That must have been a really annoying conversation 🥲

15yo me shocked when i was hear that normal sabre was like 650-1100 gram ..., yes i was thinked it was around 3-5kg. Now, im over my 30 and im a little bit better "infomed" 😄

Ah, well, they often throw the "knight" card at you! 🙄Maybe they meant it as a compliment. Honourable knight, playing fair, rescuing damsels in distress... If only they knew... 🤣

Uh, that's so true. Never hand them the expensive ones! Myself included... Maybe this is why my friend got me a rubber knife as my first HEMA-present... It all makes sense now. 🥲🤣

They probably also believe reverse grip works... 😏

Actually, it is still practiced.

@@balazskertesz5010 But not the version where they actually get scars on their face, and it's definitely not more popular or well known than HEMA.

Word

Honestly, I don't know what the political spectrum of the associations in question is. But people that gave me those comments in Austria always talked about 'conservative and far right wing' student associations. And they also mentioned that apparently only guys are allowed in.

Well yes and no. Mensur or Pauken (depending on where you live) is itself neither rightwing nor extremist. HOWEVER most fraternities who still abide to the compulsory mensur often belong to a network of highly conservataive male centric organisations. Those again in itself are not rightwing, but are a breeding grouds and collectors of right wing ideologies. The main issues here are that those organisations abideing to it, are fraternities and not student assosiation. Fraternities due to their make are rather attractive to certain individuals who often habour conservative to rightwing ideals. When I joined the uni, my dad gave me connections to his old fraternity. The CV, a highly catholic fraternity. While they are "nichtschlagend" so Pauken is not only not compulsary but also not part of the fraternity. However their principles were 1. Religio: Beeing compelled to be catholic, abide by catholci doctrine and their moral guidelines. 2. Scientia: Which is rather funny considering the first part, but you abide to the idea of lifelong learning. 3. Amicitia: Beeing "compelled" to help each other even outside university 4. Patria: Beeing tied to honoring ones homeland (although due to historic reasons that is not in all organisations within the CV the case). I did not join, as I am an atheist and am not allowed to anyway - but even a rather centric organisation like the CV, is attarctive to nationalis religious types. Take Germania as a larger organisation. They are not religious but their motto is "Honor, freedom and Fatherland". Which considering it is a german organisation, has some form of aftertaste. And while I do not think all organisations within the Germania have right wing tendencies, the umbrella organsiation the Burschenschaft Hamburg Germania has it's political roots (with leading people beeing members) in the rightwing extremist party NPD. And they have been classified by the military intelligence organisation as well as the domestic intelligence organsiation as rightwing extremist organisations untill 2021. This has been known and an issue since 1993 and has been on the watchlist from 2014. Now are only classified as radicals after they fought a court case. To show how close they are to rightwing ideologues, their fraternity house in Hamburg was the legal seat for the "deutsche Rechtsbüro" a legal firm known to take cases for indicted right wing criminals as well as a known spot for members of the Neue Front (one of the largest right wing extremist orgasnisations in the late 90s early 00s) Very similar to the Germania, is the Thessalia Prag(still wearing black white and red as their colours), the Rheinfranken , as well as the austrian fraternity the Burschenschaft Olympia. I mention them, because they are are classified as right wing organisation and all beloning to the same umbrella, the Deusche Burschenschaften, Why to I put such an emphesis on the Germania and the Deutsche Burschenschaft. They all are pflichtschlagend (compulsary mensur), pure fraternities AND are largly classified as right wing. So no - Pauken is not far right. But all orgasnisations who still have compulsary fighting in their bylaws(from once per unitime to 3 times per semester), are generally speaking right wing. So what we can generally say is that people who practice the mensur, are much more likely to belong to orgasnisations with ties to far right groups, if not beeing one themself. I did participate in HEMA during uni - and we had some frat boys comming in beeing all tough because they fight with sharp Paukzeug(what in HEMA terms is very similar to the rapier). But because Pauken is trained rather static, they did not realy stand a chance, never comming back. And yes, you did get very mysogonistic and right wing vibes from them. One who left before any training, refused training with a woman on grounds of her beeing a woman. Yea while they are not all far right wing, all I've met were highly and openly conservative, with the largest organisations practiseing the mensur in it are not only classified as right wing radicals (not extremist - different classification), but some are under observation by intelligence organisations as unfriendly to the constitution.

@@alberich3099 Thank you for your insights and the information!

@YellowLab-rb6xn love how you are unable to actually read what I said, that deserves an award.