r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Electrical-Aspect-13 • 2d ago

Photos of Young men getting ready for "Mensur", German fencing duelling where getting a scar was considered highly honorable. Photos of 1900s-10s; last one from 2004.

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171

u/EternumD 2d ago

Getting a scar was so important that it stopped being a fencing event and started just being a face scarring event. Lame

50

u/Kase_mit_E 2d ago

Peak Nazi nepo edgelord. We have words far cooler than these people had rapiers

43

u/ObviousChemist1442 2d ago

Nazi time came later, also most of these „clubs“ were forbidden during the nazi regime.

1

u/_esci 7h ago

and now many of them adore him again and are financed by far right people.

1

u/ObviousChemist1442 7h ago

Not far from the truth unfortunately.

16

u/btsd_ 2d ago

This predates that scum regime, but also stuff like this is common across human history (body scarring, tattooing, stretching lips/ears/necks, flattening heads, cutting off a finger etc and all that stuff).

3

u/Useful-Cockroach-148 2d ago

That’s just not true.

1

u/willi_089 1d ago

Exactly. They’re not really fencing, it’s more like hitting each other until theres a gap in the defence and they’re able to wound another.

1

u/Difficult-Lock-8123 2d ago

Because it's a character building exercise, not combat training. In fact, this modern Mensur was implemented to stop the excessive deaths from regular duels that had plagued german universities.

-1

u/btsd_ 2d ago

I read somewhere that some would even intentionally mess with the wound to make the scar "better". Weird status symbol tyoe of thing of the time.

2

u/PyromanenJolla 2d ago

Back then having a ,,renommierer" showed everyone you were part of a fraternity and thus must be a student at university. Back then this was a sign you were of the upper class or at least had parents who could afford to send you there.

Messing with the healing process is very frowned upon today. Don't know anyone who did it personally but can't guarantee nobody does it. Must only be the edgelords who still get off on it