Dueling scars
Encyclopedia
Duelling scars have been seen as a “badge of honour” since as early as 1825. Known variously as "Mensur scars", "the bragging scar", "smite", "Schmitte" or "renommierschmiss", duelling scars were popular amongst upper-class Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

ns and Germans
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 involved in academic fencing
Academic fencing
Academic fencing or Mensur is the traditional kind of fencing practiced by some student corporations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and to a minor extent in Kosovo, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Flanders.- Technique :Modern academic fencing, the "mensur," is neither a duel nor a sport...

 at the start of the 20th century. Being a practice amongst university students
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

, it was seen as a mark of their class and honour, due to the status of duelling societies at German and Austrian universities at the time, and is an early example of scarification
Scarification
Scarifying involves scratching, etching, burning, or superficially cutting designs, pictures, or words into the skin as a permanent body modification.In the process of body scarification, scars are formed by cutting or branding the skin...

 in European society
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. The practice of duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...

ling and the associated scars was also present to some extent in the German military.

American tourists visiting Germany in the late 19th century were shocked to see the students, generally with their Student Corp, at major German universities like Heidelberg, Bonn
University of Bonn
The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...

 or Jena with facial scars: some older, some more recent, and some still wrapped in bandages.

The sport of academic fencing
Academic fencing
Academic fencing or Mensur is the traditional kind of fencing practiced by some student corporations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and to a minor extent in Kosovo, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Flanders.- Technique :Modern academic fencing, the "mensur," is neither a duel nor a sport...

 at the time was very different from modern fencing
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...

. Rather than foils
Foil (fencing)
A foil is a type of weapon used in fencing. It is the most common weapon in terms of usage in competition, and is usually the choice for elementary classes for fencing in general.- Components:...

, participants used heavy sabre
Sabre
The sabre or saber is a kind of backsword that usually has a curved, single-edged blade and a rather large hand guard, covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger...

s. This resulted in more extreme scarring than one would normally have from standard Olympic swords. The individual duels between students, known as Mensur, were somewhat ritualised. In some cases protective clothing was worn, including padding on the arm.

The culture of duelling scars was mainly common to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, to a lesser extent some central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

an countries and briefly at places like Oxford University and some other elite universities. Other cultures, including American tourists at the time, found the practice barbaric and the scarred faces of the duelists unpleasant. German military laws permitted men to wage duels of honor until World War I, and in 1933 the Nazi government
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 legalized the practice once more.

Within the duel, it was seen as ideal and a way of showing courage to be able to stand and take the blow, as opposed to inflicting the wound. In fact, the victor was seen as the person who could walk away from the duel with an obvious scar. It was important to showing one's duelling prowess, but also that one was capable of taking the wound that was inflicted.

Social significance

As the scars were gained in this particular elite social context, associated with status and an academic institution, the scars showed that one had courage and also was "good husband material". The duelling scars, while obvious, were not so serious that they left a person disfigured or bereft of facial features.The scars were even judged by Otto von Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...

 to be a sign of bravery, and that a man’s courage could be judged "by the number of scars on their cheeks".

Minority groups in Germany also indulged in the practice, some seeing it as an aid in their social situation, including some Jews who wore the scars with pride. In 1874, William Osler, then a medical student on a visit to Berlin, described “one hopeful young Spanish American of my acquaintance who has one half of his face – they are usually on the left half – laid out in the most irregular manner, the cicatrices running in all directions, enclosing areas of all shapes, the relics of fourteen duels." Some Jews in Germany saw the scars as a signifier of a socially healthy individual.

Nature of the Scars

Scars were usually targeted to the left profile, so that the right profile appeared untouched. Experienced fencers, who had fought many bouts, often accumulated an array of scars. A duelist who died in 1877 "....fought no less than thirteen duels but had 137 scars on head, face and neck".

The wounds were generally not that serious, "wounds causing, as a rule, but temporary inconvenience and leaving in their traces a perpetual witness of a fight well fought. The hurts, save when inflicted in the nose, lip or ear, are not even necessarily painful, and unless the injured man indulges too freely in drink, causing them to swell and get red, very bad scars can be avoided. The swords used are so razor-like that they cut without bruising, so that the lips of the wounds can be closely pressed, leaving no great disfigurement, such, for examples, as is brought about by the loss of an ear."

In a sort of anti-cosmetic surgery, the wounds were sometimes packed with horsehair
Horsehair
Horsehair is the long, coarse hair growing on the manes and tails of horses. It is used for various purposes, including upholstery, brushes, the bows of musical instruments, a hard-wearing fabric called haircloth, and for horsehair plaster, a wallcovering material formerly used in the construction...

 and left agape, so as to make them more extreme in appearance. The horsehair acted as an irritant to the wound.

Sometimes, students who didn't fence would scar themselves with razors in imitation and then exacerbate the wound by rubbing it with wine or sewing in horsehair. Others paid doctors to slice their cheeks. The number and extremity of scars was reduced in more recent times the custom of obtaining dueling scars started to die off after the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The scars are still considered attractive by some older folk, and the practice still continues in smaller numbers today.

External links

  • McAleer, Kevine "Dueling: The Cult of Honor in Fin-de-Siècle Germany"

  • Mangu-Ward, Katherine "Reading people's faces: tattoos, dueling scars, and other rational acquisitions" Reason Dec 2009, v41 i7, p64(2)

  • Gay, Peter "Mensur: the cherished scar.: (German student duel)" Yale Review April 1992, v80, n1-2, p94(28)

  • Mika LaVaque-Manty "Dueling for Equality: Masculine Honor and the Modern Politics of Dignity" Political Theory, Vol. 34, No. 6 pp. 715–740 2006
  • http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2009/05/04/real-men-have-dueling-scars/ "howstuffworks real-men-have-dueling-scars"
  • http://wiki.bmezine.com/index.php/Dueling_Scar "bmezine - Dueling_Scar"
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