The fencing club was founded by Herbert Wahlberg in 1958, who built it up together with Béla Rerrich. Rerrich was a Hungarian fencing champion who defected from Hungary in 1956 due to the Hungarian uprising that year which was put down by the Soviet Union. Rerrich was the fence master of Djurgårdens IF from the start until his death in 2005. Under his leadership, members of Djurgårdens IF have won Olympic and World Championship medals as well as numerous Swedish championships in both fencing and modern pentathlon. The club is striving to continue his work.