History of 1. FC Nürnberg

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The history of the soccer department of 1. FC Nürnberg begins with the founding of the club in 1900.

From the foundation to the top German club

Seasonal balances 1905–1918
season space Gates Points
1905/06 1.
1906/07 1. 058:10 16: 00
1907/08 1. 037: 06 11: 01
1908/09 1. 068: 08 15: 01
1909/10 1. 073: 08 20: 00
1910/11 2. 090:25 30: 06
1911/12 4th 055:35 26:14
1912/13 3. 048:17 18:10
1913/14 2. 038:23 16:12
1914/15
1915/16 1. 147: 07 34: 00
1916/17 1. 071: 09 22: 02
1917/18 1.
1905/06: Gau Northern Bavaria
1906 / 17–1909 / 10: District League
1910 / 11–1913 / 14: Eastern District League
1914/15: Eastern District Championship not held
1915/16: Gau Middle Franconia
1916/17: District League

Foundation phase

First team from 1902

1. FC Nürnberg was founded in May 1900 by 18 high school students as a rugby club. However, since 30 players are required for this, it was decided in June 1901 to play football according to the rules of the English Football Association . After an audition against employees of the Nürnberger Schuckertwerke, from whom the team had received the first rulebook, the first comparison with another football club was made on September 29, 1901. In Bamberg , 1. FC 01 Bamberg , founded in March, was the opponent. The Nuremberg players around the 1st chairman Christoph Heinz retained the upper hand 2-0 in front of a few hundred spectators who had learned about the game from the newspaper.

The Deutschherrnwiese on the Pegnitz was the first own venue . The first home game against 1. FC Bamberg also took place there in 1901. On October 20th, the 1. FCN won 5-1, but suffered three weeks later on November 6th in the first Franconian-Bavarian derby against FC Bayern Munich - after a challenge from Munich it was about the Bavarian championship - with 0 : 6 a painful defeat. However, this was important for the later development, as serious training was carried out immediately under Fritz Servas from Berlin . This led to a continuous improvement of the players. In autumn 1902 there was a 15-0 win in the first Frankenderby with the predecessor club of the later SpVgg Fürth . In 1904 the South German Football Association organized the first regular game operation within the city, and for the 1905/06 season the Northern Bavarian District League was established , which was the top division until 1909.

District League Northern Bavaria

The club finished the first season in 1st place. He decided not to take part in the South German championship. In 1906/07 the team was again district champion and won the final of the Eastern District Championship against MTV Munich . Only in the final of the southern German championship did the team fail at Freiburg FC . In the meantime, the FCN had left the Deutschherrnwiese because the city council had forbidden the fencing. Instead, the association found a place on Ziegelgasse in Steinbühl in the summer of 1905 . In the following years until 1910 the FCN repeated the victory in the district league every year, in 1907/08 and 1908/09 also the win of the eastern district championship, which was roughly equivalent to a Bavarian championship. Only in 1910 did the club fail to finish second.

In view of the dominance in Bavaria in those years, the 1. FCN began to be referred to only as a club . However, it was not yet enough to achieve great success in Germany. In southern Germany, after the defeat against Freiburg FC in 1907, the team also found their champions in the Stuttgarter Kickers 1908 and Phoenix Karlsruhe 1909 and missed the southern German championship. Even the comparison with English professional teams did not prove to be a match for the Nuremberg team. On June 1, 1909, they lost a friendly 3-8 against Sunderland .

In return, the local competition caught up. On December 6, 1908, SpVgg Fürth drew their first draw against the club , two years later they won 2-1 for the first time on November 21, 1910. Shortly before, SpVgg already had what was then the largest and most modern football stadium in the German Empire in the Ronhof opened and was a huge step ahead of 1. FC Nürnberg. This played since February 1908 in Schweinau on a small sports field on Maiachstrasse , which only had a small wooden grandstand and was otherwise surrounded by spectator walls.

In 1910 the club provided the first national player from the Kingdom of Bavaria . Ludwig “Fips” Philipp had matured into an all-rounder under the systematic training of Fritz Servas. He played center forward, left winger, half left and even defender. On April 3 and April 24, 1910, he played two international matches.

