Soccer in Leipzig

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The football in Leipzig plays in the development of football sport in Germany a prominent role. The German Football Association was founded in Leipzig on January 28, 1900 , from here came the first German football champion, VfB Leipzig, in the 1902/03 season, and in the local district of Gohlis , the Wacker Stadium on Tauchaer Weg (later the Stadium of Peace ) built the first major stadium in Germany, which offered space for more than 40,000 visitors. Later, the Zentralstadion, inaugurated in 1956 and used as home ground by the VfB successor clubs, was the largest stadium that ever existed in Germany, until it was converted to 44,345 seats and reduced again at the beginning of the new millennium. The Leipzig city derby between SC Rotation Leipzig and SC Lokomotive Leipzig (1: 2) attracted one hundred thousand spectators on September 9, 1956; that is a record number of spectators for soccer point games in Germany that still exists today. The clash between Lokomotive Leipzig and BSG Chemie Leipzig is one of the most common football derbies in Germany with 103 matches .

RB Leipzig has been playing in the Bundesliga since the 2016/17 season and surprisingly came second behind FC Bayern Munich and thus qualified directly for the UEFA Champions League .

How it all started

Football was played at the Petrischule Leipzig as early as 1883 under the direction of the gymnastics teacher Wortmann. On June 3, 1888, gymnasts of the "United Riegen" played batball and football for the first time on the farm meadows. With the simultaneous founding of the “Spielvereinigung des Allgemeine Turnverein”, the first organized soccer team was born in Leipzig. At the 7th German Gymnastics Festival in Munich on July 26, 1889, 22 club members of the General Gymnastics Club in Leipzig 1845 played soccer against Turner from the London “Orion” club. In September 1892, the clubSportplatz ” opened "on a spacious area on the outskirts of the city, a facility that is unique in all of Germany", where many Leipzig clubs later played their first games. The first Leipzig soccer club was founded on February 1, 1893 by apprentices and young assistants from a mechanical workshop in the Gohlis district and was named Lipsia . Just a few weeks later, another club was established with the Leipzig Ball Game Club in the Lindenau district , before a predecessor of what would later become VfB Leipzig was founded in the autumn of the same year. In the fall of 1894, the Berlin goal and football club Germania, the first foreign club in Leipzig, played a game against Lipsia. The FC Wacker was from a fusion of the February 24, 1895 Concordia Leipzig and Saxonia Leipzig , founded on 13 May 1896 was followed by the instrumental of Theodor Schöffler created VfB Leipzig. The establishment of the Leipzig Ball Game Association in August 1897 brought significant progress to ensure orderly and regular play among the clubs, and on December 14, 1897 the first city game took place in Prague.

The Leipziger BC - he had also won the first city championship in 1898 - won the Leipzig city championship three times in a row in the last years of the 19th century before FC Wacker won the Central German championship at the turn of the century .

The early dominance of VfB Leipzig

Memorial stone to the first final of the German soccer championship in 1903

In the first years of the new century, VfB not only developed into the strongest team in Leipzig, but also into the strongest team in Germany, which between 1903 and 1906 reached the finals of the German soccer championship three times. VfB won the championship twice (1903 and 1906 ), while the championship of 1904 was prematurely canceled and subsequently canceled, so that the VfB final against Britannia Berlin no longer took place. In the following year, VfB did not play in the quarter-finals of the German championship of 1905 against Eintracht Braunschweig and in 1907 VfB failed in the semi-finals against later champions Freiburg FC . After FC Wacker reached the final round of the German soccer championship in 1908 , failed in the semifinals against eventual champions Viktoria Berlin and no Leipzig club could qualify for the final round in 1909 , VfB dominated Leipzig soccer again immediately before the outbreak of the First World War played a decisive role again throughout Germany. Between 1910 and 1914, VfB took part in the final round of the German soccer championship four times and qualified for the final three times: while it was defeated by Viktoria in Berlin in 1911 and by SpVgg Fürth in 1914 , it won the title for the third time in 1913 , so that the Before the outbreak of the First World War and the associated forced break until 1918/19, VfB Leipzig was the German record champion ahead of Viktoria Berlin with two titles (1908 and 1911).

