show your portraits with "Schmiß"

[Zeller]

I'm curious to see more TR portraits with Schmiß, the ritual scar of the german students. One of the most famous was Skorzenj.

[Zeller]

Ok, tough crowd...I'l start with some

Otto Skorzeny

[Zeller]

one from my collection (i love this picture!)

[Zeller]

Gauleiter Friedrich Rainer

[Zeller]

[Anil]

Maybe this one.

KC and CCC in gold holder Hauptmann Kurt Schäfer.

Regards.

[Zeller]

yes,i would say. stunning portrait too!

[HouweTrouwe]

Major Koopmann

[Zeller]

bart are you sure? I don't see the schmiss on his face

[HouweTrouwe]

Post #16, made by Robert T.
Please see Deutschland, Deutschland über alles!

2.6

THE BADGE OF COURAGE


For a German, the badge of courage was the MENSUR fencing scar, a unique tradition of the German student duelling fraternities. The scar (the schmiss, or sometimes called the renommierschmiss; the bragging scar), mostly on the left side of the face, where blows would fall from a right-handed duellist. This was the high-class tattoo of the day borne by a generation of doctors, jurists, professors and officials, certifying the owner’s claim to manly stature and cultivated rank. The duelling scar was certain to attract the pretty girls because it signified virility and breeding.
Schmisse were the products of male vanity and were regarded as jewellery because they guaranteed the wearer an active love life for the rest of their days. Newly bandaged warriors were often seen in the gardens, cafes and theatres. There were stories that students would approach a doctor to acquire such a scar or alternatively they would resort to self-infliction with a straight-edged razor. To make it more pronounce, some would pull it apart, irritate it by pouring in wine or sew a horse hair into the gash.
Academic fencing or mensur fencing is neither a duel nor a sport. It is a traditional way of training and educating character and personality. In the mensur, the fencers are protected by a chain mail shirt and armoured leather gloves, padding on the throat and right arm, and steel goggles with a nose guard. They fence with sharp sabres at arm’s length and stand more or less in one place, while attempting to hit the unprotected areas of their opponent’s face and head. Flinching or dodging or recoil ever so slightly bring dishonour, only parrying is allowed; the goal being less to avoid injury than to endure it stoically. Once blood is drawn, the mensur is halted and the wound is inspected by a doctor. If the wound is less than one inch wide or one inch deep, the fight continues until such a wound is produced on one of the opponents.
Among German men it was believed that in order to be considered fit for good society, it was necessary to be capable of dispensing satisfaction in a duel. German men acquired both their duelling skill and their class-consciousness while attending university. These institutions had their fencing masters, and the elite sword duelling fraternities that were formed primed students for the social expectations that would await them on their graduation. After graduation, these students would enter the upper echelons of German society and assume positions of power and authority. The mensur functioned as an assertion of manhood and was a phenomenon specific to central Europe.


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Erwin Koopmann took part in so many of those duels during his days at Marburg and Königsberg, that his left cheek and chin are scarred like a battlefield, showing at least 6 “schmisse”. One long scar near the left ear and another one above the upper lip have been airbrushed out on this studio portrait done around the year 1936.
Knight’s cross with Oakleaves recipient SS Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny who was a member of 'Burschenschaft Markomannia' at the University of Vienna and an engineer by profession, had such prominent duelling scars that he was often referred to as “Scarface” by the Americans during WW2. He supposedly engaged in at least ten personal mensur duels. Skorzeny would later credit his success in war to his experiences in the duelling society;

"During the war I never felt more afraid than when I had to fight my first single
combat in front of my classmates. My knowledge of pain, learned with the sabre,
taught me not to be afraid. And just as in duelling when you must concentrate on your
enemy's cheek, so, too, in war. You cannot waste time on feinting and sidestepping. You
must decide on your target and go in."

SS Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny

[Zeller]

found ! thanks

[Todd Gylsen]

How about this one...

[Anil]

I am not sure but I think it's a Schmiß.

[Zeller]

Yes, I think so. Nice portrait by the way!

[HouweTrouwe]

I never knew the Schmiß stood for so many things.