Eastern District League

In 1910, the South German Football Association reorganized the game operations and founded four leagues: North (Hesse), West (Palatinate), South (today's Baden-Württemberg) and East (Bavaria). Nuremberg met other strong opponents and had to get used to not being first automatically. In 1911 the club had to give way to FC Bayern Munich, and for the next three years SpVgg Fürth won the German championship in 1914 . The neighboring city had a modern stadium, was the largest sports club with 3,000 members and finally surpassed the club with the championship . This threatened even competition from their own city. The VfB Nuremberg became the first direct rivals in the season 1911/12 , a victory against FCN, as stubborn competition but proved the FC Nuremberg arrow having a 1 on 2 September 1913: managed 0 victory and tied only because of goal difference finished third behind the second-placed club at the end of the season .

1. FC Nürnberg invested in a football stadium in order to be able to satisfy the growing audience interest. On August 24, 1913, the club opened its sports facility in the Nuremberg suburb of Zerzabelshof , which was later only called Zabo . The stadium itself held 8,000 spectators and was outside the city limits of Nuremberg, as this avoided the city of Nuremberg's amusement tax due on admission. Only in 1923 was the place incorporated .

South German master

The outbreak of the First World War interrupted the soaring of the Fürth neighbors, the 1914/15 season was canceled, there were only limited games against local rivals and some games organized by the South German Football Association. In the following season 1915/16 the ball rolled again and 1. FC Nürnberg not only won the Eastern District Championship , but also won the South German championship for the first time in the final against FC Pfalz Ludwigshafen with a 4-1 win. The later master players Gustav Bark , Anton Kugler , Carl Riegel and Heiner Träger contributed to the achievement of "Iron Football" . The team repeated the success two years later.

The golden 1920s

Seasonal balances 1918–1930
season space Gates Points
1918/19 1.
1919/20 1. 115: 06 36: 00
1920/21 1. 085: 08 35: 01
1921/22 1. 080: 08 26: 02
1922/23 2. 039:12 22: 06
1923/24 1. 027: 08 20: 08
1924/25 1. 044:13 24: 04
1925/26 2. 034:18 18:10
1926/27 1. 064:17 33: 03
1927/28 1. 045: 09 23: 05
1928/29 1. 051:15 24: 04
1929/30 2. 033:14 22: 06
green: win the German championship
1918 / 19–1920 / 21: district league
1921/22: district league group 1
1922/23: district league
1923 / 24–1926 / 27: Bayern
league 1927 / 28–1929 / 30: district league

The first championships

After the end of the First World War, gaming operations ceased in 1918/19. Numerous football players had died in the war, including four players from the first team of the FCN. In addition, center forward Lony Seiderer switched to the big rival from Fürth. On July 22, 1919, the MTK Budapest , which at that time was one of the strongest teams on the European continent alongside Slavia Prague , Sparta Prague and Rapid Vienna , made a guest appearance in Nuremberg. The 3-0 defeat and the impressive football skills of the Hungarians were far less significant than the consequences of the game. Budapest left winger Péter Szabó and center forward Alfréd Spezi Schaffer stayed in Nuremberg and joined the club . Schaffer not only stormed, he also took over the training and refined the already good Nuremberg soccer game with Hungarian finesse. He led the team to the South German Cup victory in 1919 and the sovereign victory of the 1919/20 district league season. Without losing points and with 115: 6 goals from 18 games, the club dominated the league at will. The South German championship was won 3-0 against Pfalz Ludwigshafen, for the first time with the young Hans Kalb and Jean Steinlein, who had returned from captivity . The fact that Alfréd Schaffer was already moving on before the start of the final round of the German championship could no longer stop the Nuremberg team. Without conceding, they advanced to the final against SpVgg Fürth. On June 13, 1920, 35,000 spectators saw two top teams clash in Frankfurt am Main . Fürth, with the national players Georg Wellhöfer , Hans Hagen , Leo Fiederer , Andreas Franz , Lony Seiderer and Hans Sutor , could be beaten 2-0 by goals from Luitpold Popp and Péter Szabó by the Nuremberg team, which included eight national players .

