Berlin made it!

We defended our title as "Norddeutscher Meister"! Berlin Amalienstraße, Dessi and Filip, won against Berlin Krumme Lanke, Julian and Kai, and Teams from Greifswald and Potsdam in the Grand Final in Hannover!

Last minute spots available for the Humboldt Berlin IV

Due to late withdrawals we now have some last minute spots available for the Humboldt Berlin IV from 23 to 25 April 2010. Contact John, j.eltringham@debating.de, to get one of these spots.

Horizontally Challenged

Today's DIE ZEIT includes two articles on taboos in the public discourse. One of them is by Josef Joffe, writing about "mentally challenged" (stupid) and "horizontally challenged" (fat) people. Unfortunately, it is not yet available online.

Foreign Affairs

Our lovely neighbours from the Potsdam "Wortgefechte" Debating Society published an intimate report about the London Australs in March, featuring BDU's Cloud and some very cool sunglasses.

Pictures of the Invitational in January

After a long journey from Berlin to Hamburg and back the pictures of our Invitational in January finally arrived.

Berlin's wise judges

We would like to thank the unknown but truly solomonic judge of a Berlin court, who punished a defendant by a fine of 400 Euro to be paid to the Berlin Debating Union, according to this document. Unfortunately, we never received the sum. In a phone call with the Berlin Criminal Court, I was told that the defendant apparently appealed against the decision or preferred to spend some days in jail instead.

It's a shame. This defendant really missed a win-win-situation (we suppose he/she was charged with insult, hate speech or another wordy offence) . Still, it's nice to know that our charitable work for free speech and good arguments is appreciated in the Berlin courts.

Boot Camp Results

Tuesday we finished our internal challenge to determine which BDU teams will start at the Norddeutsche Meisterschaft. Bastian and Juliane, Dessi and Filip, Matthias and Niels as well as Kai and Julian will go to Hannover. Our new internal challenge system has turned out to be both an excellent means of preparing a tournament and a way to bring back a competitive spirit to our weekly debates, lifting quality and fun.

These are the results of the 2nd round of the challenge. Motions were: "This House would offer prisoners an early release if they participate in dangerous drug tests" and "This House would ban private schools".