The creeping decline

Between 1920 and 1931 VfB was able to secure another four participations in the final round of the German soccer championship, but failed three times in the preliminary round and once in the quarter-finals ( 1927 against SV 1860 Munich ). In the same period, SpVgg Leipzig reached three finals, with 1924 even reaching the semi-finals, where they lost 1-0 to Hamburger SV . Fortuna Leipzig ( 1926 ) and FC Wacker ( 1929 ) each qualified for the finals once during this period . In the analogue championships of the Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Association , VfL Leipzig Stötteritz won the ATSB national championship three times in a row between 1921 and 1923 . After that, the great days of the Leipzig football clubs were over for the time being, because from 1932 onwards, not a single final round was successful. The only bright spot in the 1930s was VfB's cup victory in its second edition in 1936 . When the 16 Sportgaue started playing on September 10, 1933, VfB and SC Wacker took part in the debut round of the Gauliga Sachsen 1933/34. VfB was tied with the champions Dresdner SC - both clubs led the table with 34: 6 points each and VfB had won both games in the association round (2: 0/2: 1) - runner-up and SC Wacker finished fifth Rank. The blue-whites of VfB belonged to the Gauliga Sachsen until the last season 1943/44. The SV Fortuna was only missing in the founding year and with the SC Wacker, TuRa and SpVgg Leipzig-Lindenau, other clubs from Leipzig belonged to the top soccer league at the time, but which was dominated by the Dresdner SC.

A new beginning in the GDR

Leipzig football during the GDR was characterized by the rivalry between the old VfB Leipzig in the more bourgeois east of the city, which from then on appeared under different names and had its most successful phase in the 1980s under the name 1.FC Lokomotive Leipzig , and the BSG Chemie Leipzig from the west of the city, which is traditionally characterized by industry. This association, which has its roots in the TuRa Leipzig , which was founded in 1932 , went through various name changes, some of which were forced by politics, but was best known under the term “chemistry”.

BSG Chemie had the better start in GDR football . The chemical predecessor club ZSG industry Leipzig played in the first season 1949/50 in the first division and won in the following season 1950/51 - the first season in which the league changed its name under this term - already under the name of BSG Chemie the championship, while the city rivals under the name BSG Einheit Ost Leipzig belonged to the second division until the 1952/53 season . In the 1953/54 season it came for the first time in league operations to the derby between these two clubs, the chemistry with 2-1 in the home and 5-1 in the away game both times in his favor. In the final table, chemistry took second and unit east only twelfth.

The first Leipzig city derbies in league games had already happened in 1951/52 , when the army sports club Vorwärts Leipzig, founded in 1950, was given a place in the first division without having to qualify for it. Chemie clearly prevailed in these games with 5: 2 (home) and 3: 0 (away) and took third place in the final table, while Vorwärts only took 15th place (from 19 participants at the time). In order to advance the army sports club, a total of eight players from BSG Chemie were “lured away” before the beginning of the coming 1952/53 season : “The Chemistry team was stripped of the ground because the best players were lost. With promises, temptations and a portion of pressure, one had reached the goal on the part of Vorwärts. ... (But) Vorwärts Leipzig had the reinforcement action brought no luck. Driven by the antipathy of the Leipzig football fans and even more motivated opponents, the team was initially relocated to Berlin, only to be relegated at the end of the season despite attempts at manipulation. "

Before the 1954/55 season , the sporting structures in the GDR underwent radical changes. In an effort to "concentrate the best forces in football", the first division clubs were assigned to branches of industry , with each branch of industry receiving only one club. Because the main focus of the Chemistry Sports Association was in Halle , Leipzig was deprived of its naming rights. Here, the Lokomotive sports association , behind which the Deutsche Reichsbahn stood, and the Rotation printing companies were commissioned to take over or form new clubs. This is how the SC Lokomotive Leipzig and the SC Rotation Leipzig came into being , which existed from 1954/55 to 1962/63.

