GfL Darmstadt

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The community for physical exercises (GfL) Darmstadt was a sports club in the southern Hessian city of Darmstadt , which was created through a merger in 1938 and existed until the end of the Second World War. The soccer team played in the top German league, the Gauliga Südwest , in the 1939/40 season .

The "seizure of power" by the National Socialists from 1933 onwards also resulted in profound changes in sport. In the course of the synchronization , numerous sports organizations, including the regional associations of the German Football Association as well as the Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Association and the German Youth Force , were dissolved. In the municipalities and cities, attempts were made to merge the sports clubs, which are mostly located in the middle-class milieu, by amalgamating them into large clubs.

The community for physical exercises in Darmstadt was created through such a large-scale merger. On March 17, 1934, the TG 1846 and VfL Rot-Weiß merged to form TSG 1846 Darmstadt . This association was still voluntary, and the two parties already had common roots: VfL Rot-Weiß was only founded in 1924 as part of the clean separation of gymnastics and sports clubs as the football department was outsourced from the TG in 1846 . On October 18, 1938, the GfL Darmstadt was finally formed as a compulsory union of the TSG 1846 with numerous other associations, the local group leader of the Reich Association for Physical Exercise , Otto Löwer, became their "leader". The SV Darmstadt 98 was the only major sports club in the city, beyond the merger and could retain its independence.

In football, the new major club reached the promotion round to the top division at the time, the Gauliga Südwest , as early as 1939 , but failed there with zero points from three games against Union Niederrad and Opel Rüsselsheim . Due to the outbreak of the Second World War, the season was canceled shortly after the start of the round and only resumed at the end of November, now in the two seasons Mainhessen and Saarpfalz. The GfL Darmstadt was awarded a place in the Saarpfalz relay due to the increase from ten to fourteen Gauligists as a participant in the promotion round. The 1939/40 season turned into a sporting debacle for the team, however, GfL had no chance against the established clubs, lost to 1. FC Kaiserslautern (1:10) and TSG Ludwigshafen (0:11) even in double digits, scoring in the twelve games only seven goals and finished the round with only two points from bottom of the table. The only win of the season (against Pirmasens) was won by the southern Hessians at the "green table".

After all German sports clubs were dissolved after the end of the war, many of the GfL Darmstadt's predecessor clubs were re-established under their old names. This is how TSG 1846 Darmstadt was re-established, whose footballers were able to compete in the fourth-class 2nd amateur league Hessen at times in the 1950s.

literature

  • Hardy Greens : Legendary football clubs. Hesse. Between FC Alsbach, Eintracht Frankfurt and Tuspo Ziegenhain. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-89784-244-0 , p. 192.