DUELLING IN GERMANY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 124, 21 November 1929, Page 18

DUELLING IN GERMANY

THE NEW PENAL CODE

HABITS OF STUDENTS

The disappearance of one form of advertisement--often mot with before 1914 in the German newspapers—"Who cuts students' scars artificially, ao that the appearance is genuine?"—indicates .1 form of social upheaval, says the Berlin correspondent of the "London Observer," which has passed almost unnoticed in the various troubles that have since assailed Germany. Scars resultant from duelling are no longer the social asset they were That some circles still prefer men thus medievally adorned may be gathered trom the attack now/ being made upon University duelling by influential members of Germany's, political parties, tvlica the new penal code is finally drafted it is hoped to include a paragraph making all students' duels illegal, with three months' imprisonment as the least punishment. ' Various reforms have already been attempted under the Eepublie, which regards the class privilege of duelling as detrimental to the progress of working-class students. It has been pointed out lately that the German Reich subsidises every student in the country tb the.-equivalent of .£SO but possesses no influence on moulding the spirit of the young man .so generously aided in his studies. On th'j contrary if he be so minded, he spends the first terms of his University career duelling and drinking—the last, perhaps, not to such an extent as formerly, since modem ideas of manly, beauty demand as athletic a figure as possible. But duel and drink he does, more particularly if he comes from a family whose men have for generations been members of a certain corporation, and his type become the future Judge, high .official and professor, the guardians of the spirit of the new Germany.* ;

UNIVERSITY CORPORATIONS.

_ Since-all universities are reactionary in spirit, and ho|pur tradition, it is understandable that the young -Republican objects to the-class distinctions which still cling about the various corporations. It ia this standpoint, and far less that of hygiene, which is infiueneing the prime- movers of the law to abolish duelling altogether. Hitherto it. was permitted "on the score of avensmg an insult." - g

_ The universities are hotbeds of political as well" as social distinction, btudents' corporations with famous names dating from the Middle Ages are as exclusive socially and politically as the highest type of club in England The forming of Jewish, anti-alcoholic, Socialist, Communist, sports and other associations which admit youn* men from any type of school, are" regarded t>y the elite as mere excrescences on the social system. ■ _The real kernel of German University life, where the sons of the Junkers, the industrialists, and professional men meet on common ground, is still the old-fashioned type of corporation whose members upon formal occasions dress up in costume, 1 high boots, velvet S^ti*?* i teatherß« and maguificent gauntlet gloves, and carry wonderfully embroidered banners to State proces"-

"BEER, TOBACCO, AND lODOFOEM." While reformers are complaining against the atmosphere of "beer tobacco, and iodoform," which envelops Germany's most sacred tradition, there nlfnJ ° ? rV Vh°, a,eelaro that the discipJine of the students' corporations is admirable f or both body and spirit! -Not only js the young man taught to take alcohol m large quantities without showing signs of being overcome by it —he has cither to disappear in time, or to sit quiet and say nothing—but if he is an "active" member of his corporation he has to bear up under pain without nmehiug, any fear or horror ot the sight of blood or a nasty gash being a sin beyond explanation. He fights duels with members of other corporations as young Englishmen box. Whereas, formerly, participation in the duelling of the corporation was insisted upon it is no longer an absolute necessity. There are dozens of laws written and unwritten, dealing with t°l v f fd^ duels should be fought, but the German tradition has it that only _ gentlemen fight them. Catholic associations always forbade themt mt members were locally socially "impossible." J

The federation of German students' corporations has, it is understood, no intention of obeying any law against duelling. Therefore, the powers of the police to interfere with innkeepers knowingly lending tbeir rooms for such activities would be the: only feasible solution of a highly debatable problem