Although chemistry had lost its name and no longer played in the Leutzsch district as before , but in Gohlis (in the "Stadium of Peace"), the new locomotive team consisted almost exclusively of players from the former chemistry team, so that it was recognizable was and attracted the same audience.

The "rest of Leipzig"

Lived rivalry: mural at the entrance to the Bruno-Plache-Stadium , Lok's home ground. The year 1964 was obviously attached by chemistry fans in memory of the sensational championship title of the same year and to provoke the city rival.

After nine years of existence of the locomotive and the rotation, both clubs floundered largely unsuccessfully. This unsatisfactory situation called the functionaries to the scene. It was decided that the two sports clubs should be merged to form the new SC Leipzig. As a substructure and talent shed for the SC, a second club was to be built while retaining the first division place, which was named BSG Chemie in memory of the GDR champions from 1951. Literally, it said in a submission of the Leipzig district board in the German Gymnastics and Sports Association : "The league team of the BSG Chemie Leipzig is to be built up in terms of performance so that it meets the requirements of the league." possible decline in chemistry must be accepted. In any case, the fact is that SC Leipzig received the preferred players from the two previous Leipzig clubs and chemistry was only given "the rest". But the allocation of the players to the two new clubs was by no means based solely on their athletic ability. Anyone who was considered to be politically “not in line” or who had been out for a longer period in the last few months due to an injury or was unable to call up their actual performance had the “greatest requirement” to be assigned to the “rest of Leipzig”. In this context, the former chemistry player Manfred Walter later commented as follows: “It was very questionable from the start whether those responsible had actually put together the better team. Most of the players were about equally strong. ”And the former rotation captain Siegfried Fettke turned out to be a good prophet when he comforted his former comrade Bernd Herzog , who was initially sad because of his assignment to chemistry:“ Don't be sad. They made the mistake of reviving Leutzsch . You will see that the hut is full from the first game on. "

While the supposed "starting group" of SC Leipzig took a respectable third place at the end of the season, the so-called "rest of Leipzig" was sensational champions. Only three of the 26 encounters were lost. The home strength of the “chemists” was particularly impressive: they remained unbeaten in all 13 games, nine were won, four ended in a draw. A particular strength of the team was the defensive, which allowed only seven goals against at home and played eight times to zero. Only in one home game (3: 3 against SC Empor Rostock on April 1, 1964) did the team concede more than one goal and they only allowed three away (1: 3 at SC Motor Jena on March 1, 1964) Conceded to.

Much has been puzzled over the “secret” of this incredible success of the “outsiders”. Certainly the team benefited from the fact that they “had a good mood in the group” (Manfred Walter), every ball was fought so that more technically adept opponents could hardly prevail ( Klaus Lisiewicz ) and “the other teams were fit mostly superior ”. (Bernd Herzog)

Press reports from those days also reveal the special strengths and virtues of the championship team: “In every situation, whether promising or not, the people of the fair impressed with a real burst of fighting energy and an unheard-of will to win.” “The defenders use their physical means consistently and gently in a duel neither the opponent nor himself. ”“ Chemistry did not outplay his opponents, but rather brought them to their knees with a great fighting spirit. ”“ The physical condition that allowed the players was noticeably good, in addition to the clever build-up of the game in defense The hymns of praise poured out over the chemistry team sounded like this or similar, which Rostock coach Walter Fritzsch also joined: “There is a lot of enthusiasm and will in the team, and their advancement to the top of the table was no accident ! "

