Concerning fraternities...

[tubeast]

A current thread raised some questions to me...

In Germany, fraternities started seperately at each campus as institutions where students (and, after the first couple of years, alumni) from certain areas in Germany met and socialised. (Back in the day, Germany was split in a multitude of seperate states of German nation). Most of them were named after the state their members came from, so until now there are fraternities named Alemannia, Bavaria, Frisia, Frankonia, Saxonia and many more at most of the older universities.

Initiation rites are not that much of an issue, and we´re quite frank about them when interested students seek information on our frat.
In our case, newbies can come and find out for themselves if they´ll like life as a corporate student for a while. Sort of like an internship.
They can drop out (or get kicked out) anytime if they (or we) think corporation is not for them.
They have all duties, but not as many rights as the full members. They have to take part in all the fraternity´s activities including fencing lessons.
When we think they´re ready, there will be an exam on the fraternity´s history and whereabouts, a report on a general subject of interest, and, of course, a Mensur (ritualized fencing with unguarded head). Other fraternities might have different ways, but most of the fencing ones go somewhere along that line.

The newbies get prepared for these initiations, as they´re tough enough and we want them to do well.

As a full member, you´ll spend most of your spare time with the fraternity (I gave up tuba for one year during that time).
It is possible to submerge into a full-time life as a corporate student, and I think that´s OK for short periods of time. (That is, short enough so it won´t hurt academic part of life).
We do look after each other, though, and make sure our members are successful academically.

So what´s it like in the US? Where do the greek-letter-names of your fraternities come from ?
Is there some kind of internship for newbies or do you have to join for good right away ?
And what happens once you graduated ? Do you keep in touch with your chapter?

Hans Reinhardt
Corps Alemannia Karlsruhe

[finnbogi]

A few years ago I spent the summer at the University of Washington in Seattle. A colleague got me an apartment in the fraternity district (Greek row) and I was amazed to see how many fraternities and sororities there were, and how active they were (partying, that is). It is nice to hear that they also do something constructive...

Until that summer I had always thought that this had been invented for The revenge of the nerds.
And I had no idea that this also existed in Germany. We have nothing of the sort.