The championship team from 1920:

Heiner Stuhlfauth - Gustav Bark , Jean Steinlein - Anton Kugler , Hans Kalb , Carl Riegel - Wolfgang Strobel , Luitpold Popp , Willy Böß , Heiner Träger , Péter Szabó

FCN flag 1 tailored.jpg

30,000 enthusiastic people from Nuremberg received the championship team on their return. And this success could be repeated in the following year. In the meantime, Hans Sutor from SpVgg Fürth had joined the FCN because he was a victim of the political tensions between Nuremberg and Fürth. In the meantime, the new party "Fürth Independence" ruled in Fürth, which opposed the incorporation of Fürth. At this time it did not fit when a prominent Fürth woman married a woman from Nuremberg. Against the strengthened FCN, who hired a professional coach for the final with the Hungarian Izidor "Dori" Kürschner , opponent Vorwärts 90 from Berlin, one of the predecessor clubs of Blau-Weiß 90 Berlin , was overwhelmed in the final on June 12, 1922. With three goals from Luitpold Popp and two goals from Heiner Träger there was a sovereign 5-0.

The championship team from 1921:

Heiner Stuhlfauth - Gustav Bark, Anton Kugler - Michael Grünerwald , Hans Kalb, Carl Riegel - Wolfgang Strobel, Luitpold Popp, Willy Böß, Heiner Träger, Hans Sutor

FCN flag 2 tailored.jpg

In 1922 the club went into the finals as a huge favorite. The club surprisingly lost the playoffs in northern Bavaria against the Fürth team with 2: 3 and 1: 2. Still qualified as the defending champion, the FCN moved into the final of the German championship. Hans Sutor and the ingenious center runner Hans Kalb were absent there due to injury. The latter was not only the captain, but also the driver of the game, which the saying "Club without a calf - half!" Expressed. This came true in the final against Hamburger SV , which took place in Berlin on June 18. After more than 180 minutes it was still 2-2, which is why this game was canceled and repeated on August 6th in Leipzig. In this championship final round, FCN, again supported by Izidor Kürschner, lost Willy Boess in the 18th minute through a dismissal, later also Anton Kugler because of a serious knee injury, Heiner Träger also because of dismissal and finally Luitpold Popp because of exhaustion. Referee Peco Bauwens then ended the game, later HSV was declared champion, but officially renounced the title, according to an instruction from the DFB .

In 1923, the FCN had to forego participation in the finals for the first time as second in the district league. In 1924 the team won the re-established Ostkreis League with some difficulty. Among other things, the Nuremberg FV , which emerged from a merger, was able to defeat the club 1-0 with a goal from the first club national player Ludwig Phillip, who had left the club in 1919. The first team had meanwhile been reinforced by the former Fürth Hans "Bumbes" Schmidt in defense and Georg Hochgesang as a new striker from city rivals FC Pfeil . He scored 1-0 in the final of the German championship on June 9 against Hamburger SV, and Wolfgang Strobel finally made it 2-0. In the final round, the club had forgotten all efforts and was so brilliant that the specialist football magazine ruled: "Never before has a participant in the final round won more deservedly than 1. FCN."

Final game for the German championship on June 8, 1924 The championship team from 1924:

Heiner Stuhlfauth - Gustav Bark, Anton Kugler - Hans Schmidt , Hans Kalb, Carl Riegel - Wolfgang Strobel, Georg Hochgesang , Ludwig Wieder , Heiner Träger, Hans Sutor

FCN flag 3 tailored.jpg

The Swiss national player Gustav Bark then returned to his home country. In gratitude for his services, the club made him an honorary captain . How big this loss was is made clear by the words of football pioneer Walther Bensemann : “There may be new people and maybe even better ones, but probably none who will put such a powerful stamp, such unforgettable energy and impact on a whole football era as it does Gustav Bark and Heiner Träger have done for long, long years in German football! "

At the international level, the players of 1. FCN and SpVgg Fürth dominated the German national team this year. Both the game against Austria on January 13th (4-3 win) and the away game against the Netherlands on April 21st in Amsterdam (1-0 win) consisted of only players from SpVgg and the club . The away game against the Netherlands became legendary because, due to a tough derby in advance, the players of the two teams had traveled in separate train wagons and allegedly did not speak to each other on the pitch.

