Jens P. Kleinau

Jens P. Kleinau is a fencer, researcher, and instructor in the Historical European Martial Arts HEMA from the period of the 14th until the 17th century. For several years, he blogged under the pseudonym Hans Talhoffer, who was also central to many of his articles, but eventually he revealed his identity and began listing his human name on his website.

Jens P. Kleinau is the instructor for single-handed weapons and single-handed weapon combinations at Zornhau in Germany. His path of martial arts and sports started in 1973 with Olympic fencing. Since then, he has studied various martial arts, with some breaks mostly related to injuries resulting from that kind of leisure-time activity. His main studies have included Fencing and Shotokan Karate, and are currently Wing Chun, Historical Martial Arts, and most recently Taijiquan. He has been a member of Zornhau since 2005, and in 2009 he joined a second HEMA club named Stahl auf Stahl (Frankfurt, Germany). In 2013, he founded the New Marxbrüder association in Frankfurt. He has given several national workshops and instructed classes at international events. His favorite teaching subjects are Langes Messer (long knife), sword & buckler, and spear & shield.

Jens P. transcribes, translates, and interprets the medieval and renaissance fighting manuals and publishes mostly at his well-known blog http://talhoffer.wordpress.com. As a part of the Zornhau team he measures and handles originals and publishes the data at the club’s website. To broaden his horizon and assure the quality of his own work, he is in constant exchange with other experts (mostly using his initials “JPK” or a nom de plume matching this acronym like “Johann Paulus Kal”).

He strives for a ‘bullshido’-free interpretation of the work of the old masters. His interpretations are very down-to-earth and even though there may be younger and faster fencers, he is always ready to show what he is teaching in a very practical way. He would love to teach you in person how to use his favorite weapons accordingly to the original sources. Alas, he usually has a full schedule. But if you pay him the expenses and some alcoholic drinks he will see what he can do. Just contact him on Facebook or via email. Here are some of the workshop he did: Selected Workshops.

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