DUELLING IN GERMANY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 5, 28 March 1927, Page 11

DUELLING IN GERMANY

THE SPORT OF STUDENTS GLIMPSE OF COMBATS Tmelling i n most civilised countries j* ' v regarded as barbaric and mediaeval, a practice to be stronglv st e ni re ,n ated - But in Germany it is still the proud ambition of every university undergraduate to figure in a duel for the honour of his club or SS lle ?®- writes a contributor in the Sunday News.” OmciaHy, of course, it is regarded as illegal even in Germany; but if you know where to go you can see young -rerman manhood indulging secretly m this popular pastime. Eager to discover how the ugly scars that mar so many men’s faces in Germany were obtained, I went the other Sunday morning in secret to a famous fencing school in the West-end of Berlin, where I was told by my guide I would see young men from the University of Berlin displaying their martial prowess by copiously shedding each other’s blood in the gentle art of student duelling, fought in the name of sport and manhood. A Gory Scene It was a gory scene, and one that may be viewed if you possess the “Open Sesame,” every Sunday morning, and often during the week as well, from eight o’clock, with intervals for beer drinking and operations, until noon. Then the students are in possession of the hall, and fencing lessons are abandoned for duels that sometimes—but rarely—prove fatal. Picture two rooms, opening out of each other. The larger of the two, where the amber liquid is drawn foaming from the barrel, is also the operating room. Between bouts, while the combatants are quenching their thirst with lager, two white-coated surgeons nonchalantly sew up the bloody heroes of the previous bout. Here, too, are stored the duelling uniforms and paraphernalia. Now come into the next room and see the preparations for the duelling matches. A duelling party consists of five persons—the umpire, the two fighters and a second for each dueller. The fighters are protected by their heavily padded uniforms, which cover their arms, bodies and hands. A padded scarf is wrapped around their necks, and goggles with wire screens protect their eyes. Apart from the eye covering, which is secured at the back of their heads, their faces and heads are entirely unprotected. These parts form the target of the fighters. ' Fighters Warned The duels I saw were 30-round affairs, us the fighters were novices. For most it was their first encounter. The more highly skilled duellers fight 60 rounds. Each round in the fight consists of four flicks of the sword, and between each round is a pause of only about 15secs.

But before each duel takes place watch the amusing and farcical prelude. The duellers are opposite each other, swords uplifted for the fray, when suddenly the umpire says in German: “I want to warn you that you are about to do something illegal. I shall count ‘three,’ and if neither of you has then moved back let the fight begin.” There is no law prohibiting student duelling by name, but the German courts have interpreted it as assault with deadly weapons, which is an act forbidden by law. Friends and supporters of the pastime hotly contest this “deadly weapon’’ theory, but the courts maintain their position. It is probable, however, an attempt to obtain the conviction of two students who had inflicted.no injury upon each other in the course of their duel, would fail. The situation is an amusing parallel of Shylock predicament in “The Merchant of Venice”: he could take his pound of flesh, but he must shed no blood. Students may duel, but they must not hurt each other! Though the swords used in duelling are long, blunt-tipped weapons, with fairly sharp edges, the style, the technique employed by the fighters is essentially German. Here there is no lunging, no touching with the point, as is common to fencing in American student circles, but a slashing, striking stroke at the face and head. The fighters stand a sword’s length from each other, with feet well apart, and sword-arm raised half-way above the head, from where the strokes are delivered with merely a wrist motion. Moving the arm is strictly forbidden, and the fighters may not move back or dodge a stroke with the head. They must stand rigid on the spot ordained until the combat is over. If they move in any of the ways mentioned the movement is considered and is scored against the offender by the umpire. On the -left of each dueller, and a trifle to* the rear, stands his second, with his right foot braced in such a position that it prevents the fighter from involuntarily moving in the heat of battle. In his right hand, which, like his arm, is heavily padded, he also wields a “Schlaeger,” which he thrusts between the fighters after each four flicks to mark the bout. Sometimes a corps friend stands or sits a little to the rear to push the fighter quickly into position should he default. CLASH OF SWORDS Now watch the procedure. The umpire has spoken his warning to the fighters with seconds in position. Then the first round, which is equivalent to the preliminary handshake of boxers in the ring, takes place. . . . Each second places the university clubcoloured cap on the head of his man, and the opponents ring their swords together once. Now the caps are whipped off, and the duel is on in real earnest. . . . The swords clash and ping around the bareheaded combatants, and the room resounds to the frequent appeals of the seconds to the umpire that the other fellow is fouling. . . . “He leaned back!” “He’s buried his chin in his muffler!” “He ducked his head!"' So shout the seconds. Sometimes the umpire answers. “I didn’t see it.” Or he stops the fight for a moment, jots down a mark on his score-pad and cautions the offender. Between the rounds the fighters remain standing, with swords in the air. But when blood is drawn the fight is stopped, chairs thrust forward, and the men get a moment’s rest while one of the doctors examines the w<?und. A duel goes the full number of scheduled rounds unless one of the men receives a cut through a principal vein, which would result in too great a loss of blood if the fight continued. In the last duel I saw one of the fighters got a terrific swipe across the left temple. A big vein was cut. Blood streamed down his face, cascaded over the padded uniform, and settled in clots on the sawdust-covered floor. . . The umpire stopped the fight. The duellers sank into chairs, and the doctor made a hurried examination of the wounde;’ ~outh. Then he told the umpire that under the conditions of the duel the fight could be called off. . . . Followed hasty whispers between the bleeding warrior and his second, at the end of which the hitter told the umpire that he begged to have the fight proceed. It was for the honour of his club. . . . The umpire agreed and the battle waged once more. With blood pouring from his wound for the remaining twenty-eight rounds, until the room looked like a slaughterhouse, the injured dueller fought his way to victory. He was not even scratched again, but he gave his opponent two ugly scalp wounds. . . So he won, “two bloods to one,” as the scoring goes. CRUDE SURGERY The worst case of butchery took place in the previous fight. One man was untouched, but the other’s head

and face, when he emerged from the hands of the doctors afterwards, were so swathed in bandages that only his eyes and nose were visible. At the end of the duel, with face and uniform varnished with blood, he slumped down on the kitchen variety of operating chair. Then began what must have been the most painful part of the morning, for the doctors operate without an anaesthetic . . . While they worked I could see one of the servants sponging the blood-soaked uniform for the next fight, and from the outer room came the sound of the swords being sharpened on the grindstone . . . Students, both duellers and spectators, wandered about the “operating theatre,” smoking, drinking and chatting. Some of us gathered around the operation. One of the seconds had grasped the patient firmly by the back of the neck to keep him from jumping under the pain, while he himself had had the presence of mind to wind his feet round the chair legs. The doctors sewed up the worst of the scalp wounds, and drew together the slit cheek with soft metal clasps. Every time the needle pierced the man’s scalp he would give a shudder, and now and then beat a tattoo on the floor with his feet. Treasured Wounds After the operation was over I expressed some feeling of horror at the extent of the victim’s injuries. “Oh, that was nothing,” said the doctor, trying to cheer me up. “We get much worse cases than that. Not so long ago one fellow had a piece of his scalp, three inches in diameter, literally torn from his head.” The uglier the wounds the uglier usually the scar, and the greater a hero is the man in the sight of the opposite sex. Some students, not content with a simple scar, irritate and deepen it by keeping the wound raw for a day or two, sometimes by rubbing salt into it. A badly-scarred face or scalp is the trade-mark of a German University man (for no other youths in Germany fight duels), and raises his stock in the eyes of the fair sex.