District Association of Middle Rhine Fencing Clubs

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The Gauverband Mittelrheinischer fencing clubs was a regional fencing association founded in 1880 . It was the first cross-club organization of the German fencing sport and its annually held Gauverband festivals can be seen as the forerunners of the German championships . Before the founding of the German Fencing Association , the Gauverband organized almost all trips to international tournaments abroad and most of the fencers in the national team were members of the fencing clubs it organized.

history

The sport of fencing developed in Germany in the second half of the 19th century into an independent discipline, independent of student and military fencing. Numerous fencing clubs were founded, the first in Hanover in 1862, others followed in Offenbach (1865), Cologne (1873), Frankfurt (1875) and other cities. At the suggestion of the Offenbach fencing master Karl Adam Trub, the fencing clubs from Offenbach , Mainz and Wiesbaden as well as the fencing club Hermannia Frankfurt with the Gauverband Mittelrheinischer fencing clubs founded a fencing association across all clubs for the first time. In the course of the next few years, other newly founded associations joined the association, for example Mannheim in 1884 and three associations from Darmstadt between 1890 and 1892. In 1907 the association represented 16 fencing clubs from a total of 13 different cities, although the founding member Offenbach resigned from the association in 1898.

Since the founding year 1880, annual Gauverband festivals have been held, which could be seen as the forerunners of the German championships. In 1888 the first German fencing congress took place in Offenbach, which advocated fencing in loose lengths, which basically corresponds to modern sport fencing. In contrast to this, in Germany there was generally a fixed scale, i.e. with a fixed distance from the opponent without moving the legs. Jakob Erckrath de Bary , who returned from Italy in 1890, also popularized the more dynamic, loose-length fencing according to the Italian school. In 1896 a show fencing was held in Offenbach, in which saber, rapier and foil were fought in loose lengths. Fencing competitions in loose lengths have also been part of the Gauverband festivals since 1899.

After the German and Austrian Fencing Federation, founded in 1896, dissolved again in 1901, it was mainly the Gauverband Mittelrheinischer fencing clubs that organized participation in international tournaments and provided the majority of the national team. The German Fencing Federation (DFB) was founded in 1911, primarily to ensure better international representation of German fencers at international tournaments , and the Gauverband subsequently joined the DFB as a member association. Subsequently, the Gauverband was part of a sub-group of the DFB, the Gauverband festivals continued, but lost their sporting importance more and more. After 1925, no further Gauverband festivals have survived.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Andreas Schirmer (Ed.), En Garde! Allez! Touchez! 100 Years of Fencing in Germany - A Success Story , Meyer & Meyer Verlag, Aachen 2012. P. 21 f.
  2. ^ A b c Max Schröder: Deutsche Fechtkunst , Georg Koenig Buchdruckerei and Verlag, Berlin 1938, p. 84f.
  3. ^ Robert Ziegenfuß: German fencing tournament on November 9th, 10th and 11th in Dresden . In: Salonblatt 1907 No. 44, pp. 13–15. on-line
  4. ↑ Andreas Schirmer: The foundation of the DFB 1911 , in: Deutscher Fechter-Bund (Ed.), Andreas Schirmer (Red.): En Garde! Allez! Touchez! 100 Years of Fencing in Germany - A Success Story , Meyer & Meyer Verlag, Aachen 2012. pp. 26–29.
  5. ^ Max Schröder: Deutsche Fechtkunst , Georg Koenig Buchdruckerei and Verlag, Berlin 1938, p. 91.