Ernst Königsgarten

Ernst Königsgarten was an officer in the cavalry reserves in France and was a member of the Riding School of Emperor Franz-Josef (François-Joseph), and a member of la Salle d’Arme of his fencing teacher, Monsieur Della Santa. Königsgarten fenced foil and épée left-handed but fenced sabre, his best weapon, right-handed.

Königsgarten competed in multiple events on the continent, including those at Marienbad in 1905, at Praha, Trieste, and Milano in 1906, at Karlsbad and Ostende in 1907, and Baden-Baden in 1909. He was a member of the Bureau de la Fédération d’Escrime Autrichienne and of the Comité du Wiener Fechtkklub. At the 1906 Intercalated Athens Games his best result was a sixth place with the sabre in the individual three hits event.

Königsgarten came from a wealthy Jewish-born Brno family. In 1907, he was a co-founder of the Wiener Fechtklub, and was also a board member of the Austrian Fencing Federation. In the social news of those times, Königsgarten was referred to as a “private individual” and also, from 1923, as a “banker”. He was also an officer in the cavalry reserve in France and a member of the imperial military riding school in Vienna and was considered an “elegant, distinguished young man”.

Königsgarten invested some of his earnings in different enterprises and undertakings. After the “Anschluss” of Austria to the Third Reich, he moved to Brno in 1938. In 1941, he was forced by the Nazis to sell his family business to an Aryan concurrent. He was then deported and killed in Terezín concentration camp by the Nazis in 1942.