Word: schmisse
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...with blunt point but sharp edges. At the umpire's "Los!" (go), they slash away-again, again, again-steel against steel for 15 minutes. The noise, astonishingly, is deafening. When steel slashes flesh, a doctor rushes in for repairs. Everyone happily retires to toast the prize: a fine Schmiss, or scar, the old Teutonic varsity letter. Not since the 1930s has student swordplay been so fashionable in Germany. About 40% of all male students at West Germany's 18 universities now belong to 800 fraternities, including about 380 that practice the dangerous art of "the sharp weapon...
...Africa. The Schmiss mystique has survived all attempts to kill it. Hitler banned the most elite fraternities as potentially subversive. So did the Allies after World War II, but rescinded the rule under the impression that the institution had died. The Alte Herren soon reopened fraternity houses in the Student Prince tradition, paid for beer and blades, promised good jobs later, and hundreds of ill-housed students happily accepted. Today, West Germany has a whole new generation of highly placed Alte Herren...
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