LTV Wuppertal
| Surname | Langerfelder Turnverein 1885 eV |
|---|---|
| Club colors | Red White |
| Founded | February 17, 1885 |
| Members | approx. 800 (2018) |
| Homepage | www.ltv-wuppertal.de |
The Langerfelder Turnverein Wuppertal , or LTV Wuppertal for short , is a German sports club based in Wuppertal-Langerfeld . It is one of the oldest and largest sports clubs in eastern Wuppertal .
history
The association was founded on February 17, 1885 by Gustav Kellermann, Albert Kötting and Adolf Teelen, among others. On November 7, 1911, the entry was made in the register of associations at the district court in Schwelm .
The textile manufacturer Rudolf Homberg, who was also chairman of the association from 1936 to 1940, can be named as a prominent patron. In the eventful history of its existence, the LTV Wuppertal produced Olympic athletes in gymnastics and handball players up to the Bundesliga level. The gymnasts Helmut Bantz and Hardy Frenger took part in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki. The gymnastics team became German club champions in 1953. In 1956 Helmut Bantz became Olympic champion in horse jumping . Eight members have been awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany over the years for their special merits .
LTV Wuppertal today has around 800 members, including around 350 children and young people, who are primarily involved in the sports of badminton , fistball , gymnastics , handball , jazz dance , karate and gymnastics . The association houses 20 different sports departments and courses, which in turn are supervised by 35 trainers and instructors who, depending on the sport, expand their knowledge from time to time with continuation courses from the state sports association or the Rhenish gymnastics association.
The last new founding is the karate and jazz dance for kids & teens department as well as the Euroteam, which takes part in the German championships in the tumbling gymnastics area.
Handball department
history
The handball department, established in 1928, became the best team in Wuppertal in the early 1960s. Under the head of the department Günter Rörig, handball game trips were carried out to Moscow (1970), Leningrad (1971), Bern (1972), Paris (1974) and Bucharest (1976). Under the direction of long-time department head Karl-Heinz Scheer (1978–2001), international games continued to take place in the Heckinghausen sports hall and in the university hall , including a friendly against the former world champion USSR (1982).
In league operations, the LTV 1970 was one of the founding members of the then second -rate regional handball league West . In 1973 the LTV had the disadvantage of the same point MTV Rheinwacht Dinslaken and had to relegate to the Oberliga Niederrhein. After another guest appearance in the Regionalliga West (1977/78), the LTV only managed to establish itself in the Regionalliga West after its rise in 1980. The 1980/81 season served as a qualification for the newly created 2nd Bundesliga, but the LTV did not succeed in this despite an excellent 4th place in the South relay, because only four teams from the North and South relay were allowed to qualify. In 1988, the LTV finally became West German champions and not only celebrated promotion to the 2nd handball league , but also beat THW Kiel in a legendary game in front of a home crowd in the DHB Cup with 24:23 after eight years in In the 2nd Bundesliga, a syndicate was founded with the Wuppertaler SV team , which under the name LTV / WSV was promoted to the 1st handball league in the first year of its existence and reached 8th place in the following year. Nevertheless, the syndicate was dissolved after two years due to internal quarrels; LTV played now (1998-2001) for three years under the name "HC Wuppertal" in the elite league. 2001 followed the descent and the return to the traditional name LTV Wuppertal. Only a year later, the club was relegated to the third-class Regionalliga West, but was happy to survive insolvency proceedings that had opened in the meantime .
After modernizing the administrative and financial structures in two regional league years (2002-2004), at the end of the 2003/04 season they were promoted back to the 2nd Bundesliga, from which after two years of permanent relegation battle (2004/05 2nd League North place 14; 2005/06 2nd league south penultimate) but was relegated again in 2006 - although promotion to the Bundesliga was given as a medium-term goal. Manager Stefan Adam then conducted secret merger negotiations with the neighboring townspeople of SG Solingen , including the main sponsors, which led to the founding of the current Bundesliga club Bergischer Handball-Club 06 in May 2006 . Club officials and fans defended themselves against a merger and put a new LTV team on its feet in a short-term organizational and financial show of strength, which, however, could not maintain the regional league level and was relegated to the Oberliga Niederrhein after one season . There the club reached the runner-up in 2007/08 and 9th place in the 2008/09 season.
The traditional home ground of the LTV is the Heckinghauser sports hall in Wuppertal-Barmen. In 1987 the LTV moved to the then newly inaugurated university hall in Wuppertal-Elberfeld , which had more than 3000 seats, but returned to Heckinghausen in 2006.
Known players
Two of the best-known players at LTV / WSV and HC Wuppertal in the Bundesliga were Henning Wiechers and Dmitri Filippow . Furthermore, Ólafur Stefánsson , Dagur Sigurðsson , Chrischa Hannawald , Jens Tiedtke , Jens Häusler , Stephan Schöne and "Mike" Wassiljew , who was one of the first Soviet world-class players to move to the West at the end of the 1980s, came to LTV. A well-known handball personality during the Bundesliga time was the coach of the 2000/01 season Bob Hanning .
Fans
The numerically manageable following of the LTV (average number of spectators 2007/08: approx. 500; season tickets sold 2007/08: approx. 350) has repeatedly given the club support in difficult situations over the decades and has contributed to a positive image of the club. If there have been active supporters since the 1970s, the “Power Rot-Weiß” fan club made itself heard at the games in the early 1990s. After the number of spectators declined, the founding of the handball community with Wuppertaler SV in 1996 ushered in a phase of great public enthusiasm and high attendance numbers, because supporters of both home clubs now attended the games and promotion to the 1st Bundesliga was achieved.
Between 1998 and 2003 there was a renewed decline in spectators and fans, which was connected with the sporting decline of the LTV. Only after relegation to the regional league, in the 2002/03 season, the LTV's supporters gradually rejuvenated and renewed. When the Bergische HC was founded in 2006 and the existence of the LTV performance handball was threatened, there was a wave of solidarity among the LTV fans, who in the 2006/07 season, in their vast majority, did not return to the Bergische HC, but to the regional league again relegated LTV supported. Since then, the number of viewers has declined slightly, but in the major league, too, numbers are still in the order of 400-500.