A memo from November 1963 portrayed the situation at local rivals SC Leipzig quite differently: “The individual games revealed that the previous assessment was a fallacy and, above all, that the collective formation is still completely inadequate. The players come onto the field with the good will to win, but do not have the individual collective strength to fight for every ball and to make uncompromising use of situations that have been played out. "

Lokomotive Leipzig takes over the supremacy

Because players from BSG Chemie were later delegated to their city rivals, who had been trading as 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig since the 1965/66 season , the latter gradually took over the supremacy in Leipzig and Chemie escaped in the 1966/67 and especially 1967/68 seasons only just about the descent. It was all the more astonishing that this overtook 1. FC Lok of all places in the 1968/69 season . After its immediate resurgence in the 1969/70 season , the "locomotive" finally took over local supremacy, especially since Chemie itself was relegated from the top division for the first time in the 1970/71 season and was only able to return sporadically later, most of the time until at the end of the GDR but had to spend in the second division.

1. FC Lok won the FDGB Cup four times ( 1975/76 , 1980/81 , 1985/86 and 1986/87 ), which Chemie and its legal predecessor SC Lok won in the 1957 and 1965/66 seasons but never GDR master. In the seasons 1966/67, 1985/86 and 1987/88 it was only enough for the runner-up. The greatest success on an international level was the qualification for the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup 1986/87 , which was lost 1-0 to Ajax Amsterdam . This makes Lok the only GDR club besides 1. FC Magdeburg (winner of the European Cup Winners 'Cup 1973/74 ) and Carl Zeiss Jena (finalist in the European Cup Winners' Cup 1980/81 ) that was able to reach the final of a European football competition.

After German reunification

Jimmy Hartwig (2nd from right) was the first coach of the newly founded FC Sachsen Leipzig in 1990/91.

The 1990/91 season was the last league season in the old GDR. Chemistry Leipzig missed as runner-up in the previous second division season 1989/90 the promotion behind the championship with twelve points winning chemistry Bohlen . Because Chemie Böhlen was plagued by financial problems at that time and Chemie Leipzig would have liked to see the promotion in order to create a good starting position for the league assignment in reunited Germany (1991/92 season), the two football teams merged to form FC Sachsen Leipzig and took under this name her place in the first division season 1990/91. Coach Jimmy Hartwig started with the aim of leading the team into the newly structured second division.

At the end of the 1990/91 season 1. FC Lok finished seventh and FC Sachsen twelfth, which means that both Leipzig opponents - together with the teams in eighth to eleven places and the two season winners of the second division - made the relegation round to promotion reached the second division. For this purpose, two groups were formed, the winners of which qualified for the coming second division season 1991/92 , while the remaining six teams had to start in the third division Oberliga Nordost . Explosively, both Leipzig teams were assigned to the same group. In this, the "Loksche" won undefeated and without conceding a convincing goal, while FC Sachsen (who also lost both derbies 0: 1 and 0: 4) ended up in last place.

Before the new 1991/92 season, the locomotive again took on its original name VfB , which was supposed to be a reminder of the glorious days before the Second World War , but with which many fans could not identify. The VfB played in the 1990s for long stretches in the second division and even a season in 1993/94 , but rose again immediately. When the club was even relegated to the third- tier Regionalliga Nordost at the end of the 1997/98 season, its (financially-related) decline could not be stopped. In 2000, in which the ninth place in the 1999/00 season meant relegation to the fourth-class Oberliga Nordost-Süd through the regional league reform, the first bankruptcy proceedings were initiated. Since this was only carried out inconsistently and the club did not manage to return to the third division, the mountain of debt continued to grow. At the beginning of 2004, new insolvency proceedings were initiated, which this time resulted in the dissolution of the traditional association, which was carried out in July 2004.

