Josef Schmied-Kowarzik

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Josef Schmied-Kowarzik (born December 26, 1850 in Vienna , † January 20, 1935 in Mödling ) was an Austrian private scholar and fencing historian .

Life

Josef Kowarzik was born in Vienna as the only child from the marriage of Josef Kowarzik and Therese Pfeifer . His father died early, so he was unable to study medicine for economic reasons . After finishing school he became - like his father - a bank clerk and was most recently a department head at the Allgemeine Depositenbank in Vienna. In 1880 he married Luise Jarosch-Hagenauer (1852–1968). They had three children: Therese (1882–1958 - married Danesch), Walther Schmied-Kowarzik (1885–1958 - later Professor of Philosophy and Psychology), Bertha (1891–1968 - married Nowak). After the death of his grandmother, Josef Kowarzik inherited a small fortune, retired as a bank clerk, took on the double name Schmied-Kowarzik - legalized for the whole family by the Imperial Austrian government in 1913 - and lived as a fencing historian, private scholar, publicist and painter Mödling near Vienna.

Josef Schmied-Kowarzik has been interested in fencing as a sport since the 1970s, he became a fencer and fencing teacher. In 1879/81 he founded the first Viennese fencing club "Haudegen" together with the chairman of the German-Austrian fencing association Hans Kufahl and the university fencing master Prof. M. Werndnik. His main interest was the history of duels and the various types of fencing, which he reconstructed in extensive theoretical and practical studies on historical weapons (two-handed sword, dussak, dagger, rapier, halberd, Italian saber, etc.) and which he then joined with the fencing club "Haudegen" presented special historical occasions in the 1990s in Vienna and in 1904 for the millennium of Mödling. The books he wrote together with Hans Kufahl - Fechtbüchlein (1894) and Duellbuch (1896) - are still considered standard works in the history of duels due to the extensive historical source material.

Publications

Josef Schmied-Kowarzik together with Hans Kufahl:

  • 1894 fencing booklet, Leipzig (Philipp Reclam)
  • 1896 Duel book, Leipzig (JJ Weber)
  • 2006 The duel at the universities. History of the duel together with an appendix containing dueling laws and Paukcomment. Reprint of the 2nd part of the Duellbuch (1896), Hilden (WJK-Verlag).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schmied-Kowarzik, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian private scholar and fencing historian
DATE OF BIRTH December 26, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1935
Place of death Mödling