Who We Are
We are Maryland Kunst des Fechtens - a group dedicated to learning
the martial arts of medieval and Renaissance Germany, otherwise known as
Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA).
Members of our club primarily learn the art of the longsword based on the teachings
of Johannes Liechtenauer from selected sources, but may also delve into saber, rapier,
sword and buckler, spear, polearms, messer, dagger, or more esoteric weapons.
Our Martial Art
Based on extant source material, our focus is on historical techniques found in fighting
treatises and books. Created across hundreds of years, these fechtbucher (fight-books)
specifically present systems of combat that demonstrate an efficient and deadly form of fencing.
Kunst des Fechtens, the Art of Fighting, is used to refer to the martial arts that developed
in the medieval Germanic regions. Each member of our club has opted in to a joint vision
of what early Germanic martial arts may have looked like, the type of training required
to achieve proficiency, and what the future community of KDF practitioners should look like.
