They were never completely gone, they cycle through their life like political cicadas - we know they form a brood. We are trying to find a catchy name for the brood, maybe an acronym with lots of Ss. Where "S" stands for students.
Some German and Austrian fraternities are having another go at membership requirements.
Do not confuse these fraternities with American fraternities -- the booze and the hazing are similar but that is where it ends.
Fraternities in Krautland are called Burschenschaften, and this Wikipedia article in English gives some background.
Over the course of their history, many fraternities here have become right wing, and TheEditor of the K-landnews regards these people as the most serious danger to democracy in Germany and in Little Germany (Austria). Pen-wielding students can do more damage than skinheads with marginal education.
But that's not our subject today. Today, we point out how a large umbrella organization of these folks is trying to establish membership criteria.
Some frats do accept foreigners, even some of the traditionally conservative ones where sword or knife fighting until blood is drawn is still part of the rituals in the 21st century.
The umbrella organization in focus today wants to limit regular membership acceptance to German nationals or "Western nationals with a comparable background". Others can apply and will be evaluated on an individual basis.
They will be notified in writing if they are not accepted, but - crucially - no reason for denial of membership will be provided. And, in the tradition of the guy with the square mustache, they are debating about when you are regarded as German -- is it good enough if your grandfather was German? One of the frats is going all out progressive and wants naturalized immigrants to count as Germans, yeehaa!
The final decision on this may or may not be taken at the annual convention currently under way in the city of Eisenach in eastern Germany.
We will keep an eye on them and let you know if they offer us and the rest of the world an opportunity to throw around that German capital N word again.
If you have not read our post "Homo teutonicus simplex II", now would be the perfect opportunity to get an overview of the accomplishments of German fraternities and their less educated cohorts in the last 100 years.
[Update 24 May] The only German N word we can throw around is "nein" (no). Der Spiegel reports that the motion regarding acceptance criteria was withdrawn. So, the cicadas are gone for a while, and unlike for the flying kind, none of the males died -- no students were harmed in the writing of the post.
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