The First Level 2 in Germany
Jim Wagner
I only offer one Level 2 seminar a year in Germany, and for 2008 it was in my Reality-Based European Headquarters Solingen, Germany. This event took place from September 22 to 26. The five courses were Conflict Conditioning, Scenario Training, Control & Defense, Improvised Weapons and Handgun Survival. Eighteen instructors were certified by me at the end of the week.
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For Scenario Training Gerd Dorfelt brought in his FIST suit was nice for students to see since we use High Gear suits for our contact fights. Gerd is an official distributor for FIST Deautschland and can be contacted by email at info@fist-deutschland.de The FIST suit is an excellent suit for contact training, especially with impact weapons, and I have used the FIST suit many times in police defensive tactics training. I highly recommend the suit for Reality-Based instructors.
What was great about teaching my Level 2 courses was that I knew everybody since they had all been certified by me in Level 1. Those graduating were: Steffen Becker, Christian Bengs, Jochen Burlafinger, Gerd Dorfelt, Jens Grossheim, Alexander Haag, Bernd Israng, Dominik Klose, Jens Kubesch, Georg Manz, Stefan Orlowski, Uli Rose, Joachim Roux, Bernadas Seskevicius, Stefan Solty, Carsten Spiekermann, Alexander Zippel, Jurgen Schaffrath and the only female instructor of Level 2 Manuela Schebera.
Georg Manz and Manuela Schebera own a business called Konstrucktionstechnik Manz in which they have developed a special scope mount for sniper and assault rifles. With a simple flip of a switch the scope can be taken off and then put back again without losing the zero. I have played with their invention and I really like it.
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On the final day, at the graduation ceremony, Boker president Carsten Felix came up to the training hall and presented me with the first Jim Wagner Reality Based Blade fixed blade edition with sheath. This knife is now on the market in Germany and I have the very first one off the assembly line. Mr. Felix wanted me to have it as well as to show everyone in the seminar what it looks like.
In addition to the training certificate everybody received a Jim Wagner Reality Based Blade folder with their names engraved in the blade. It was a graduation gift from Boker.
My new Level 2 German instructors are the first to spread my realistic training methods into the German market: stage blood, props, make-up, script writing, and true-to-life scenarios. They all are the ones who will revolutionize the way people in Germany learn self-defense.
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Helping me throughout the week was my Reality-Based Personal Protection Director of all German speaking countries Tobias Leckebusch. Also helping the entire week was my Italian Director Fabrizio Capucci who drove all the way from Revenna, Italy to Solingen, Germany.
Whenever I am in an area that has a museum or historical battle field I like to do some research on ancient or modern warfare. I found an excellent museum in Cologne called the Romisch-Germanisches Museum (Römano Germanic Museum). This museum was excellent containing thousands of ancient Roman artifacts, and quite a bit of gladiator pieces. Fabrizio and I spend a good hour and a half in the museum.
After the museum Fabrizio and I enjoyed our day off and walked around Cologne on a beautiful clear blue sky day. We visited the Cologne Cathedral known as “The Dom,” a beer brewery, the Lindt Chocolate Museum, and had lunch just watching people walk by.
The next morning Fabrizio dropped me off at Düsseldorf airport and he headed back to Italy.
I will be back in Germany in November teaching my Level 1 and 3 courses, along with a Women’s Survival course on the weekend.
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