In view of the competition from Fürth, another title defense was not a sure-fire success. Nevertheless, they prevailed again in the league, but only finished second behind VfR Mannheim in the final round of the southern German championship . He was eliminated in the round of 16 of the final round of the German championship, as was Hamburger SV , who lost out against FSV Frankfurt . On the latter hit club in the final and had a hard time. It was only in the 108th minute that Ludwig Wieder scored the redeeming 1-0. Captain Hans Kalb then released "for a year" from the obligation to score goals. With this fourth championship, Nuremberg were the sole record champions ahead of VfB Leipzig .

The championship team from 1925:

Heiner Stuhlfauth - Luitpold Popp, Anton Kugler - Hans Schmidt, Hans Kalb, Carl Riegel - Wolfgang Strobel, Ludwig Wieder, Georg Hochgesang, Heiner Träger, Hans Sutor

FCN flag 4 tailored.jpg

Slow break

The successful club eleven entered a phase of upheaval. As a result, some master players ended their careers or had passed their zenith. In 1925 the outstanding left winger Carl Riegel ended his active time at the age of 31. Right winger Hans Sutor also hung up his football boots in the same year because of a leg injury. Wolfgang Strobel and Anton Kugler fell behind and finally had to give up the soccer game in early 1927. During this period of upheaval, the club missed first place in the district league behind SpVgg Fürth in the 1925/26 season, of all times in the year in which the defending champion was no longer qualified for the DM finals for the first time. The Fürth neighbors seized the opportunity and finally won their second championship.

The club drew the consequences from the disappointing performance and engaged in the summer of 1926 with the Englishman Fred "Spiegelei" Spiksley again a professional coach. This actually brought new momentum to the team, which demonstrated it on July 25, 1926 in a friendly against HSV in Hamburg: it was 9: 1 for the club in the end. With the young right winger Baptist Reinmann and the just 19-year-old center forward Seppl Schmitt , two young players were able to close the gaps, and former reserve players such as Georg Winter and Emil Köpplinger were again in good shape. The newly formed team won the Ostkreisliga just as confidently as the southern German championship, and in the final round of the German championship, neither Hamburger SV nor 1860 Munich could prevent their entry into the final against Hertha BSC . On June 12, 1927, the final in Berlin's Grunewald Stadium, in which the club largely kept its nerve against 50,000 non-stop roaring spectators and won 2-0 through hits from Hans Kalb and Heiner Träger. However, Heiner Träger was sent off for insulting the referee. Then he ended his career.

The championship team from 1927:

Heiner Stuhlfauth - Luitpold Popp, Georg Winter - Emil Köpplinger , Hans Kalb, Hans Schmidt - Baptist Reinmann , Georg Hochgesang, Seppl Schmitt , Ludwig Wieder, Heiner Träger

FCN flag 5 tailored.jpg

The end of his career heralded the slow end of the Roaring Twenties for the FCN. In 1927/28 Bayern Munich became champions in the east and south of Germany, and the ailing club was left with only foreign trips to friendship games where they could successfully advertise themselves. Georg high vocals changed because of him against hard-hitting public for Dusseldorf to local Fortuna . The team was able to compensate for the loss and things went better again the following season. Big names like goalkeeper legend Stuhlfauth, captain Kalb and defender Popp were still on board. Again you could qualify as a South German champion for the DM finals. In the semifinals, the 1927 final was reissued. In Berlin, the club met Hertha BSC again, the game ended after 150 minutes without a goal. At the repeat in Düsseldorf two weeks later, the Berliners prevailed 3-2. The final was won by the neighbors from Fürth, of all places, in Nuremberg, but in the municipal stadium and not in the club's home in Zerzabelshof. In 1929/30 , Berlin Hertha was again in the semifinals (3: 6).