FC Sachsen Leipzig was represented in the third division regional league until the 2000/01 season and then almost consistently in the fourth division until its relegation at the end of the 2008/09 season , in which bankruptcy had also been filed. Sachsen Leipzig was dissolved at the end of the 2010/11 season - which was sportingly disappointing and in which a controversial youth cooperation agreement with RB Leipzig had also annoyed the supporters, which in total led to a real slump in audience numbers.

New foundations in Leipzig football

BSG Chemie Leipzig , which was newly founded in 1997 and which entered the league game for the first time at the beginning of the 2008/09 season and sees itself in the “true tradition” of the old chemistry team, took over the team and the playing rights of the first men's team of VfK Blau in 2011 -Weiß Leipzig in the Sachsenliga . The club played - initially as a sub-tenant and since the dissolution of the FC Sachsen successor SG Sachsen Leipzig in 2014 as the main tenant - in the Alfred Kunze Sports Park.

Another Leipzig association with national media coverage is Roter Stern Leipzig ; an idealistically motivated cultural-political sports project that represents the classic antithesis to the purely success-oriented RB Leipzig. The association has received several awards for its commitment against right-wing extremism . The red star comes from the Connewitz district . After it was founded in 1999, the club rose immediately three times and played in the city league from 2002. In 2009 they were promoted to the district class, where players and fans in Brandis were attacked by neo-Nazis and some were seriously injured. After several promotions and one relegation, the club has been playing in the national class north since the 2015/16 season.

1. FC Lokomotive had already been re-established at the end of 2003 . This took over the existing structures of VfB and built a new soccer team, which had to make a new start in the eleventh class 3rd district class Leipzig season 2 in the 2004/05 season . The league was won convincingly with 26 wins from 26 games and an outstanding goal difference of 316: 13. On October 9, 2004, the club set a record for the Guinness Book of Records when 12,421 spectators came to the central stadium for the league game against Eintracht Großdeuben II and set a new world record in a league game in the lowest national division. The merger with the seventh-class SSV 52 Torgau , which took place after the season, made it possible to take their place in the Leipzig Season 2 district class . The "Loksche" won the championship in the next two seasons and made it back to the fifth division in the 2007/08 season. In the 2012/13 season , the "Lok" is represented in the fourth-class Regionalliga Nordost for the first time since its re-establishment . In the coming 2009/10 season of the fifth-highest division, for the first time since 2002/03 , league derbies occurred between the re-established Lok Leipzig and the financially on the brink of FC Sachsen Leipzig , both of which ended goalless.

But a new rival had long since formed, which the die-hard fans of both traditional Leipzig clubs Lok and Saxony rejected equally: RB Leipzig, which was founded in 2009 and secured its place in the league through a merger with SSV Markranstädt (from the Leipzig district) had, rose to the fourth-class regional league at the end of the same season and thus immediately formed the currently most successful Leipzig football team, which, due to the ambitious plans of the Red Bull company behind it and its financial possibilities, has the best prerequisites to dominate Leipzig football in the future. RB Leipzig rose to the 3rd soccer league in 2013 and, after just one season, in 2014 to the 2nd Bundesliga. From the 2016/17 season, RB Leipzig played in the 1st Bundesliga and surprisingly reached 2nd place behind Bayern Munich and thus qualified directly for the Champions League.

With Inter Leipzig , a club was founded in 2013, which was able to start in the Sachsenliga by taking over the playing rights of SV See and which was promoted to the Oberliga Nordost , where he was divided into the South group, in its first season in 2015 with the runner-up championship .

In the 2019/20 season, ten Leipzig clubs will play men's football above the city level:

society founding league Division
RB Leipzig 2009 Bundesliga 1
1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig 2003 Regionalliga Northeast 4th
BSG Chemie Leipzig 1997 Regionalliga Northeast 4th
Inter Leipzig 2013 NOFV-Oberliga 5
FC Blau-Weiß Leipzig 1990 Saxony League 6th
Red Star Leipzig 1999 State class Saxony 7th
SV Lipsia 93 Eutritzsch 1893 State class Saxony 7th
SG Rotation Leipzig 1950 State class Saxony 7th
SG Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe 1990 State class Saxony 7th
SV Brave Leipzig 1906 State class Saxony 7th

Women's soccer in Leipzig

There are reports of soccer games by Leipzig women in the GDR in 1959 and 1960, among others. a. a game against a team from Dresden is documented.

