How can a tourist obtain an 'authentic' duelling scar?

I am not a member of such fraternities, but my father was and my brother is, so I have some good second-hand knowledge of these traditions.

Such duels are always between two fraternities, so to take part in one you would first have to join one. Eligibility criteria differ from fraternity to fraternity, but practically all require that you are a student of a local university. Most (but not all) are very patriotic and often require that you are a German citizen (or at least a citizen of a German-speaking country). Some even require that you are a citizen by birth and will not accept naturalized citizens (which isn't uncontroversial even in the fraternity community).

Also, before you are ready for a duel, you will have to train regularly for several months. Going into a duel without proper training would be dangerous for you and shameful for your fraternity.

So as a tourist, you can pretty much forget about participating.

Are there other precautions a tourist duellist should take note of (e.g., applying local aesthetic prior to the event or stocking up on pain killers or getting one's clothes cleaned afterwards or what to wear)?

Not being afraid of the pain is part of the challenge (literally: Duelists are evaluated by their own fraternity after the duel, and it is usually considered more important to fight bravely than to fight successfully), so taking a painkiller before a duel would be against the spirit. It would also be a very bad idea because painkillers affect reaction and coordination, so taking them would be a huge handicap and likely lead to far worse injuries.

I was also told that the wounds one takes during a duel don't hurt at all at first due to the shock and high adrenalin levels. The doctor who is always present during these duels often stiches the wound immediately before the shock wears off, so a local anesthetic isn't even required. According to my father he only saw a doctor apply a local anesthesia once, and that was because it was a very unusual and complicated cut which took far longer to stitch than usual.

People wear protection clothing during the duel which protects the whole body up to the chin (plus goggles which protect the eyes and ears) which are usually owned by the fraternity, so whatever one wears under it is also protected from blood.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but these fraternities and their traditions are met with derision or disgust by a great majority in modern German society.

Besides that, these duels are usually carried out inside the fraternity houses. I'm surprised, but take your word for it, that some of them are open to the public. Anyway, they probably aren't attracting a lot of spectators. You seem to have in mind a big festival like a Knights tournament. It's definitely not like that.

I don't know if there are any exceptions, but the fencing is done by the members of the fraternity. To join you would have to be a student (usually at a university in the same city). I suspect that letting tourists participate would be so much against the spirit of these societies that you couldn't consider it authentic anyway.

According to https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensur_(Studentenverbindung), the duels have the same legal status as boxing fights, so as long as there are safety precautions and the participants know what they're getting into, there shouldn't be a problem. I see no reasons why this should be different for foreigners.

No fraternity would allow what you want. Your wish seems to me more boyish than masculine.

Like in dangerous sports like archery: The first what a responsible person would do, if others seem to not taking things serious enough, is to stop them to participate.

Just to rectify some things: I am a member of a Corps (political neutral and other nationalities welcome) which is a "fighting" fraternity. True is:

• Dueling is not only illegal, but also morally considered as bad by the vast majority of us members of "schlagende Verbindungen". There is only a quite small group practising it.

• What we still do as a tradition, is the "Mensur" ("Bestimmungsmensur" where you are not allowed to chose your opponent to avoid duels for example), mostly as a prove of commitment to the fraternity: It is "fighting" with sharp blades, but with a number of important rules to minimize injuries, some of them imply for example, that only opponents of same size, speed and skill are allowed to fight each other, more harsh rules apply to distance, stance, technique, and so on.

• It is a good habit to get acquainted to your former opponent (always from another fraternity) after the fight, to even get friends, and least exchange a silver plate (or similar) as a reminder on that.

• For me, I have seen strong advantages for the cohesion of the fraternity because of this. But I am not fanatic in this point, I see the disadvantages too. For me it was never a main point, but this differs for others. True is, there is a difference between fraternities who "fight" and others in cohesion and team spirit, this is the main point in my eyes, why we continue with that, besides tradition.

• For me, but everybody sees it in their own way, a scar shows no proof of being a man, more of being a bad or at least careless fighter.

• Fraternities are often critized as mentioned above. One point is, there are as many types of fraternities as political parties, some are very right-wing, that's not false, and there are not few who love excessive drinking, but that can happen in the twenties... At least one cannot judge all fraternities at once. We have had also teetotallers, conscientious objectors, and others as members- both not the majority, clearly :-)

One thing mentioned above is definetely untrue: "steep hierarchies.." I don't see that. There is an initiation phase where you have to work more, this is true, but the "leaders" and positions are changing every semester, every member has the chance and is expected to accept duties and charges, after some time. In the opposite, German fraternities have a long (often > 150 years) democratic tradition, this was one reason of their existence, and there are some similarities to a parliament process in the fraternity life. Fraternities were forbidden by the Nazis for example.

The dueling scar may be considered a mark of honor by the fraternities that still practice dueling, but outside that small group a dueling scar is meaningless at best and may mark you as a fool if the story of how you got it becomes known.

Dueling was somewhat accepted several centuries ago, but is against the law just about everywhere these days. Society no longer accepts dueling as a civilized way to settle disputes, so a dueling mark is no longer a mark of honor.

By the 1770s the practice of dueling was increasingly coming under attack from many sections of enlightened society, as a violent relic of Europe's medieval past unsuited for modern life. As England began to industrialize and benefit from urban planning and more effective police forces, the culture of street violence in general began to slowly wane. The growing middle class maintained their reputation with recourse to either bringing charges of libel, or to the fast-growing print media of the early nineteenth century, where they could defend their honour and resolve conflicts through correspondence in newspapers.

Finally, duels were about restoring honor to a person who had been slighted in some way. Going into a duel without that precondition makes the duel non-authentic and therefore pointless.

I started a very similar society at Cardiff University during the early 199os,we were all members of the Officers Training Corp , and were based loosely on German Corps rules . As a result now have a scar across forehead (20 stitches) and left cheek (10 stitches), the hardest part was sourcing the swords and other equipment from Germany.

I agree with all above that you would need to attend a German/Austrian university and then be invited to join a fencing fraternity, and train for 6 months or more in order to be allowed to fence a Mensur and risk getting a scar. Additionally, initial bouts are usually limited to high strike on top of the head and you would have to wait to fight a second Burschenmensur in order to be subject to horizontal strikes directed at the face, mostly likely some months later. So all in all, 1-2 years at university as an active member in good standing of a fencing fraternity. @stf, would love to exchange stories about fraternity life in Freiburg in the 80's. I too was an American member of a schlagende Verbindung (Sängerschaft Guilelmia-Niedersachsen) in 85/86 and fought Mensur in the Freiburger Waffenring. Not many of us in the world from outside of Germany!