The 1920s are still the most successful era in club history. Five of the nine championships could be won during this time. Only the neighbors of SpVgg Fürth and Hamburger SV in the north were able to successfully compete with the club in the wrestling for the German championship. At times, Nuremberg provided half of the German national team, which with goalkeeper Heiner Stuhlfauth and captain Hans Kalb had two of their most important supports at FCN. The game culture of the FCN was one of the reasons why football pioneer Walther Bensemann relocated the editorial team of his football magazine kicker to Nuremberg, where he maintained friendly contacts with numerous club sizes. Bensemann commented on the aforementioned end against Hertha BSC in 1930: "I'm afraid that the seven fat years will be followed by seven lean ones."

The 1930s and World War II

Seasonal balances 1930–1945
season space Gates Points
1930/31 2. 050:14 20: 08
1931/32 1. 056:17 30: 06
1932/33 1. 068:19 35: 01
1933/34 1. 061:26 34:10
1934/35 2. 043:26 25:15
1935/36 1. 036:12 31: 05
1936/37 1. 047:16 27: 09
1937/38 1. 035:16 27: 09
1938/39 5. 028:33 20:16
1939/40 1. 056:13 29: 07
1940/41 2. 052:24 31:13
1941/42 4th 064:33 29:15
1942/43 1. 125: 17 40: 00
1943/44 1. 085:23 28: 08
1944/45 2.
green: win the German championship
blue: Tschammer Cup victory (the final in 1935 was already in the
1935/36 Gauliga season)
1930 / 31–1932 / 33: district league
1933 / 34–1941 / 42: Gauliga Bayern
1942 / 43–1943 / 44: Gauliga Nordbayern
1944/45: Gauliga Bayern / Middle Franconia; Season not ended
Picture album Gauliga Bayern

A Jewish trainer and conformity

The 1930/31 season ended disappointingly for 1. FC Nürnberg. Only second in the district league, the FCN then also missed the qualification for the DM finals over the consolation round. Participation only succeeded the following year, but in 1932 they lost 2-0 to FC Bayern Munich in the semi-finals. In the following season the club was sovereign district league champion, but failed in the finals of the southern German championship.

The political developments were far more important than the 1. FCN's weak sporting phase. The NSDAP under Adolf Hitler had succeeded in decisively consolidating its political position. The city of Nuremberg played a central role in this. In 1927, the Nazis held their there Reichsparteitage , at the same time there the Nazi paper appeared The striker . After the semi-final of the club in 1932, the same agitated against its Jewish coach Jenő Konrád : “Club! Reflect and wake up. Give your trainer a ticket to Jerusalem! ” Konrád and his family fled to Vienna before they came to power . Hans Kalb couldn't get him to stay.

In the autumn of 1932, Vice President Karl Müller regretted Konrad as "an impeccable person who had been done bitter injustice." A few months later, on April 27, 1933 and thus a few months before the associations were officially brought into line in July 1933, the association made a decision to expel all Jewish members belonging to him with effect from May 1st. Together with thirteen other top clubs in southern Germany, including SpVgg Fürth and the two Munich clubs FC Bayern and TSV 1860, the club “happily and decisively” made itself available to the Hitler government by resolution. The offer to work “especially on the issue of removing Jews from sports clubs” is the first public sign of the exclusion of Jews in sports. The attitude of the then Reich Sports Leader Hans von Tschammer und Osten , who reprimanded the German Gymnastics Association in June 1933 for the quick action in excluding Jewish athletes , makes clear that this quick procedure was not carried out on instructions . The background for this official reluctance was a moderate diplomatic course in view of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The second chairman, Karl Müller, who was also the new president from May 1935, ensured that the decision, which did not affect any of the first-team players, was implemented. At the same time, in April 1933, the 1. FCN was “the first club”, according to the club's newspaper, to introduce an off-road sports department: “It is up to off-road sports to turn able-bodied athletes into defensive Germans. You do off-road sport not for your own sake, but for the sake of your fatherland ”, is how department head Karl Frick describes the goals of the new department.

