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== Nature of the scars ==
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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>
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 example, as is brought about by the loss of an ear."<ref>"Scarred Dueling Heroes", St Louis Daily Globe 15 August 1887</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.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}} The number and extremity of scars was reduced in the later years of the practice and virtually does not exist anymore in modern Germany, and the custom of obtaining dueling scars started to die off after the [[World War II|Second World War]].
== Modern day ==
Roughly 300 fencing fraternities ({{lang|de|[[Studentenverbindung]]en}}) still exist today and most of them are grouped into umbrella organizations such as the [[German Student Corps|Corps]], {{lang|de|[[Landsmannschaft (Studentenverbindung)|Landsmannschaft]]}} or the {{ill|Deutsche Burschenschaft|de}} (DB) in the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and several other European nations. Their traditions still include [[academic fencing]] and dueling scars.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Robinson |first=Joseph |date=19 September 2006 |title=Student Societies |url=http://www.pickelhauben.net/articles/Students.htm |access-date=2 December 2014 |website=pickelhauben.net |archive-date=22 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222013124/http://www.pickelhauben.net/articles/Students.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="faz">{{Cite news |last=Kuiken |first=Alwin |date=8 November 2013 |title=Schlagende Verbindungen: Die den Kopf hinhalten |language=de |work=[[Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung]] |url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/schlagende-verbindungen-die-den-kopf-hinhalten-12653226.html?printPagedArticle=true |access-date=22 March 2018}}</ref>
==Notable persons==
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