Dueling scar: Difference between revisions

 

== Nature of the scars ==

Because ''Mensur'' swords are wielded with one hand and most fencers are right-handed, ''Mensur'' scars were usually targeted to the left profile, so the right profile appeared untouched.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McAleer |first=Kevin |title=Dueling: The Cult of Honor in Fin-de-siècle Germany |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-691-03462-1}}</ref> 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 the head, face and neck".<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1877/03/18/archives/dueling-in-germany-the-bane-of-the-universities-burial-of-a-student.html "Dueling in Germany: The Bane of the Universities—Burial of a Student Victim to the Brutal Practice"] Daily Evening Bulletin, (San Francisco, CA) Saturday, 31 March 1877; Issue 149; col F</ref>

 

 

Sometimes, students who did not fence would scar themselves with razors in imitation,<ref name="DeMello p 237" /> and some would pull apart their healing cuts to exacerbate the scars, although this was generally frowned upon. Others paid doctors to slice their cheeks. The number and extremity of scars was reduced in more recent times and virtually does not exist anymore in modern Germany, and the custom of obtaining dueling scars started to die off after the [[Second World War]].

 

== Modern day ==