[agere_contra]

The Germans, as students, slashed at each other with sabres, looking to acquire scars.

That's right. They wore special body armor that exposed only the 'safe' parts of the face.

Their male bonding ritual was bound about with rules. If you broke them then you went to jail or were executed.

[buwaya]

I doubt they were “executed”.
Germany a century+ ago was a civilized land, and executed people much less often than France and probably Britain too.
And a Junker lad who forgot himself much less so.