

Klarahöh v Amalienstraße: winner needs 2 out of 3 debates (2/3)
Klarahöh v Platz d. Pariser Kommune: the latter need 2 wins in a row (2/2)
Klarahöh v Richtershorn: 2/2
Amalienstraße v Platz d. Pariser Kommune: 2/3
Amalienstraße v Richtershorn: 2/2
Platz d. Pariser Kommune v Richtershorn: 2/3

The panel of adjudicators consisted of Hauke (chair), Farid, and John. For the first round, they chose the motion that "THW not consider alcohol or drug intoxication as mitigating circumstances in court decisions." The debate was close, and was finally called a gov sweep, leaving CG Klarahöh in 1st, OG Amalienstraße in 2nd, CO Platz d. Pariser Kommune in 3rd, and OO Richtershorn in 4th. At this point, Klarahöh had already won two of its duels, Amalienstraße one, guaranteeing both teams a spot at DDM.

For the second debate, the panel was extended by Juliane before presenting the motion that "THW prohibit alternative medical treatments that do not prove to have effects over regular placebos." In the end, Richtershorn's good case did not stand against Pariser Kommune's broad-depth opening opp line, putting the latter in 1st place and leaving Richterhorn in 3rd behind CG Amalienstraße, who swooshed by with sprucing up Richtershorn's case. Again, the debate was a close call for the adjudication panel, with only Klarahöh in closing opp being a clear case, as they gracefully betrayed teamplay for beautiful philosophical considerations of stuff that seemed only loosely connected to the rest of the debate.

Still, with this Richtershorn had also lost the last one of its challenges. Since it wouldn't have mattered, the remaining challenges between the remaining teams were not continued. The teams for the BDU's 5 spots are:

Klarahöh, Amalienstraße, Krumme Lanke, Platz d. Pariser Kommune, Kastanienallee!


To the delight of everyone, we just received a 6th spot at DDM this morning, rendering the fierce challenge of last night unnecessary. Richtershorn, you're in! Congrats to everyone!

In the meantime, we hope that all the tough debating in the challenge rounds will prove to be valuable preparation for the actual tournament in one week's time.

Results of first challenge

On Tuesday, the first internal challenge for the BDU's 5 spots at the German Debating Championship (DDM) had the following teams facing each other:

Krumme Lanke (Kai&Julian) v Richtershorn (Georg&Johannes) v Kastanienallee (Jules&Hauke) v tbd (Juliane&Olli)

Topics where:
1 Thw allow non-universitarian German research institutes to award doctoral degrees.
2 Thw not consider the biological parenthood in custody battles.
3 Thw abolish all of the EU's agricultural subsidies.

After fierce combat between all teams, Krumme Lanke came out on top, winning the second and third round (3rd, 1st, 1st). Olli&Juliane kept their chances up until the third debate, but could not carry any of the individual duels in the end (4th, 3rd, 3rd). After having lost to Kastanienallee (1st,2nd,4th) in the first two rounds, Richtershorn's (2nd,4th,2nd) fate depended on winning against Krumme Lanke in the last round... where they lost by a hear in a close debate.

This is the ranking table after the challenge:

1 Klarahöh (Patrick&Bastian)
2 Amalienstraße (Dessi&Filip)
3 Krumme Lanke (Kai&Julian)
4 Platz der Pariser Kommune (Matthias&Niels)
5 Kastanienallee (Jules&Hauke)
6 Richtershorn (Georg&Johannes)
7 Juliane&Olli

Richtershorn immediately announced their challenge to all remaining teams (Klarahöh, Amalienstraße, Platz d. Pariser Kommune). This challenge is up for next Tuesday, pending the possible emergence of a sixth spot at DDM.

Speaking of Bremen...

...reminds me of the Bundesrat, the federal chamber of Germany's parliament whose incumbent president is the mayor of Bremen, Jens Böhrnsen. The Bundesrat has its open door day on May 29th and, exceptionally, you won't see politicians, but members of the Berlin Debating Union behind the speaker's desk. We will deliver extraordinary debates on a variety of - naturally - federalism-related topics during the day, see the programme.

Berlin stays on top of German perennial ranking table

The Berlin Debating Union reaffirmed its dominating position among German debating societies this weekend with a strong performance at Tübingen's ZEITDebatte debating competition. With one Berlin team breaking to the Final at the Tübingen town hall on Sunday, the Union is guaranteed to keep its first place in Germany's perennial league of debating societies.

After the BDU had just assumed the leading position in the ranking table after its victory at the recent regional championships, the Union's most trenchant runner-ups from Mainz and Münster have declared an all-out battle for the crown of German clubs before this season ends. Tübingen was their last opportunity for such an attack before the German Debating Championships in June.

With two Berlin teams facing each other in the semi-finals, Weberwiese (Kai, Patrick, Julian) and Frankfurter Tor (Dessi, Juliane, Filip), the BDU will be represented in the final for sure with one team. While close competitor Mainz made the break to the semi-final with one team as well, even a victory against Berlin in the final would not be sufficient to elevate the Guttenberg club above the capital's debating union. For right now: Good luck to the Berlin teams. And for everyone else: See you in June for the final battle!