BFC Germania 1888
| BFC Germania 1888 | |||
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| Basic data | |||
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| Surname | Berlin football club Germania 1888 e. V. |
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| Seat | Berlin , Germany | ||
| founding | April 15, 1888 | ||
| Colours | Black-red-white | ||
| Website | bfcgermania88.de | ||
| First soccer team | |||
| Venue | Sports field on Götzstrasse. | ||
| Places | 1000 | ||
| league | Berlin District League B, Season 1 | ||
| 2016/17 | 10th place | ||
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The BFC Germania 1888 (officially Berlin football club Germania 1888 eV ) is a German football club from the Berlin district of Tempelhof . It was founded in 1888, making it the oldest football club in Germany still in existence. The team currently plays in the Berlin district league B (corresponds to the 10th league).
history
1888: foundation
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Germania was founded on April 15, 1888 by then 17-year-old Paul Jestram together with his brothers Max, Fritz and Walter Jestram and a few school friends. At that time, football was not widespread or popular in Germany. The first football games in Berlin were played by the British in the winter of 1881/82 . As there were no sports fields of its own, the BFC initially used Tempelhofer Feld , on which Tempelhof Airport was later built.
1890: First (unofficial) German championship
Shortly after the club was founded, the players joined Germany's first football association - the Association of German Football Players (BDF) - and won its first championship in 1891 , which was held in cup mode. The field of participants was limited to Berlin teams, but since the BDF was the only German football association at the time, the championship can be regarded as the first (unofficial) German championship. According to the association, it should have won a second BDF championship. According to Spiel und Sport - the only German sports newspaper in the first half of the 1890s - the competition did not take place a second time: “BFC Germania won the national championship, which was only fought once.” It may be the deciding game between the champions of the BDF and the champions of the DFuCB in the 1891/92 season, which Germania won 3-1 against English FC.
1892 to 1897: Change of association and competition with Viktoria 89
Since there was already a dispute at the founding meeting of the BDF over the question of whether foreign players (especially the British) could be used in championship games and were allowed to take on functions in a club, whereas especially the BFC Germania in the new national zeitgeist of the moment vehemently opposed the beginning of the Wilhelmine era , a number of clubs present refused to join the BDF. Many of the "insurgents" founded the German Football and Cricket Association (DFuCB) a little later to compete with the BDF.
The BDF found it difficult to assert itself in the period that followed and was finally dissolved in February / March 1892. Some member associations joined the DFuCB, others dissolved or (for some time) did not belong to any association. The BFC also applied for admission to the DFuCB, but this was rejected due to the rigid attitude of the Teutons when the BDF was founded and was not accepted until 1892. The BFC remained competitive in the DFuCB and was four times runner-up behind the then biggest competitor BTuFC Viktoria 1889 , which dominated the association and won five championships in a row.
In 1897, however, the BFC's successful days ended abruptly. Like many other member clubs of the DFuCB, the Germanic tribes wanted to switch to the newly founded Association of German Ball Game Clubs (VDB, later the Association of Berlin Ball Game Clubs ). However, this was initially not possible because many club members were also members of the BTuFC Britannia 1892 and this "double membership" was not accepted by the VDB. The Germanic tribes were excluded from gaming for two years.
1897 to 1918: Crash into second class
In 1899 the BFC was finally able to take part in the game in the VDB. However, the balance of power had shifted significantly to the detriment of the team. The club could not stay in the top group and slipped further and further to the bottom of the table. In 1904 it was finally clear that he would be relegated to second class. Although they were promoted immediately, they were relegated as early as 1909 and then the BFC could only qualify twice (1911/12 and 1917/18) for the top Berlin division, but the penultimate place was occupied each time, which resulted in relegation meant.
Influence of Germania in the "early days" of German football
Some members of Germania had a lasting impact on football in Germany outside of the club. The two German players Georg Demmler and Fritz Boxhammer were actively involved in founding the Berlin Football Association and the German Football Association (DFB). When the first official international match of the DFB in 1908 stood Goalkeeper Baumgarten Fritz a Germania player in the selection . The Teutonic Hans Schmidt was active in the third official international match . Germania players Paul Eichelmann and Zierold were already involved in the so-called original international matches in previous years .
The BFC also had an influence on what is now Berlin's largest club, Hertha BSC , in that when it was named in 1892, Hertha was initially only second choice behind Germania . However, since this name was already taken, the founders decided on Hertha.
Development until today
After 1918, Germania was never able to build on the fame of the turn of the century . Instead, the club crashed into the lower-class Berlin leagues. At the time of the Third Reich , the BFC Germania only made people sit up and take notice politically: In an anniversary publication, they boasted that they were the first German association to have excluded Jewish members after the seizure of power and to refuse admission to people of Jewish faith .
After the Second World War and the dissolution of all sports clubs, the club's tradition was initially continued in the SG Neu-Tempelhof . The club, which has had its old name since 1949, managed to leave its sporting insignificance and compete in a higher division only once: At the end of the 1952/53 season, BFC Germania was promoted to the Berlin amateur league (at that time the second highest League in Berlin under the Berlin City League ). The brief soaring ended after just one year; As the bottom of the table, the team rose again directly after the season 1953/54.
