| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Hans Ignaz Halberstadt |
| Nationality | German-born American |
| Born | 10 June 1885 Offenbach am Main, Germany |
| Died | 22 September 1966 (aged 81) San Francisco, California, United States |
| Sport | |
| Country | Germany; USA |
| Sport | Fencing |
| Event(s) | Epee and sabre |
Hans Ignaz Halberstadt (10 June 1885 – 22 September 1966) was a German-born American Olympic épée and saber fencer.
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]
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]
