BRITISH IDENTITY AND THE GERMAN OTHER A Dissertation ...

loses “a piece of the scalp about two inches long and one broad,” in another “his cheek is laid
open from the upper lip to the ear, and two teeth are cut clean asunder” before the injured are
patched up by the attending doctor (“How like a butcher he looked!”). 19
The reference to the indulgent policeman would have reminded many readers of Wilhelm
II’s defense of the Mensuren to a meeting of German students in Bonn, May 1891, when he
stated his hope that “the spirit which is fostered in their Corps, and which is steeled by strength
and courage, will be preserved, and that you will always take delight in handling the rapier.” 20
Referring to this imperial faux päs, Charles Lowe, Wilhelm’s English biographer and frequent
apologist, commented euphemistically in the conservative National Review at the time that “the
young Emperor is apt to let himself be carried away by the enthusiasm of the moment.” 21 But the
kaiser’s pronouncements, as well as reports of dueling deaths in Germany, received enough
publicity in the British press well into the twentieth century to reinforce the seeming ubiquity of
what had long been seen as uncivilized, ungentlemanly behavior. 22 In March of 1890, for
example, the Pall Mall Gazette reported some details of the kaiser’s dueling edict which made an
encounter between officers permissible when personal violence had been offered without
apology, or an insult had been proffered to a lady relative or betrothed of the challenging
19 Ibid., 44, 47-48.
20 Quoted in Dawson, Germany and the Germans, 1:247.
21 Lowe, “The New Emperor and His New Chancellor,” 27.
22 An article entitled “Fatal Duel Between German officers,” Morning Post, as late as 12
May 1911, described the rules of combat as pistols at fifteen paces, the exchange of shots to
continue until one of the duelists was rendered unable to fight.
194