In 1968, the BSG Chemie Leipzig founded a women's team. In 1979 they took part in the GDR determination of the best in women's football . In 1981 and 1982 they reached third place in the GDR's best determination .

In 1994/95 and 1996/97 SV Post Leipzig played in the Regionalliga Nordost.

VfB Leipzig rose to the Regionalliga Nordost in 2003 and reached 5th place in the Regionalliga Nordost in 2003/04, thereby qualifying for the newly introduced 2nd Bundesliga North . Due to the insolvency of VfB Leipzig, the newly founded 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig , to which the VfB women's team has changed, took notice. As eleventh in the West group, they were relegated to the regional league and were promoted to the second league again the following year. The team took second place in the north group behind the second team of Hamburger SV, which was not eligible for promotion, and was thus able to move up to the 1st Bundesliga . After a season in which they only got 13 points, they relegated back to the second division. Up until the 2012/13 season, Leipzig was the 1st locomotive to play in the North Season of the 2nd Bundesliga. Because of the financial problems, the women's department moved to the newly founded FFV Leipzig club , which also took over the playing rights from Lok Leipzig. Until 2017 she was represented as FFV Leipzig in the North Season of the 2nd Bundesliga. The FFV operates the performance center of the Saxon Football Association.

The SV Eintracht Leipzig-Süd played in the regional league since 2012. There they won the championship in 2014, but they waived the associated promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga. As a result, the runner-up 1. FC Union Berlin rose to the Bundesliga. After the end of the 2014/15 season, the Eintracht women's teams switched to FFV Leipzig and the Eintracht youth teams take part in the game as the "SV Eintracht / FFV II" game association.

literature

  • Jens Fuge: A century of Leipzig football. The years 1883 - 1945. Connewitzer Verlagbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1996, ISBN 3-928833-23-5 .
  • Freundeskreis Probstheida: 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig , Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-944068-48-0 (= Library of German Football , Volume 5)
  • Special issue Leipzig - football city between tradition and modernity. Zeitspiel, issue 9, August 2017, pp. 34–69, ISSN 2365-3175

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig - BSG Chemie Leipzig (AGON Sportverlag, Kassel), p. 12 / ISBN 978-3-89784-357-8 .
  2. Werner Skrentny (ed.): The big book of the German football stadiums. Publishing house Die Werkstatt. Göttingen 2001. ISBN 3-89533-306-9 . P. 225.
  3. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 14.
  4. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 15.
  5. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 16.
  6. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 24.
  7. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 25.
  8. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 25 f.
  9. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 26.
  10. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 31.
  11. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 34.
  12. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 36.
  13. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 40.
  14. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 41.
  15. a b Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 44.
  16. Jens Fuge: The rest of Leipzig , p. 42.
  17. Mission statement of the BSG Chemie ( Memento of December 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (on the official website of the association)
  18. Friday: Money gives you wings (July 15, 2009 article)
  19. Publication in the New Football Week of July 28, 1959
  20. ^ Publication in the New Football Week on February 2, 1960
  21. Hoffmann / Nendza: Frauenfußball, p. 62.
  22. Women's football in the GDR. In: MDR. June 29, 2011, accessed August 30, 2015 .
  23. Max Zeising: Dreaming of the big stage. In: New Germany. February 21, 2015, accessed August 30, 2015 .
  24. Christoph Lippold: Top teams from Leipzig come together. (No longer available online.) In: FFV-Leipzig. Archived from the original on April 17, 2016 ; Retrieved April 17, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ffv-leipzig.de