In 1952 Georg Brueckner began practicing martial arts and he studied judo, karate and jujutsu. He opened his first karate dojo in Wilmersdorf, West-Berlin in 1961. Georg Brueckner began studying Taekwondo under Mike Anderson and Hans Vierthaler who opened the first Taekwondo sports club in Garmisch Partenkirchen in January 1963. Georg Brueckner and Vierthaler became the first Germans to receive their Shodan Black Belts from Korean Grandmaster Choi Hong Hi. It was in 1974 that Georg Brueckner began promoting the first kickboxing and martial arts shows in Europe and this earned him recognition as the “Father of European Kickboxing”.
Georg Brueckner and Mike Anderson went on to create full-contact sport karate tournaments and in 1976 they founded the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations or WAKO, a global sanctioning body for amateur kickboxing. In 1978 Georg Brueckner went on to promote the first WAKO World Championships in Berlin and, in 1987, the fifth WAKO World Championships in Munich’s Olympic Hall. Both events generated large crowds and created excellent publicity for the sport of kickboxing. Brueckner promoted numerous other events promoting top martial artists including Bill Wallace, Joe Lewis, Jhoon Rhee, Fumio Demura, Linda Lee (Bruce Lee’s widow), Jeff Smith and others.
Georg Brueckner believed in fair sports competition and he create safety gear for various styles of martial arts so they could compete without the risk of serious injuries. With the support of the medical and scientific communities Georg Brueckner created Top Ten Equipment using a highly flexible polyurethane padding for head, foot and hand protectors. He initially designed his gear for kickboxing competition, but modified the hand protectors as boxing gloves to be used in amateur boxing competition.
Many of Georg Brueckner inventions were patented in the USA, Germany, Japan and other in other countries. His boxing gloves and headgear were introduced as official gear for the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, and the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000. Georg Brueckner gear was the first modern boxing glove made with highly shock dampening polyurethane padding.
Georg Brueckner died on December 30, 1992 in Berlin. He was 62 years old.