The duels with Schalke 04

The new Reich Sports Leader Hans von Tschammer und Osten ordered a reorganization of the league system. The 1933/34 season began nationwide with 16 Gauligen. For the Bavarian clubs this meant a return to the Eastern District League, which was abolished in 1927. Although this decision was politically motivated, it meant an improvement from a sporting point of view, as clubs of equal value faced each other in the league games.

For the footballers of the 1. FCN, this marked the start of four excellent years from a sporting point of view. The return of the old master teacher Alfred Schaffer as a trainer did the rest, so that the first Gauliga season ended in first place. A new team had been found, which had gradually replaced the warriors of the 1920s. With striker Seppl Schmitt and defender Luitpold Popp, only two champions from 1927 were left in their ranks. Georg Köhl had successfully replaced the great Heiner Stuhlfauth in goal . In defense, Willi Billmann , who had already been part of the tribe at the age of 18 from 1930, became a new defender. The Leipziger Heinz Carolin Hans Kalb could fully replace a center half. Richard Oehm and Hans Uebelein shone next to him . In the attack, alongside Schmitt on the right, Karl Gußner and the new center forward Georg Friedel shone . Finally, at the beginning of the first Gauliga season, the strong dribbling Max Eiberger added to the attack that the TSV Schwaben Augsburg club was able to lure to Nuremberg. With this new and young team, success returned. The FCN moved into the final of the German championship against FC Schalke 04 . There the club led through a Friedel gate until shortly before the end, before Fritz Szepan and Ernst Kuzorra defeated the club for the first time in its history with a double strike in the 87th and 88th minutes . At the same time, this final was the prelude to a series of gripping duels with Schalke, who became their new big rivals.

The club was able to return the favor in a new competition the following year . Reichssportführer von Tschammer had introduced a cup competition that was named after himself: The Tschammer Cup . This competition not only illustrated the close interlinking between football and National Socialist politics in its development, but also in its process. The quarter-finals between the FCN and Minerva 93 Berlin took place on November 10, 1935 in consultation with Julius Streicher so that members of the SA could see it during a baggage march. In the final, it came to re-encounter with FC Schalke 04. After a tour through Eiberger Friedel saved with his 2: 0 in the 85th minute, this time the Club , again losing in the last minute. This was the first big title since 1927 and the German champions of 1934 and 1935 were defeated. The cup victory compensated for the second place in the Gauliga season 34/35 behind SpVgg Fürth and the missed final round.

The cup winners of 1935:

Georg Köhl - Willi Billmann , Andreas Munkert - Hans Uebelein , Heinz Carolin , Richard Oehm - Karl Gußner , Max Eiberger , Georg Friedel , Seppl Schmitt , Willi Spieß .

FCN flag 6 tailored.jpg

The cup final in December took place in the middle of the 1935/36 season, in which the club was on a safe path to the Gaume Championship, which was won without defeat. In the semi-finals of the German championship, Schalke 04 was beaten again by two hits from the "Schalke-Schreck" Friedel and only 7 ½ months after winning the cup, Fortuna Düsseldorf was defeated 2-1 after extra time in the final. In the meantime, Hans Kalb had become coach. Eiberger equalized the early deficit after five minutes in the first half. In extra time, Gussner, who played with a broken finger from the first half, scored the acclaimed winner 25 seconds before the final whistle.

The championship team from 1936:

Georg Köhl - Willi Billmann , Andreas Munkert - Hans Uebelein , Heinz Carolin , Richard Oehm - Karl Gußner , Max Eiberger , Georg Friedel , Seppl Schmitt, Richard Schwab .

FCN flag 7 tailored.jpg

From the golden twenties only Seppl Schmitt remained as a player in the championship team from 1927. By the way, attacker Richard Schwab only made 20 games in the first team, he owed his appearance in the final to a serious knee injury to Willy Spieß.

In autumn 1936 Gyuri Orth took over the training. Under his guidance, the club won the Gaume Championship again and, after a superior victory in the final round and a semi-final victory against Hamburger SV, moved into the final of the German championship. On June 20, 1937, Schalke 04, trained by the former club master player Hans "Bumbes" Schmidt, was again the opponent in Berlin. In front of 101,000 spectators, the club had little chance and in the end deservedly lost 2-0.

