page_title: George Hackenschmidt
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: George Hackenschmidt / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Vintage postcard of the German wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt, model for Reinhold Begas' statue Prometheus.
context_page_description: Georg Karl Julius Hackenschmidt was an early 20th-century Estonian strongman, professional wrestler, author, and sports philosopher who is recognized as professional wrestling's first world heavyweight champion.
  Hackenschmidt launched his professional career in Reval in the Governorate of Estonia and lived most of his life in London, England, where he gained the nickname of "The Russian Lion". He is believed to be the creator of the professional wrestling version of the bear hug as well as the person who popularised the hack squat, a deadlift with arms behind the body. He was known for his impressive strength, fitness and flexibility and, later in life, wrote many books on physical culture, training and philosophy.
context_section_description: Georg Hackenschmidt was born in Dorpat, Governorate of Livonia, on 1 August 1877, where he lived with his parents, Baltic German Georg Friedrich Heinrich Hackenschmidt, and Ida Louise Johansson, who was of Estonian and Estonian Swede descent, and a younger brother, Bruno, and sister Alice. He later said that neither of his parents was particularly robust in stature or had any unusual physical characteristics, though his maternal grandfather was said to have been a huge and powerful man.
  From his earliest years, Hackenschmidt devoted himself to physical development, particularly at the Secondary Science School (Realschule of Dorpat, as Tartu was then known), where he took advantage of the gymnasium. He excelled in cycling, gymnastics, swimming, running, jumping and weightlifting. His feats of strength astounded his teachers, as he could lift a small horse off the ground and lift 276 pounds overhead one handed. In a wrestler's bridge, he could pull a 335-pound barbell from the floor to his chest and press it overhead, bridging on his neck. In 1902, he jumped 100 times over a table with his feet tied together. He set several records in weight lifting and was considered both the strongest and the best-developed man in the world.
  Graduating from school in 1895, he entered the Lausmann factory, a large engineering firm in the city of Tallinn (then known as Reval), as a blacksmith's apprentice. He joined the city's Athletic and Cycling Club, becoming an ardent cyclist and winning prizes, but also developed a keen interest in wrestling and weight lifting. The turning point in his life came in 1896 when Georg Lurich, Hackenschmidt's compatriot Greco-Roman wrestler and strongman, toured through the area with a small company, challenging any and all comers. Hackenschmidt took up the challenge and was beaten. German wrestler Fritz Konietzko came to Tallinn in 1897, and Hackenschmidt fared better.
caption: Hackenschmidt, ca. 1900
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