Max Hartung

Career

Hartung was born in Aachen, but his parents moved to Dormagen when he was two years old. He took up fencing when he was eight. He was quickly discovered by Vilmoș Szabo, head coach of TSV Dormagen.

Hartung was Junior World Champion in Belfast in 2009. He joined the national team and won with them a bronze medal at the 2010 European Championships in Leipzig. In 2011 he climbed his first podium in the Fencing World Cup with a bronze medal in Padua. The same year, he earned a bronze medal at the European Championships in Sheffield after being beaten by Russia's Aleksey Yakimenko in the semi-finals. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he competed in the Men's sabre, but was defeated in the quarter-finals by Hungarian Áron Szilágyi, who later won the gold medal in that event. Hartung finished the 2011–12 season No.13 in World rankings, his personal best as of 2014.

Hartung reached the quarter-finals again at the 2013 World Championships in Budapest, where he was stopped by Veniamin Reshetnikov of Russia, as well as at the 2014 World Championships in Kazan, where he was defeated by Romania's Tiberiu Dolniceanu. In the team event of the same competition, Germany overcame China, then the United States and hosts Russia. Hartung, Nicolas Limbach, Benedikt Wagner and Matyas Szabo prevailed over Olympic champions South Korea to win Germany's first World title in men's sabre.

Hartung studies sociology, politics and economy at Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen.