Arthur Saxon

28 April 1878 – 6 August 1921 · Leipzig → Duisburg

Arthur Saxon — born Arthur Hennig, and billed as "the Iron-Master" — was the German strongman at the centre of the Saxon Trio. He is best known for the bent press, in which his recorded best of 168 kg (about 370 lb) is still regarded as the record, with an informal 175 kg reported in training.

Origins

Saxon was born Arthur Hennig in Leipzig on 28 April 1878. He was recruited into strongman work in Leipzig by Arno Patschke, a former Greco-Roman wrestler who performed as "Arno Saxon"; Arthur took the stage name, and his brothers Kurt and Hermann later joined him to form the Saxon Trio, which began performing with a European circus in 1897.

The work

The trio's act was built around Arthur's lifting. In one feature he raised his seated brothers on a barbell with one arm, and the brothers invited anyone in the audience who doubted a lift to come up and try it for themselves. The Saxons toured widely in Britain and on the Continent.

Their best-known episode was a clash with Eugen Sandow. During a bent-press performance Saxon claimed that Sandow could not repeat the lift; on 26 February 1898 Sandow, who was in the audience, took up the challenge and failed. The matter went to court, where Sandow won, the judge accepting that he had handled the bell in the same bodily attitude as Arthur — a ruling usually put down to the court's not understanding the lift.

Notable feats

Saxon recorded his best lifts in his own books. The figures usually cited are:

• Bent press: 168 kg (about 370 lb), recognised as the record; 175 kg (about 386 lb) reported informally in a gym.
• Two hands anyhow: 448 lb (203 kg).
• Pullover and push: 175 kg.
• Two-hands clean and jerk: 155 kg; one-hand clean and jerk: 112.5 kg.
• One-hand snatch: 90.5 kg (about 200 lb).
• Two-hands military press: 114.5 kg; behind-the-neck jerk: 141 kg.

Writings

Saxon set out his methods in The Development of Physical Power (1905), which covers barbell, dumbbell and kettlebell work and ring, ball and square lifting, illustrated with some forty-five pages of photographs of Saxon himself, and in The Text Book of Weight-Lifting (1910), which explains the bent press and the continental lifts and has more to say about the mental side of lifting.

Death

Saxon was exempted from service in the First World War and continued to perform, including in Scandinavia, but food shortages in Germany left him malnourished. His health did not recover after the war; he developed tuberculosis and died of pneumonia in Duisburg on 6 August 1921, aged forty-three. His death certificate gives his occupation as stonemason.

Disputed and unresolved

The place and date of the 168 kg bent press are not firmly established; English-language sources often round the figure to 370 or 371 lb. The 175 kg lift was not made in public under contest conditions. Claims of still heavier bent presses circulate but lack contemporary documentation.