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Hans Halberstadt

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For the American author, see Hans Halberstadt (author).

Hans Halberstadt
Personal information
Birth nameHans Ignaz Halberstadt
NationalityGerman-born American
Born(1885-06-10)10 June 1885
Offenbach am Main, Germany
Died22 September 1966(1966-09-22) (aged 81)
San Francisco, California, United States
Sport
CountryGermany; USA
SportFencing
Event(s)Epee and sabre

Hans Ignaz Halberstadt (10 June 1885 – 22 September 1966) was a German-born American Olympic épée and saber fencer.

Early and personal life

Halberstadt was born and raised in Offenbach am Main, Germany, and was Jewish.[1][2][3] He was trained at the Offenbach am Main Fechtclub.[1][4]

Fencing career

Halberstadt was German National Champion in epee in 1922 and 1930.[1] He was also German team sabre champion with Fechtclub Offenbach in 1924 and 1925.[5]

He competed for Germany in the individual and team épée and team sabre (coming in fourth) events at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam at the age of 42.[5]

After the Nazis came to power, after Kristallnacht his family's business was seized by the Nazis and Halberstadt was interred in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by the Nazis because he was Jewish.[2][4][6] He then fled Germany at the age of 56 with what he could carry, first to London, and then San Francisco in 1940.[2][4]

Halberstadt then became 1940 US Sabre Champion, both in individual saber and team saber.[5]

In San Francisco he taught fencing in the 1940s at the San Francisco Olympic Club and then at his own club which he opened, and ran a fencing supply company.[2][4] Among his students in San Francisco were Helene Mayer and Tommy Angell. His name lives on through a San Francisco fencing club founded by his students after his 1966 death.[7][8]

Halberstadt was inducted into the U.S. Fencing Hall of Fame, in its Class of 2013.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Hans Halberstadt at the 1928 Olympics," West Coast Fencing Archive.
  2. ^ a b c d Bernard Postal, Jesse Silver, Roy Silver. Encyclopedia of Jews in Sports.
  3. ^ Paul Yogi Mayer. Jews and the Olympic Games: sport: a springboard for minorities
  4. ^ a b c d "Hans Halberstadt and the Thomson Twins," West Coast Fencing Archive.
  5. ^ a b c "Hans Halberstadt Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  6. ^ "Halberstadt, Hans," US Fencing Hall of Fame.
  7. ^ "U.S. Fencing Hall of Fame". Archived from the original on 18 June 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  8. ^ "Halberstadt Fencers' Club". Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  9. ^ "Two Fencers With Penn Ties Headed to Hall of Fame," University of Pennsylvania.
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