The German Burschenschaften – or student duelling societies – have been around for more than 200 years. My favorite description of the type of student who joins the Burschenschaft is in Heinrich Mann's classic novel Der Untertan. The central figure, Diederich Hessling, is a fanatical Burschenschaftler who worships the Kaiser and is unthinkingly obedient to authority while maintaining a rigid dedication to the nationalist goals of the German state. These were the types that later became the vanguard of the Nazi movement. Occasionally I would run into a few comical characters with dueling scars while working in banking in Germany, but I thought that the Burschenschaften had become more like American fraternities: innocuous drinking clubs that were useful networking opportunities for getting jobs after leaving the university. Now I learn that they never really changed from the days of Diederich Hessling:
The fossilised world of Germany's student-duelling clubs was in turmoil yesterday after the national umbrella organisation was shown to have adopted a Nazi-style race code demanding the banning of members with foreign parents on the grounds that they were insufficiently "Aryan".
Apparently a member was expelled from one of the societies even though he was born in Germany and had served honorably in the Bundeswehr. Why was he not acceptable? The members parents were of Chinese origin, and the poor guy didn't have Aryan blood running through his veins:
According to the umbrella organisation's race code, he did not qualify as a member of the "German people".Der Spiegel said the motion was accompanied by legal documents drawn up for the umbrella group by the Alte Breslauer duelling club in Bonn and apparently approved by a majority of the country's Burschenschaften. The documents stipulated that prospective members with "non-European facial and bodily characteristics" did not qualify as Germans. The documents, written in part by a right-wing member of the Bavarian conservative party, also said: "Especially in times of rising immigration, it is not acceptable that people who are not from the German family tree should be admitted to the Burschenschaften."
So the Burschenschaften continue to obey the Nuremberg Race Laws. And in those cases where where it is difficult to validate racial purity from "facial and bodily characteristics" a special committee has been established to approve or reject the prospective member's application.
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David – several points on this incident and then on the Burschenschaften in general:
First of all I would have been extremely surprised not to find an article about this topic on your site.
But please don’t mix up the facts in your rant on the German “duelling societies” (what a lovely term).
Not the Chinese kid was to be thrown out, which is something the German association of these societies cannot do at all.
His duelling society was to be expelled from the German association due to the fact that they allowed the Chinese guy to join up. And this only if the association would have voted in favor of this proposal stemming from another duelling society, which was even withdrawn by them BEFORE the meeting was held.
So much for that. And I am not even a member, just used to visit these pals every now and then during my time at university.
Now I understand that it may be tough for Americans born into an immigrant society to understand these principles – but fellas, this is Germany and not the US.
These students (+the graduated ones) are absolutely no threat to our society. They do discuss topics otherwise considered politically incorrect for sure (while many of these aspects have become common in our society in the meantime anyway).
Their political activity is close to zero. They are not taking it to the streets under any circumstances.
Only when there would be a month like January 1933, their political existence would spring to life. Being doctors, lawyers and businessmen, these are the kind of persons to run a state.
But unless this happens, they won’t hurt anyone!
Zyme – we Americans understand “these principles” perfectly well, and even fought a bloody civil war about them.
You are right that the racist element in the Burschenschaften is a minority. But I’m not the only one that is concerned. This is from Der Spiegel’s Web site today:
“Es war nicht das erste Mal, dass Burschenschaften durch rassistische Tendenzen aufgefallen sind: Einige werden sogar vom Verfassungsschutz beobachtet. Denn in ihren Reihen fühlen sich auch NPD-Kader oder Mitglieder anderer rechtsextremistischer Organisationen wohl, einige Verbindungen laden gern mal Holocaust-Leugner zu Vorträgen ein oder inserieren in rechtsextremem Publikationen wie der Jungen Freiheit oder der Deutschen Militärzeitschrift. ”
Eisenach, Germany – The fusty world of German nationalist secret societies was at odds Thursday over racial purity demands from a faction that objects to an ethnic Chinese man joining one of the clubs.