Sabre fencer Max Hartung to study at H-BRS

The Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg is delighted to welcome such a highly committed and active student as Max Hartung. "Max Hartung is a great fit for our MBA degree programme," says its coordinator Max Bolz. "He is dedicated and determined and will be able to contribute his wide-ranging experience to discussions with his fellow students from across the world. Things like peer-to-peer learning need strong-minded yet open characters such as Max Hartung in order to flourish."

His view that sport is not a politics-free zone and that athletes are therefore entitled to speak out in favour of human rights and against racism, for instance, is also shared by the university as a whole, which campaigns for diversity and has signed the Diversity Charter.

His view that sport is not a politics-free zone and that athletes are therefore entitled to speak out in favour of human rights and against racism, for instance, is also shared by the university as a whole, which campaigns for diversity and has signed the Diversity Charter.

"After gaining a lot of hands-on experience, I’m looking forward to being back in an academic environment and exchanging ideas and opinions with students from all over the world," says Max Hartung, explaining his motivation for studying at H-BRS. He will retain his voluntary roles with the DOSB and as chairman of Athleten Deutschland. "I get an unbelievable amount of enjoyment out of helping to give athletes a stronger voice. Athleten Deutschland now gets EUR 450,000 a year in funding from the German government, and we've assembled a great team of five people. As far as my career goes, I’d like to help shape society through sport and education after I hang up my sabre. In what role I'll be best placed to do that, I don’t know yet. I’m hoping that my degree at H-BRS will broaden my horizons and teach me some really practical skills for working in the tertiary sector."

Nevertheless, he will occasionally be sweating it out in the fencing hall rather than the lecture theatre, no later than when athletes assemble in Tokyo in 2021 for the Olympics postponed from this year. While in Japan, Max Hartung might even cross paths with his fellow student Yanna Schneider (Business Psychology and Taekwondo athlete) and karateka Jenny Warling, an H-BRS graduate from Luxembourg who has a good chance of being picked for the Games.

"Supporting our student athletes, particularly our elite athletes and national team members, is very important to us," says Prof. Iris Groß, who as Vice President for Teaching, Learning and Further Education is also the university’s de facto sports minister. "Young people can only practise sport to this standard if they devote a great deal of time to it and only until they reach a certain age. So it’s important that we support them on their journey so that they can pursue their professional career as smoothly and seamlessly as possible once their sporting career has come to an end."