Another upheaval and times of war

This lost final was followed by worse times for the spoiled Nuremberg team. Although the team still won the Gaume Championship in 1938, they were eliminated in the group games after two defeats against eventual champions Hannover 96 . The 1938/39 season turned into an unfamiliar debacle . After embarrassing defeats like a 0: 7 against Jahn Regensburg , the FCN finished the Gaume Championship on a fifth place in the table with a goal difference of 28:33 for the first time. At the same time, with the Gaumeister 1. FC Schweinfurt 05, not only another competition arose alongside SpVgg Fürth in Franconia , but also with the WKG BSG Neumeyer as the successor to ASN Nuremberg, a strong local competition that won the FCN 1-0 and 3-2 and ended up fourth in front of the club in the final table. Trainer Orth had to leave and was replaced by Alwin “Alv” Riemke .

Trainer Riemke had to organize another break. Defender Munkert had left the club, young players such as Alfred Pfänder im Sturm or Wilhelm Sold as a middle runner moved up. His work was initially interrupted by the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939. The already played point games were canceled and the championship stopped. The FCN won the Nuremberg-Fürth city championship held during this break. In the Tschammer Cup, the 1939 round of which was also extended to 1940 due to the war, it was very successful for the club in this first war season. Led by the outstanding middle runner Sold, the team retaliated in the semifinals for the previous year with a 1-0 win at SK Rapid Vienna and met Waldhof Mannheim in the final in Berlin on April 28, 1940 . While all players in the war effort arrived in time for the finals with the Nuremberg team, both regular goalkeepers were dropped out at the Mannheim team. With hits from Willi Kund and Max Eiberger, the club was able to secure its second cup victory.

The cup winners of 1940 (1939):

Georg Köhl - Willi Billmann, Hans Uebelein - Georg Luber , Wilhelm Sold , Heinz Carolin - Karl Gußner, Max Eiberger, Julius Uebelein , Alfred Pfänder , Willi Kund .

Valznerweiher 1939.jpg

Less than six months later, the club was again in the cup final, but changed at a crucial point. Middle runner Pay had moved to Saarbrücken, his place was taken by George Kennemann. The final of the 1940 cup round took place on December 1st in Berlin. The opponent was the Dresdner SC , directed by Helmut Schön . Dresden was only able to win the balanced game in extra time with 2: 1. For Nuremberg this should be the last final game for the next eight years. During the Second World War, regular game operations continued, but given the large number of soldiers in the teams, this was increasingly taking place under irregular conditions. The Nürnberger declared themselves second place in the Gauliga 1940/41 behind TSV 1860 Munich. The following season, the club even finished in fourth place and missed entry into the main cup. After the trainer Alv Riemke was called up, an old friend returned to Zerzabelshof: Hans “Bumbes” Schmidt took over the training. He relied on discipline and fitness. His achievements lay less in the training methods than in his successful efforts not only to pull the club players away from the army again and again for games, but to lure good players from all over Germany to Nuremberg. The future national player Clemens Wientjes came to the club from Rot-Weiss Essen . Schmidt also made an outstanding contribution to promoting talent. Under him, not only the later championship players Helmut Herbolsheimer and Adolf Knoll made their debut in the first team, but above all Max Morlock , who played for the first time as a 16-year-old on November 30, 1941 against Wacker Munich.

There were no major successes under these conditions and audience interest declined. The division of the Gauliga Bayern into a north and a south group contributed to this. Club players like Willi Billmann, Hans and Julius Uebelein or Heinz Carolin found themselves in France in soldiers ' teams like the Paris Soldier Elf or Burgstern Noris . In this way there was no longer any question of regular conditions. The teams were constantly changing. The club won its home game against Eintracht / Franconia Nuremberg only 1-0, but then the second leg 20-1. In the end, the North Bavarian Gaume Championship was recorded with 40: 0 points and 125: 17 goals. In view of the following first round home in the championship final against VfR Mannheim, this would not be worth mentioning if Max Morlock alone had not scored 54 of the 125 goals.

