| In the 1700s student fraternities in many German | | | | equal to the length of the blade, and with no foot |
| Universities adopted the duel with sharp swords | | | | movement. Fencers exchange a prescribed |
| as a ceremonial right of passage. Each university | | | | number of circular cuts in a period, followed by |
| dueling corps community had different rules, | | | | short rests. The bout stops if one fencer receives |
| known as the comment. The comment regulated | | | | a cut that the attending medical person believes |
| the weapons to be used, the number of blows to | | | | to be serious or when the agreed number of |
| be exchanged as a phrase, and the number of | | | | periods have been completed. |
| phrases the fencers would engage in. They also | | | | Schlaeger play combines the attack and the |
| regulated the amount of protective equipment | | | | preservation of a defensive cover that reduces |
| that could be worn. | | | | the chances of being cut. As fought today, with |
| There were two basic forms of weapons used in | | | | protective goggles, neck pieces, apron, and arm |
| academical fencing - the rapier and the heavy | | | | protection, schlaeger mensur have a low potential |
| saber and its descendants. At the University of | | | | for serious injury. However, the cuts are real, and |
| Jena and the University of Leipzig, the thrusting | | | | in the bout the fencer must show no sign of |
| sword or dish-hilt rapier (termed tellerrapier), | | | | cowardice, a combination that requires |
| generally similar to the epee du combat or dueling | | | | considerable steadiness under the pressure of a |
| sword (the predecessor of the modern epee), | | | | real blade beating at your defense. |
| was the preferred weapon to allow theological | | | | One of the unusual characteristics of the |
| students to duel. Candidates for the ministry were | | | | academical weapons was their ability to be |
| not permitted to have visible dueling scars, but | | | | disassembled and transported covertly. The rapier |
| being skewered by the point in an area covered | | | | was easily disassembled into blade, guard, and grip. |
| by the shirt was quite socially acceptable. | | | | Hiding the basket of the heavy saber or the |
| There were at least three generations of | | | | schlaeger was a more challenging task, but could |
| academical fencing technique, starting with the | | | | be accomplished. This capability was important at |
| heavy saber. This weapon most closely | | | | various times when academical fencing was |
| resembled a cavalry saber, with a heavy curved | | | | prohibited or considered to be socially |
| blade and a large basket hilt. Fencers were placed | | | | unacceptable. The student dueling corps, even |
| some distance apart, and a lunge was required, | | | | when prohibited, as they were during the Third |
| although in most systems the back foot had to | | | | Reich and in the early post-World War II years, |
| remain in place. The targets included head, torso, | | | | managed to maintain their combative traditions. |
| sword, arm, and leg. And deaths from severed | | | | The large dueling scars common before World |
| arteries were not uncommon. | | | | War II are now much smaller in size, and are no |
| The sabre evolved into the schlaeger (also | | | | longer as socially prized as they once were when |
| termed haurapier, or cutting rapier), a straight | | | | a dueling scar was an entry into manly society. |
| bladed weapon with a squared tip with very sharp | | | | However, today this form of fencing survives in a |
| front and reverse edges of the blade at the tip, | | | | number of German universities, and schlaeger |
| and a strong basket hilt. The schlaeger is a very | | | | masters still teach the intricate combinations of |
| sharp slicing weapon, fenced from a distance | | | | timing that the weapon demands. |