Dresdner HEMA-Cup returns with four-weapon lineup in Dresden

Dresden is set to become a summer stop for more than just longsword specialists. The 5th annual Dresdner HEMA-Cup will run July 4-5 at the Sporthalle des Ehrenfried-Walther-von-Tschirnhaus-Gymnasiums on Leubnitzer Str. 14, with a 75€ entry and registration details still to come.

That four-weapon card is the real draw. The lineup includes a tier-based Open Longsword tournament, Sword & Buckler, Rapier & Dagger, and Sabre, giving competitors a chance to test across disciplines without spending a second weekend on the road. For clubs deciding where to send their strongest fields, that matters. One trip to Dresden can serve rising longsword fighters, specialist smallsword-adjacent fencers, and sabre regulars all at once, which is exactly the kind of setup that can thicken brackets and widen the competitive pool.

Schwertspiel e.V., the Dresden club behind the event, gives the cup a firmer base than a one-off tournament calendar filler. Founded in 2003 and a registered nonprofit sports association since 2004, the club has long described its work as the practical reconstruction of medieval and early modern fighting arts. That kind of infrastructure helps explain why Dresden keeps landing on the HEMA map with enough depth to stage multi-weapon weekends instead of single-discipline stopgaps.

The event has been building in that direction for years. The first Dresdner HEMA-Cup in 2022 was held at Margon-Arena and featured men’s and women’s longsword divisions. By 2024, the card had expanded to longsword men, longsword women, longsword beginner, sword & buckler, sabre, and rapier & dagger. The 2025 edition kept the multi-weapon format and added a tier-based longsword structure, a sign that organizers were trying to create a ladder for both established names and newer fighters.

Dresden’s tournament credentials are not theoretical, either. Schwertspiel e.V. said its Dresdner Fechtschul became the final DDHF longsword ranking event in 2025, where club fencer Markus won the Open and Tina placed third in Women+. Those results give the city a track record for drawing meaningful fields and producing results that matter in the national picture.

That is why the 2026 HEMA-Cup reads like a calendar anchor, not just another listing. With a July 4-5 date, a four-weapon slate, and a venue built for a full weekend of bouts, Dresden is positioning itself as one of the more complete midseason tournament options in HEMA, the kind of event that can shape travel plans, attendance, and bracket strength across the summer circuit.