Helene Mayer
Helene Mayer was born in Offenbach, Germany, in 1910. At 13, she began an unbroken string of German championships that continued until she left for the 1932 Olympics and college in the US. At 17 she won gold at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and became a celebrity, appearing in newspapers, magazines and on collectible sports cards.
After competing at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, she remained in Southern California to pursue a college degree and began a long career of dominating women’s foil in the US on both the regional and national level. After college, she took a job at Mills College in Oakland, teaching languages and fencing.
READ MORE...In 1936 she was the only Jewish athlete to compete for Germany at the Olympic Games where she finished with the Silver Medal. Without her participation, it’s likely the US would have boycotted the Games. In addition to her Olympic triumphs, she was World Champion three times and US National Champion nine times. She represented three clubs during her time in the US: the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Funke Fencing Academy and the Halberstadt Fencers Club. Hans Halberstadt and Helene had trained under the same fencing master in their home club in Offenbach and likely met before Helene was in her teens. They remained steadfast friends until her untimely death at the age of 52.
Articles
The Salle in the Woods
In the woods of Southern Oregon off a dirt road and across a valley from the winding I-5 was a fencing salle d’armes built by Charlie Selberg in an old barn. It was stuffed to the rafters with fencing memorabilia dating back decades.
LA’s Greatest Hits, 1936
When I have the opportunity to visit someone who has fencing memorabilia that I can scan for my collection, I often don’t get a chance to thoroughly take in the significance of everything I’m working with.
Helene Mayer Goes To Jail
It’s a struggle to not take cheap shots at the drawings in old fencing books, at least for me. Sometimes though, the artist’s interpretation of the message the author is hoping to convey is just too good to forego a bit of a laugh.
The Search for Al Snyder, National Champion
Typically, US National Foil Champions are reasonably well documented, particularly in their home town. That doesn’t seem to be the case with Alfred R. Snyder, 1944 US foil champion.
The Glamorous Photos of Erich Funke d’Egnuff, Part 2
There are many ways in which the scrapbook of Erich Funke d'Egnuff is a gold mine, not least of which are the amazing variety of newspaper photos of fencers. The scrapbook covers the years 1934 to about 1942 and the fencers of that time had a style all their own. ...
The Halberstadt Scrapbooks, Book One
As many times as I’ve mentioned the Halberstadt Scrapbooks on this website over the years, I was shocked to realize that I have not, until now, written a defining story about what they are and (to me, at least) their significance.
My Heroes are all Women, Part Two
Having not one, but two, Helene Mayer trophies land in The Archive recently seems to have been a precursor to a small ‘golden age’ of incoming H. Mayer material that I can’t explain in any way that I can explain, but I’m happy for the good fortune.
My Heroes are all Women, Part One
I’ve had two brain-melting events in the last few weeks that have left me in a state of awe that I could really be so lucky. To many, it might be tough to understand how I can get such a thrill out of the circumstances that have arisen.
Land of the Lost Trophy
I’ve been perusing the pages of “The California Fencer”, later just “The Fencer”, a West Coast publication that circulated for a few years following WW2 and prior to the start of the national American Fencer magazine.
Photo Gallery
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