The Wikipedia articles on Academic fencing, the Studentenverbindungen (~fraternities) who practise it, and duelling scars are all worth reading. So are their German counterparts, which have lots of pictures. (Click on 'Deutsch' in the left-hand column, under languages, to get there.)
Mark Twain: At the Students' Dueling Ground, Dueling by Wholesale, from A Tramp Abroad, 1870s.
Jerome K. Jerome: an account of academic fencing from Three Men on the Bummel, 1914.
An historical perspective on mensur fencing.
An account of academic fencing in a modern German fraternity. Another one. (Both comments on MetaFilter.)
'Men of Iron' by J. Christoph Amberger, an essay on the difference between fencing and duelling.
Two articles on recent racial controversies in Germany's Burschenschaften (student duelling clubs).