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Yes, many of those scars look very grotesque indeed.

Please allow me a remark: in a few cases, a Mensur really took the form of a duel, i.e. if some student had gravely offended a member of another fencing fraternity, or was in another greater personal conflict with him.

In those days, a Court of Honor, composed of other students or former students from neutral fraternities, had to examine the case.
It had the last word whether the offense to the„plaintiff“ challenging the „accused“ to a „Kontrahage“, i.e. a duel-like Mensur, was regarded ascommensurate with the offense. In many cases, the accused was simply asked to apologize formally to the one whom he had offended.

However, seldom a „Kontrahage“ was approved by the Court of Honor, and the resulting Mensur was, in this case more of a real fight, a brawl, than a sport.

This all the more, as it was sometimes fought with sabers instead of the traditional smallswords. It was all the more dangerous, as well as being illegal.

And on the legality of the standard Mensur: before WW one, the enforcement was very lax, although it was still illegal in theory (Mark Twain noted this in his book „A tramp abroad“,in which he describes his encounters with a fencing fraternity in Heidelberg, whose guest he was).

After 1919, the persecution became much harsher, and Mensur fencing had to be conducted in secrecy. Still, it reached a pinnacle in those days, although it still was done mostly for sport. In 1933, the Mensur was legalized, but all fraternities, fencing or not, were outlawed by 1936. Mensur fencing was outlawed in 1937 once again, and every student with a smite was dismissed from his Alma mater. After 1941, it became even tougher, since such students were by then generally seconded to front duty.

P.S.: Wikipedia has an article about academic fencing, which is quite OK. I found no bigger faults in it.😀