Freya-VfR Memel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Freya Club for Lawn Sports (VfR) Memel was a German sports club from the town of the same name in Memelland , which belonged to different states several times in the first half of the 20th century.

history

In 1922, shortly before Lithuania took possession of the Memel Land, the sports club “Freya” Memel was founded. P. Kwauka, at that time a member of the sports department of MTV Memel, reports in his unpublished manuscript “Leben und Erleben” (quoted from Fugalewitsch, see source): “One of our footballers, who was more concerned with class politics than sport, founded in 1922 the workers ' sports club ' Freya '. “ Whether“ Freya ”also belonged to the Reich German Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Association - the other Memel sports clubs stayed in their traditional German professional associations or joined them - is unknown. In the "Lithuanian time" of the Memel country, however, under the name "Freya Klaipėda" - the Lithuanians had renamed the city of Memel to Klaipėda - he took part in the games of the Baltic Republic. It was kicked from the first season in 1924 in the Klaipėda group in the Lithuanian championship operation. The club achieved its greatest success in the 1925 season when it became champions of the group mentioned. (Whether he did not participate / was not allowed to participate in the subsequent final round of the Lithuanian championship as a German club or failed, is not clear from the sources.)

When a single-track national league started for the first time in Lithuania in 1931, “Freya” was the only “German” club involved. This season he secured his best position with third place. The following season the club started as “Freya-VfR Klaipėda”. The aforementioned P. Kwauka: "When VfR Memel dissolved and its members joined Freya in 1931, it called itself the 'Freya' club for lawn sports." Despite the reinforcement, the merger club rose in the 1931 season in seventh place (out of eight teams ) and never returned to the highest Lithuanian league. The year the VfR was founded is unknown. It was probably started around the same time as the Freya, because it appears in the tables of the “Klaipėda Group” in 1924 and 1925.

Until then, Freya-VfR had always been in the shadow of SpVgg Memel , but that changed at the latest after the return of Memel land to the German Reich on March 22, 1939: The former workers' association with the club colors green and white was the only club from Memel to manage Promotion to the Gauliga East Prussia - but only for one year. Twelve games with twelve defeats and a goal difference of 6:63 was his disastrous result in the Gauliga season 1940/41 .

The club played its home games on the New Municipal Sports Field , which had a capacity of 6,000. The venue has an interesting history: At the beginning of the twenties, the city of Memel only had an old sports field on the “Wieners Promenade”, which no longer did justice to the growing number of athletes and clubs. Sports weeks were held in 1922 and 1923 to raise funds for a new building. During the Memel Sports Week in 1925, the new sports field on the old “Plantagenfort” was inaugurated. This place hosted an international match for the first time on September 13, 1930 : Lithuania won 4-0 against Estonia . In 1927, 1929 and 1932 the Lithuanian athletics championships were held on this.

With the end of the Second World War in 1945 and the onset of flight and expulsion of the remaining German population, the association ceased to exist.

Web links

literature

  • Algird Fugalewitsch "A comparative presentation of the German sports clubs of the Memel area and the sports clubs of the German minority in Lithuania from 1918 to 1945", written term paper to obtain the degree of Magister Artium (MA) of the Philosophical Faculty of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel 1995
  • Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 7: Club Lexicon . AGON-Sportverlag, Kassel 2001, ISBN 3-89784-147-9 .