In the recent past, the club has developed into a proverbial elevator team : Between the 2000/01 and 2002/03 seasons, the march from the Berlin District League (7th division) to the Berlin Association League (5th division) succeeded. The BFC was able to hold out there for three years. In the 2005/06 season, however , the "Germanic" rose as the bottom of the table back into the national league. In the following seasons the negative series continued and so Germania finished last in 2007 in the state and 2008 in the district league, which means relegation. For the 2008/09 season the club started in the district league A (due to the introduction of the 3rd league only ninth class). After the penultimate place and the resulting relegation, Germania is now in the district league B.
Since 2013 they have been members of the renowned Club of Pioneers .
Venues
The BFC Germania initially played like several other Berlin soccer clubs on the Tempelhofer Feld. After the soccer fields there had proven to be no longer up-to-date at the beginning of the 20th century, the leading Berlin soccer clubs looked for suitable locations for the construction of soccer fields. In 1904, Germania leased an open space from the Prussian military treasury on the barracks of the Guard Train Battalion in Tempelhof between Ringbahnstrasse and Berlin Ringbahn . A soccer field was created there, on which the club has played its home games since then. A grandstand was not built.
In addition to the normal Germania league games, a number of historically significant games were played on the new Germania pitch. On December 18, 1904, a Berlin association selection defeated the team from Central Germany 6-3. On April 29, 1905, Germania defeated a team from the Civil Service London 3-2 in an international friendly in front of more than 1000 spectators. This game was also attended by the Prussian Crown Prince Wilhelm . At Easter 1906, Germania lost 0:11 in an international friendly game to the Corinthians from England in front of 1,500 spectators.
As part of the final round of the German soccer championship , the sports field served as a venue for several matches: On April 30, 1905, Eintracht Braunschweig defeated Viktoria 96 Magdeburg 2-1 after extra time in the preliminary round . In the quarter-finals on May 28th of the same year, the Dresden SC defeated the team of SC Victoria Hamburg 5-3. On June 7, 1908, the final of the German championship took place on Germania-Platz in front of 4,000 spectators . Viktoria 89 beat the Stuttgarter Kickers 3-1. On April 17, 1910 suggested Tasmania Rixdorf in the quarterfinals to VfR 1897 Wroclaw with 2: 1.
In 1915, the military treasury ended the lease, so that the sports field had to be given up. Today the area of the former Germania sports field with the headquarters of the Berlin city cleaning company is built over. In the following decades Germania played on the sports field Halkerzeile in Lichtenrade and in the Friedrich-Ebert-Stadion in Tempelhof. The sports field on Götzstraße in Tempelhof has been the home of the club since 1988. Since May 2019 the place has been called Sportanlage in honor of the club's founder, Paul Jestram .
successes
Oldest football club in Germany
BFC Germania describes itself as the oldest German football club. However, it was not the first football club to be founded in Germany. There were already clubs such as B. the Berlin football club Frankfurt (1885) or the SC Germania zu Hamburg (1887), of which it is not known exactly when he turned to football. The BFC Frankfurt disbanded in the early years of the 20th century, Germania became part of the Hamburger SV.
Other sports clubs still active today often have an earlier founding year in the club name. At that time, however, these were gymnastics clubs and only formed their football departments after 1888, such as B. the TSV 1860 Munich , VfL Bochum 1848 , SSV Ulm 1846 or the Hamburg gymnastics club from 1816 .
literature
- Christian Wolter : Lawn of passion. The football fields of Berlin. History and stories. Edition Else, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-036563-8 .
- History and stories - Berlin football . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 4, 2000, ISSN 0944-5560 ( luise-berlin.de ).
- Wolfgang Niersbach , Rudi Michel : 100 years of the DFB. The history of the German Football Association . Sportverlag 1999, ISBN 3-328-00850-0
Web links
- Web presence of the association
- The SUCCESS of the oldest German football club; Tables archive 1891–1918. (No longer available online.) BFC Germania 1888 e. V., archived from the original on September 29, 2007 ; Retrieved April 20, 2010 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger: Goal !: The Story of German Football . Gardners Books, 2003, ISBN 0-9540134-5-X , p. 51 ( preview in Google Book Search)
- ↑ Information on political education . Edition 290. Universum Verlagsanstalt 2006, p. 10.
- ↑ Wolfgang Niersbach, Rudi Michel: 100 years of the DFB. The history of the German Football Association , p. 484.
- ^ Henry Werner: Football in Berlin: Players - Clubs - Emotions 1880 to today . Elsengold Verlag, 2016.
- ↑ Philipp Hartmann: Late appreciation for Paul Jestram. Tempelhof: BFC Germania football pitch named after the club's founder. In: Berlin Week. May 15, 2019, accessed May 16, 2019 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 27 '46.9 " N , 13 ° 23' 34.4" E