Welcome to ‘Fechtkunst: W.A. School of Historical Swordsmanship’. Fechtkunst, which is German for ‘art of fencing’, is not a re-enactment group; we do not role-play nor take on personas, we do not do staged combat or ‘show-fighting’ and we are definitely not a group of Arthurian fantasy folk. What we are is a group devoted to the accurate recreation and teaching of ‘Historical European Martial Arts’, from herein referred to as ‘HEMA’. Our primary purpose for doing this is to have fun hobby that is both mentally and physically challenging and whilst many of us have an interest in history, it is not a prerequisite. All you need to join is the passion to learn a martial activity and common sense about weapon safety.
Historical European Martial Arts is a subset of Western Martial Arts- Martial arts that have originated in Europe and related cultures (as opposed to Asia and Eastern Martial Arts). The ‘historical’ part relates to the fact that many of these arts are recreated and interpreted through the study of historical fight manuals, commonly known as ‘fightbooks’; artefacts, such as period swords; and a knowledge of biomechanics and martial systems. This does not mean they are any less effective than modern martial arts, just that their given contexts are no longer relevant to today’s society and are thus not appropriate as primary means of self defence or warfighting (e.g. we no longer carry swords around). They are also in no way inferior to historical Asian martial arts, such as Kenjutsu, in technique or equipment. Again both are just as effective as each other for their given contexts.
Fechtkunst currently focuses on HEMA from the 15th Century, utilising such systems as Dagger, Longsword, Sword and Buckler, Spear and Poleaxe; with many done both in and out of armour. It is worth noting that there is a common misconception that medieval weapons and their fighting systems were heavy, cumbersome and poorly developed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Pattern welded swords were developed in Europe by the 8th Century BC; Highly developed fighting systems were encoded in text by the 13th Century AD; by the 15th Century a tradition of producing fight manuals had developed; and blast furnace techniques produced high quality steel, meaning pattern welding was obsolete.
If you are thinking of joining, please read through this website and contact us.
