A Burschenschaft (; sometimes abbreviated B! in the German language Burschenschaft jargon; plural: B!B!) is one of the traditional Studentenverbindungen (student associations) of Germany, Austria, and Chile (the latter due to German cultural influence).
Burschenschaften were founded in the 19th century as associations of university inspired by liberal and nationalistic ideas.
They were significantly involved in the March Revolution and the unification of Germany.
After the formation of the German Empire in 1871, they faced a crisis, as their main political objective had been realized. So-called Reformburschenschaften were established, but these were dissolved by the Nazi Germany regime in 1935/6. In West Germany, the Burschenschaften were re-established in the 1950s, but they faced a renewed crisis in the 1960s and 1970s, as the mainstream political outlook of the German student movement of that period started leaning more towards the left. Roughly 160 Burschenschaften exist today in Germany, Austria and Chile.
History
Origins
The very first one, called
Urburschenschaft ("
original Burschenschaft"), was founded on 12 June 1815 at
Jena as an association drawn from all German university students inspired by
liberalism and
patriotic ideas. Like the Landsmannschaften or the Corps, a student association based on particular German region, the Burschenschaft members also engaged in duelling.
However, its main purpose was to break down society lines and to destroy rivalry in the student body, to improve student life and increase patriotism. It was intended to draw its members from a broader population base than the Corps. Indeed, the group was known for its middle-class membership while the Corps' was mainly aristocratic.
At first, a significant component of its membership were students who had taken part in the German wars of liberation against the Napoleonic occupation of Germany.
[This article incorporates text from a work in the public domain:
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Its motto was “honor, freedom, fatherland” (),
19th century
The Burschenschaften were student associations that engaged in numerous social activities. However, their most important goal was to foster loyalty to the concept of a united German national state as well as strong engagement for freedom, rights, and democracy. Quite often Burschenschaften decided to stress extreme nationalist or sometimes also liberal ideas, leading in time to the exclusion of Jews, who were considered to be un-German. Nevertheless, all Burschenschaften were banned as revolutionary by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich of
Austria when he issued the reactionary
Carlsbad Decrees in 1819.
Many Burschenschafter took part in the Hambacher Fest in 1832 and the democratic Revolution in 1848/49. After this revolution had been suppressed, plenty of leading Burschenschafter, such as Friedrich Hecker and Carl Schurz, went abroad. After the foundation of the German Empire in 1871, the Burschenschaften movement faced a severe crisis, as one major goal had been achieved to some extent: German unification. In the 1880s, a renaissance movement, the Reformburschenschaften, led by the ideas of Küster, arose and many new B!B! were founded. It was also during this time until the 1890s when many members turned increasingly towards anti-Semitic outlook believing it provided an approach to achieving the fraternity's fundamental goal. Such members viewed the Jews as a problem that hampered the unification of Germany and the achievement of new values the organization advanced.
Interbellum and Nazi Germany
In 1935/36, most Burschenschaften north of the Austrian Alps were dissolved by the Nazi government or transformed and fused with other Studentenverbindungen into so-called Kameradschaften (comradeships). Some Nazis (e.g. Ernst Kaltenbrunner) and Nazi opponents (
Karl Sack, Hermann Kaiser) were members of Burschenschaften.
Theodor Herzl, an
Austrians Jewish journalist who founded modern political
Zionism, was also a member of a Burschenschaft.
However, he resigned two years after he joined because of the fraternity's antisemitism.
Postwar
While in communist
East Germany Burschenschaften were prohibited as representatives of a bourgeois attitude to be extinguished, in
West Germany most Burschenschaften were refounded in the 1950s. Some of them had to be transferred into other cities, since Germany had lost great parts of its territories after the Second World War, and many Burschenschaften from East Germany also tried to find a new home. The allied victors had forbidden refounding Burschenschaften originally, but this could not be upheld in a liberal surrounding. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Burschenschaften, as many other student fraternities, underwent a crisis: a lack of new members and strong attacks by the leftist student community. In the 1990s many Burschenschaften that had left Eastern Germany in the 1940s and 1950s returned to their traditional home universities in the East.
Today
Roughly 160 Burschenschaften still exist today and many are organized in different organizations ranging from progressive to nationalistic. Among the latter is the Deutsche Burschenschaft organization (DB, German Burschenschaft), which represents about a third of the Burschenschaften. Others are organized in the
(Schwarzburg League), the Neue Deutsche BurschenschaftNeue Deutsche Burschenschaft (NeueDB, New Germany Fraternity) or the Allgemeine Deutsche BurschenschaftAllgemeine Deutsche Burschenschaft (General German Student Union). While the DB still insists upon
Fichte's idea of a German nation based on language, thought and culture, the NeueDB favors defining Germany as the political Germany established by the German Basic Law (constitution) in 1949 and altered by the 1990 unification. Many Burschenschaften are not organized at all since they do not see an organization that represents their values sufficiently.
Because of the German Chilean in the late 19th century, there are also some Burschenschaften in Chile, organized in the Bund Chilenischer Burschenschaften in contact with the German and Austrian organizations. These are B! Araucania (Santiago), B! Andinia (Santiago), B! Montania (Concepción), B! Ripuaria (Viña Del Mar) and B! Vulkania (Valdivia). Contrary to popular belief, there is no precise political view point held by these Burschenschaften, in fact, they don't really mix with politics, mostly focusing on maintaining B! culture (still, fencing is prohibited in Chile).
Most Burschenschaften are pflichtschlagend, i.e. their members must sustain a number of . Academic fencing is still an important part of their self-understanding as well as political education.
Many Burschenschaften, often found in certain "umbrella" organisations (such as the Burschenschaftliche Gemeinschaft), are associated with right-wing or far-right ideas, in particular with the wish for a German state encompassing Austria.[Interview H. Schiedel, In: Gedenkdienst 3/2003]
In 2013 one Bonn fraternity proposed that only students of German origin should be eligible to join a Burschenschaft. Reportedly half of member clubs threatened to leave in a row over proposed ID cards and a decision to label an opponent of Adolf Hitler a "traitor".
Notable Burschenschaft members
See also
-
The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states — (Burschenschaften were student groups which played a part in beginning of the Prussian Revolution)
-
Hep-Hep riots
-
Karl Ludwig Sand
-
Dueling scars
Further reading
-
Martin Biastoch: Tübinger Studenten im Kaiserreich. Eine sozialgeschichtliche Untersuchung, Sigmaringen 1996 (Contubernium - Tübinger Beiträge zur Universitäts- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte Bd. 44)
External links
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