An essay by Karin Breuer, assistant professor of history -- entitled "Competing Masculinities: Fraternities, Gender, and Nationality in the German Confederation, 1815-30" -- appeared in the journal Gender and History.
Link to Article
Citation
Karin Breuer, "Competing Masculinities: Fraternities, Gender, and Nationality in the German Confederation, 1815-30," Gender and History, volume 20, number 2 (August 2008): pages 270-87.
Abstract
"Immediately after the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon (1815), university students, particularly the nationalist fraternity, the Burschenschaft, sought to connect the German nation with martial values. They practiced gymnastics, dueled, and commemorated veterans of the Napoleonic wars. The era after the wars also illustrates greater mediation in the discourse of masculinity than has generally been acknowledged, however. University students never achieved consensus on what masculine identity or German identity entailed. By applying enlightened principles to notions of honor and the practice of the duel, Burschenschafter also articulated a new, more moral vision of the German man, one based more on rationality and self-discipline than on martial values."
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20080908090143768