Dueling; The Cult of Honor in Fin-de-Siecle Germany [Hardcover]

Kevin McAleer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 1994

The question of what it takes "to be a man" comes under scrutiny in this cultural critique of the German duel - the deadliest type of one-on-one combat in fin-de-siecle Europe. At a time when dueling was generally restricted to swords or had been abolished altogether in other nations, the custom of fighting to the death with pistols flourished among Germany's upper-class males, who took perverse comfort in defying their country's weakly enforced laws. From initial provocation to final death agony, Kevin McAleer describes the complex protocol of the German duel, inviting his reader into the disturbing mindset of its practitioners and the society that valued this socially important but ultimately absurd pastime. Through a narrative that cannot restrain itself from poking fun at the egos and prejudices that come to the fore in the pursuit of "manliness," McAleer offers both an entertaining and thought-provoking portrait of a cultural phenomenon that had far-reaching effects. The author employs anecdotes to re-create the dueling event in all its variety, from the level of insult - which could range from loudly ridiculing a man's choice of entree in an upscale restaurant to, more commonly, bedding his wife - to such intricacies as the time and place of the duel, the guest list, the selection of weapons and number of paces, dress options, and the decision regarding when to let the attending physician set up his instruments on the field. As he exposes the reader to the fierce mentality behind these proceedings, McAleer describes the duel as a litmus test of courage, the masculine apotheosis, which led its male practitioners to lay claim to both psychic and legal entitlements in Wilhelmine society. The aristocratic nature of the duel, with its feudal ethos of chivalry, gave its upper-middle-class practitioners even more opportunity to distinguish themselves from the underclasses and other marginalized groups such as Socialists, Jews, left-liberals, Catholics, and pacifists, who, for various reasons, were stigmatized as incapable of "giving satisfaction." The duel, according to McAleer, was thus a social mirror, and the dueling issue political dynamite. Throughout these accounts, the author sustains a personal voice to convey the horror and fascination of what at first appears to be simply a curious fringe activity, but which he goes on to reveal as an integral element of German society's consciousness in the late 19th century. In so doing, he strengthens the argument that Germany followed a path of development separate from the rest of Europe, leading to World War I and ultimately to Hitler and the Nazis.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

According to McAleer (history, Free Univ., Berlin), the ritual violence of a culture defines that culture. Here he argues that dueling in Wilhelmine Germany, although only practiced by an aristocratic minority, helped shape German attitudes toward honor, manhood, women, and other countries. McAleer gives a fascinating glimpse into a deadly icon of the German popular imagination during the Kaiserreich. Whether or not one was of sufficient rank to be able to give satisfaction in a duel of honor defined one's status. McAleer has a strong sardonic sense of humor that seems out of place in a scholarly book, and his conclusion that the duel was symptomatic of Germany's Sonderweg, or peculiar path, which led to the Nazis, is at best questionable. Nevertheless, this is an accurate look at a misunderstood topic in German culture with few comparable books in English. Recommended for academic libraries with a strong German studies collections.
Randall L. Schroeder, Augustana Coll., Rock Island, Ill.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American

[A] wellresearched and entertainingly written study. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr; 1ST edition (October 3, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691034621
• ISBN-13: 978-0691034621
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,531,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Question of Status, August 23, 2000

By 

seydlitz89 "seydlitz89" (Portugal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dueling (Paperback)

Say you were a young German male, a college graduate, a member of a fine family and while at a party a drunken army officer made a crude comment to your girlfriend. Say the time was 1900. You would be honor-bound to challenge the rouge to a duel and probably would not have even questioned whether it was proper or not, whether you would be better off simply letting the insult pass. As a perceived member of the top five percent of the German population considered able "of providing satisfaction" (it was up to you to make the distinction as to whether you belonged, that the officer belonged was indisputable) you would be required to challenge or thus lose all claim to elite social status. You would have seen the slight has not one against your girlfriend, but as one against yourself, your honor, since the perpetrator obviously expected to get away with this insult unpunished. By offering a challenge you became his equal and by accepting it he accepted you. Honor was in the act of coolly facing death at the hands of a worthy opponent, showing your courage. In all an antiquated attitude as seen from our perspective or to some even idiotic, but worthy I think of tempered respect since it showed despite its faults and trivialities a spirit of nobility and honor largely forgotten and almost incomprehensible in our materialistically-obsessed world today.

Kevin McAleer's book, Dueling, The Cult of Honor in Fin-de-Sièle Germany is a brilliant attempt to dissect a society confronted on one side with rationalized industrial modernity and "traditional" concepts of honor, manliness, courage and duty on the other. In a society increasingly dominated by new elites who achieved their status by making money or acquiring an education, the older Junkers saw their concept of "Standesehre" or class honor, as being one of the few unique qualities they retained. As McAleer points out however, the urge of the up and coming elites to the duel was almost insatiable. German Catholic and Jewish student groups, traditionally considered incapable of giving satisfaction by the Protestant Junkers, were some of the most enthusiastic duelists prior to World War I, while dueling among military officers actually declined.

Why did dueling last so long in Germany? In Britain it had disappeared by 1850 and in the US died for the most part with the Confederacy in 1865. Here McAleer goes into the importance of the army in German society, in its still intact aristocracy of that time and in the desire of the newly formed middle classes to ape their social "betters" in all forms.

The book describes the whole process of dueling such as the levels of insult (1st, 2nd and 3rd degree), the duties and importance of seconds, negotiations between seconds, different forms of pistol duels, the student Mensur, a strange variant known as the "American duel" and much more. According to McAleer lethality increased greatly with the introduction of rifled-bore pistols. Still, one in four German duels was with sabers, which were hardly ever lethal. Along the way he destroys several myths about dueling that have come to us through Hollywood, such as the free for all sword fight with flying furniture, obstacle course run around and flowing conversation as well as the act of one duelist blatantly firing into the air. As the author points out, any self-respecting German duelist would have seen this latter action on the part of his opponent as an additional insult, an indication that he was not worthy of even participating in the duel. The author also provides the various German and French language terms in italics to aid in further study. In all a very interesting book that should please anyone interested in German History, the History of World War I, or 19th Century European History.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best recent work on the subject, April 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Dueling (Paperback)

Insightful, witty, and iconoclastic, Kevin McAleer's study of the duel in fin-de-siecle Germany is essential reading. McAleer brings to light a whole subject essential to the development of the modern mind-set, but which has previously been almost ignored by historians. Read alongside Peter Gay's "The Cultivation of Hatred" and "The Naked Self," one gains new insights into the culture of both the ninteenth and twentieth centuries.

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!!!!!, July 26, 2004

By 

P. M. Payes (Grantham,Pa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dueling; The Cult of Honor in Fin-de-Siecle Germany (Hardcover)

Quite a lot of insight into the world of German dueling....Dr. Evil has a mansuer scar....shouldn't you?

Seriously....GREAT read!!!!!!!!!!!!