The Same Scar
By DAVID WAINWRIGHT' THE last time I was in Germany, Wolf, who was then in his last year at school, was keen on football. His keenness was legendary even among his friends: he was devoted to the game with an addict's passion and every Sunday afternoon he was out on the field playing for the youth team of his Westphalian town. Writing to him at his university this summer—he is now a medical student, and has just completed his first year—I included a polite inquiry about his football. The reply was austere. 'I do not play football any more. Here we have fights—I will explain about them when you come.
The'last time I saw him, two years ago, he was good-looking in a bland, smooth-checked way. Now he has a scar running down his left cheek, three inches long, vertically from the corner of the eye. We walked through the forests talking about student life and only later, drinking ct in a Gasihaus with views for miles across agricultural plain of north Germany, he pt from his pocket three strips of coloured rib] half an inch wide, attached to a safety-pin.
Each ribbon of red, white and blue studded with clasps, each of them a squar' white metal inscribed with names and dates. inlaid like a jewel with contrasting snippet' ribbon—of, for example, black, white and gr.cc Pointing to them, 'These record my fights. said. Each bore the symbol of his Korp.s. name of his opponent, his own name, and 11 date of the fight—most of them in February. t'" or July. Duelling is still illegal in German unty'r sities. So the fights must be held out of term. Wit thefashion is back and the groups arc ctf again.
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'There are five Korps in Germany,' Wolf told me. 'Mine was founded over one hundred years ago, and there are about 350 members now throughout Western Germany. We only fight during our first year. We must have five fights in that year, and then we become senior members. After we leave we become retired members, but still belong to the Korps.' Among the clasps was one inscribed with a name, but inset with no con- trasting ribbon. 'That is my particular friend in my fighting group. We exchange these tokens with each other. Usually friends who grew up together and come from the same town join the same Korps, and live in the same lodging house at the University.'
He mentioned the names of two of his school friends I had met in earlier years. Later in the day we ran across one of them. His face had suffered more damage; one cheek was criss- crossed with a chequer-board of small cuts. Evi- dently Wolf's footwork on the games field had proved an asset in the duelling ground, and pre- served him from the laceration others proudly suffer.
The duties of a Korps member are rigorous and narrow. He must be loyal always to the Korps; but Wolf found it impossible to translate for me any definition of loyalty. 'When you have gone through this together, you are brothers always4 was the nearest he could get to it. Afterwards at his home he took out of a drawer the red, white and blue skull cap, crowned with his Korps's in tricate symbol in silver wire, and the sash of wider ribbon that must be worn during the duels. He fingered them almost tenderly.
Annually the members of the duelling Korps meet for a congress. They wear their colours and parade with their friends. 'It is a brave sight,' said Wolf, just back from his first experience of it. Not expecting any answer, I asked whether there was no danger in all this of the revival of mili- tarism in Germany as the rest of the world has good cause to understand it. 1 have known Wolf for some years now and he does not mind such question's. He does not always answer them.
But at your English universities you have these sporting rivalries, do you not?' he asked.
Do 'coppers' at Oxford arouse such profound passions? Is the Boat Race, doubtless as dan- gerous to life and limb as any ritual duel, as productive of the same ruthless enthusiasm?
It may be. And in Germany perhaps feeling is the more concentrated because technically duel- ling must be conducted with a clandestine zeal. To Wolf his scars are patently something of great pride. Yet I wish they were not there.
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