Origins of 1817 The very first one, called ("
original "), was founded on 12 June 1815 at
Jena as an association drawn from all German university students inspired by
liberal and
patriotic ideas. Like the Landsmannschaften or the
Corps, a student association based on particular German region, the Burschenschaft members also engaged in duelling. However, its main purpose was to break down society lines and to destroy rivalry in the student body, to improve student life and increase patriotism. It was intended to draw its members from a broader population base than the
Corps. Indeed, the group was known for its middle-class membership while the Corps' was mainly aristocratic. Its motto was “honor, freedom, fatherland” (), There were members who resigned to protest a resolution adopted at an
Eisenach meeting declaring that Burschenschaft "have no Jewish members and do not plan to have any in the future."
Postwar While in communist
East Germany were prohibited as representatives of a bourgeois attitude to be extinguished, in
West Germany most were refounded in the 1950s. Some of them had to be transferred into other cities, since Germany had lost great parts of its territories after the Second World War, and many from East Germany also tried to find a new home. The allied victors had forbidden refounding originally, but this could not be upheld in a liberal surrounding. In the 1970s and 1980s, the , as many other student fraternities, underwent a crisis: a lack of new members and strong attacks by the leftist student community. In the 1990s many that had left Eastern Germany in the 1940s and 1950s returned to their traditional home universities in the East.
Today Roughly 160 still exist today and many are organized in different organizations ranging from progressive to nationalistic. Among the latter is the
Deutsche Burschenschaft organization (, German Burschenschaft), which represents about a third of the . Others are organized in the
Schwarzburgbund (Schwarzburg League), the
Neue Deutsche Burschenschaft (, New Germany Fraternity) or the
Allgemeine Deutsche Burschenschaft (General German Student Union). While the still insists upon
Fichte's idea of a German nation based on language, thought and culture, the favors defining Germany as the political Germany established by the
German Basic Law (constitution) in 1949 and altered by the
1990 unification. Many are not organized at all since they do not see an organization that represents their values sufficiently. Because of the
German emigration into Chile in the late 19th century, there are also some in Chile, organized in the
Bund Chilenischer Burschenschaften in contact with the German and Austrian organizations. These are
B! Araucania (Santiago),
B! Andinia (Santiago),
B! Montania (Concepción),
B! Ripuaria (Viña Del Mar) and
B! Vulkania (Valdivia). Contrary to popular belief, there is no precise political view point held by these Burschenschaften, in fact, they don't really mix with politics, mostly focusing on maintaining B! culture (still, fencing is prohibited in Chile). Most are , i.e. their members must sustain a number of .
Academic fencing is still an important part of their self-understanding as well as political education. Many , often found in certain "umbrella" organisations (such as the ), are associated with right-wing or
far-right ideas, in particular with the wish for a
German state encompassing Austria. In 2013 one Bonn fraternity proposed that only students of German origin should be eligible to join a . Reportedly half of member clubs threatened to leave in a row over proposed ID cards and a decision to label an opponent of
Adolf Hitler a "traitor". Many of the that left the
Deutsche Burschenschaft following this were later involved in the founding of a new organization, the . ==Notable members==