Germania Bieber
The FC Germania Bieber is established in 1901 football club from the Offenbach district of Bieber . A few years after it was founded, it was one of the strongest teams in the region, reached the top division again in 1928 and was represented in the highest amateur league for several years after the Second World War. Since the early 1970s, Germania from the district, which today has around 15,000 inhabitants, has been playing in the lower divisions of the Hessian Football Association.
history
The club was founded in 1901 as FC Germania Bieber in the then still independent suburb of Offenbach, in the same year as its “big neighbor” Kickers Offenbach . Little is known about the foundation itself and the first few years. The dominant clubs in the region at that time were Viktoria 94 and 1. FC 93 from Hanau as well as the Frankfurt teams from Germania FC 1894 and the two Eintracht forerunners FC Victoria and FC Kickers . The "Dorfverein" Germania Bieber broke into this phalanx of established sizes when they were promoted to the A-class of the northern district of the South German Football Association in the 1908/09 season as champions of the B class. At the time, this league covered the area from Wiesbaden to Hanau and was the top division in German football.
Among the eight teams, one of which withdrew from the game, they only achieved 5:19 points and ended up in last place. That did not mean relegation, because the league was increased the following year, and for the first time local rivals OFC also belonged to this league. In the meantime the "Germanic peoples" had moved to their new home in the Waldhof district, which now also had the fencing required by the association. Until the First World War, FC Germania belonged to the top division with the exception of the 1912/13 season.
After the war, in 1919, FC Germania merged with the second local football club, FV Bieber , to become FV Germania Bieber . In terms of sport, the company initially continued seamlessly with the performance of the pre-war years, but only stayed for three years in the new top division, the Südmain district league. It was not until six years later, for the 1928/29 season , that FV Germania returned to the regional upper house, the district league Main / Hessen, and now began the most successful phase in the club's history. With a strong team around the half left Georg Huber , who came from 1. FC Nürnberg , the defender duo Winterzahn and Luckas, center runner Maier and left wing Maid, they achieved a positive point balance of 19:17 in the year after the promotion and finished 6th behind Eintracht , the FSV , Union Niederrad , Kickers Offenbach and Hanau 93. In 1928, in front of 8,000 spectators, Germania sensationally defeated the big rival OFC 2-1 and thus underpinned its home strength.
The "Waldhof" was soon considered to be a hot spot due to the emotionally charged atmosphere, especially at local derbies. Frankfurt international Rudolf Gramlich, for example, later said that he regularly sweated more in Bieber than in some international matches, and the magazine Fußball reported after a game of FV Germania against Rot-Weiss Frankfurt : "In Bieber there was another riot." Germania Bieber was able to secure a place in the midfield of the district league Main-Hessen in the following seasons up to the introduction of the Gauligen in 1933 .
With the introduction of the new league structure by the National Socialists, who dissolved the previous regional associations and created a league structure that was now “only” 16 top divisions, the Teutons fell back into the second division. Only once, in 1935, could you knock on the door of the Gauliga Südwest and, in a 1-0 win over FV Saarbrücken in the promotion round, inspire another 5000 spectators, but the club was unable to return to the first class.
When after the Second World War the leagues had to be restructured again and only five upper leagues formed the top level in the western occupation zones, the FV Germania Bieber was again classified in the second highest division, the Landesliga Hessen . The team around Hermann Alt successfully stayed in the top amateur class until 1953, and then narrowly missed the return to the now third-class first amateur league several times . Under coach Horst Böckler, when he was promoted to the fourth class group league in 1967/68, he returned to the higher amateur camp for three years. However, this was followed by a deep crash into the B-Class. Since then, the "yellow shirts" have been playing in the leagues of the Offenbach soccer district. In 2012 and 2017 he was promoted to the Offenbach regional league.
On March 28, 2014, the general meeting of FV Germania Bieber 1901 e. V. via the merger with FC Bieber 1960 e. V. from. With a large majority, FC Bieber was merged into FV Germania Bieber after more than 50 years of separation and after intensive negotiations by the board of directors Jan Carey and Klaus-Peter Keller. The merger took effect on July 1, 2014. Since July 1, 2014, the club has again been named FC Germania Bieber 1901 e. V.
Venue
The Germania-Stadion Am Waldhof in the eastern part of Bieber offers space for 6,000 spectators. It has been the home of the association since 1909. Before that, the parade ground of the 168 Infantry Regiment was used on the Bieberer Berg , where the Offenbacher Kickers stadium is located today.
literature
- Hardy Greens : Legendary football clubs. Hesse. Between FC Alsbach, Eintracht Frankfurt and Tuspo Ziegenhain. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-89784-244-0 , pp. 231-232.
- Hardy Greens: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 7: Club Lexicon . AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2001, ISBN 3-89784-147-9 , pp. 68-69.