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Updated: June 18, 2025
The object of the victim is to show his comrades that he can stand still while his head is half sliced from his skull. Whether anything can properly be said in favour of the German Mensur I am doubtful; but if so it concerns only the two combatants. Upon the spectators it can and does, I am convinced, exercise nothing but evil.
I am not yet old enough to envy youth, nor sourly sophisticated enough to deal sarcastically or even lightly with their worship and their creeds, that once I shared, and with which lately I have been, under the most hospitable circumstances, invited to renew my acquaintance at the Commers and the Mensur.
Occasionally he may be wanted, but we never need fear his dying out. On the other hand, it seems unwise to over-nourish him. In favour of the duel, seriously considered, there are many points to be urged. But the Mensur serves no good purpose whatever. It is childishness, and the fact of its being a cruel and brutal game makes it none the less childish.
But there is no need for Europe to imitate them. The Mensur is, in fact, the reductio ad absurdum of the duel; and if the Germans themselves cannot see that it is funny, one can only regret their lack of humour. But though one may be unable to agree with the public opinion that supports and commands the Mensur, it at least is possible to understand.
Nerve and dash are surely of more service in the field than a temperament of unreasoning indifference as to what is happening to one. As a matter of fact, the German student would have to be possessed of much more courage not to fight. He fights not to please himself, but to satisfy a public opinion that is two hundred years behind the times. All the Mensur does is to brutalise him.
Ready! was answered from both sides simultaneously. 'Silence! cried the umpire. 'The duel begins. Auf die Mensur! Fertig! Los! Hollenstein and his adversary walked forward, accompanied by their seconds. Each struck a formal tierce cut at the other, and a halt was cried. They scarcely retired and the umpire repeated the words 'To the fight! Ready! Go! and the duel began in earnest.
If it be a good thing to excite this blood thirst in the modern man, then the Mensur is a useful institution. But is it a good thing? We prate about our civilisation and humanity, but those of us who do not carry hypocrisy to the length of self-deception know that underneath our starched shirts there lurks the savage, with all his savage instincts untouched.
But when we spoke to him he said nothing. Nor could we force the pipe stems from his teeth. "Donner Schock!" exclaimed Herr Korner, but reverently, "if I live to a hundred I never hope to see such a sight as that 'Mensur'. The word was given. The Schlager flew so fast that we only saw the light and heard the ring alone.
The chief work of these student companies is to fight among themselves, or with some rival Korps or Schaft, the celebrated German Mensur. The Mensur has been described so often and so thoroughly that I do not intend to bore my readers with any detailed account of it.
Common to all university associations in Germany whether Corps, Landsmannschaft, Burschenschaft, or Turnerschaft is the practice of the Mensur, or student duel.
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