page of Mscr. Dresd. C 93 by Paulus Hector Mair (1540s)
Also known as
Historical German swordsmanship, Kunst des Fechtens
Focus
Longsword, messer, dagger, polearms, grappling
Country of origin
Holy Roman Empire
Famous practitioners
Johannes Liechtenauer, Joachim Meyer, Hans Talhoffer, Paulus Hector Mair, Sigmund Ringeck
Descendant arts
German stage fencing
Academic fencing (indirectly) Bayonet fencing (partly)
The German school of fencing (Deutsche Schule; Kunst des Fechtens[a]) is a system of combat taught in the Holy Roman Empire during the Late Medieval, German Renaissance, and early modern periods. It is described in the contemporary Fechtbücher ("fencing books") written at the time. The geographical center of this tradition was in what is now Southern Germany including Augsburg, Frankfurt, and Nuremberg. During the period in which it was taught, it was known as the Kunst des Fechtens, or the "Art of Fighting".[b] The German school of fencing focuses primarily on the use of the two-handed longsword; it also describes the use of many other weapons, including polearms, medieval daggers, messers (with or without a buckler), and the staff, as well as describing mounted combat and unarmed grappling (ringen).
Most authors of writings on the system are, or claim to be, in the tradition of the 14th-century master Johannes Liechtenauer. The earliest surviving treatise on Liechtenauer's system is a manuscript dated to possibly the late 14th, or early 15th century, known as Ms. 3227a. More manuscripts survive from the 15th century, and during the 16th century the system was also presented in print, most notably by Joachim Meyer in 1570.
The German tradition was largely eclipsed by the Italian school of rapier fencing by the early 17th century. Practitioners of the German school persisted at least until the end of the 18th century, though.[1][2]
Fencing with the German longsword has been a focus of historical European martial arts reconstruction since the late 19th century, when swordsmen such as Alfred Hutton first popularized the pursuit.
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^Otto Adalbert Beneke (1857). Von unehrlichen Leuten: cultur-historische Studien und Geschichten. Berthes, Besser und Waufe.
^Karl Wassmannsdorff (1870). Sechs Fechtschulen (d. i. Schau- und Preisfechten) der Marxbrüder und Federfechter aus den Jahren 1573 bis 1614; Nürnberger Fechtschulreime v. J. 1579 und Rösener's Gedicht: Ehrentitel und Lobspruch der Fechtkunst v. J. 1589: Eine Vorarbeit zu einer Geschichte der Marxbrüder und Federfechter. Karl Groos.
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