During this season the 1. FCN had to complain of a first war casualty in Alfred Pfänder, who was missing at Stalingrad . Goalkeeper Georg Köhl died on January 15, 1944. Nevertheless, the Gau championship in 1943/44 went to the club. In the final round of the German championship in 1944 , the FCN made it into the semi-finals. Here, like in the cup final in 1940, the Dresdner SC around Helmut Schön was the final destination. This game was lost with 1: 3 against the big favorites and future champions.

The 1944/45 season was not played to the end. The stadium and club grounds in Zerzabelshof had long been destroyed in a bombing raid when the 149th derby against SpVgg Fürth on February 2, 1945 was the last game before the end of the war.

Number one in the Oberliga Süd

Seasonal balance sheets 1945–1963
season space Gates Points
1945/46 02. 086:44 45:15
1946/47 01. 108: 31 62:14
1947/48 01. 088:37 60:16
1948/49 11. 049:55 27:33
1949/50 08th. 052:40 31:29
1950/51 01. 093:46 47:21
1951/52 02. 072:33 43:17
1952/53 09. 067:61 29:31
1953/54 04th 071:44 38:22
1954/55 09. 064:51 29:31
1955/56 07th 042:41 31:29
1956/57 01. 076:33 47:13
1957/58 02. 074:45 41:19
1958/59 03. 080:38 43:17
1959/60 06th 073:54 34:26
1960/61 01. 096:30 48:12
1961/62 01. 070:30 43:17
1962/63 02. 087:41 41:19
green: winning the German championship
blue: DFB Cup victory

In the years between the end of World War II and the founding of the Bundesliga in 1963, 1. FC Nürnberg belonged uninterruptedly to the top class at that time, the five-track Oberliga, in the southern season. With the Oberliga Süd , a supraregional merger of the top southern German clubs from Bavaria, Württemberg and Hesse was achieved for the first time. 1. FC Nürnberg ranks first in the all-time league table of the Oberliga Süd. Nevertheless, the club did not manage to build on the glory days of the 1920s during these years. Between the first post-war championship in 1948 and the next title win in 1961 there were relatively lean years in the 1950s, despite a Max Morlock in his own ranks, one of the best attackers in Germany at the time.

New beginning, feeding games and the first post-war championship

With the beginning of the Allied occupation, the football stadiums were initially under Allied control and were already partially destroyed. An orderly game operation was initially hardly possible. Nevertheless, there was already the first major football game in Franconia on September 23, 1945, when the first post-war derby between SpVgg Fürth and 1. FC Nürnberg took place in the Ronhof in Fürth. In front of 8,000 spectators, the club won 3-2. Just a few weeks later, on November 4th, the newly founded Oberliga Süd started playing with 16 teams. 1. FC Nürnberg was one of them, of course, and finished second behind VfB Stuttgart, just one point behind. The club won the second league season with ease. The championship was already five game days before the end of the game, which the team owed to a style of play called attack tactics with up to seven strikers. 108 goals were scored in 38 games, Hans Pöschl was top scorer with 38 goals, next to him stormed self-grown Morlock and filigree technician Helmut Herbolsheimer, who had come from FSV Gostenhof in 1945 . Some pillars from earlier years also belonged to the team such as Julius Uebelein, cup winner 1939 and Willi Billmann from the 1936 championship team in defense. However, the home games still had to be played at the Ronhof in Fürth. The own stadium was still too badly damaged.

In addition to having fun playing football, it was almost even more important at that time that the players were often paid in kind such as potatoes, meat, cherries or even a cake. However, this was less so in the league games than in the so-called feeding or calorie games , in which the successful teams tinged through the province. Max Morlock on the time: “Thank God we didn't suffer. The biggest fanatics in Nuremberg were the butchers. "

In 1947 , 1. FC Nürnberg prevented the organization of a final round of the German soccer championship, although it was considered a big favorite. But he canceled because the teams from the Soviet occupation zone were denied participation and Nuremberg had to play significantly more games than the representatives from the north, west and Berlin.

At the beginning of the 1947/48 season , the club had to cope with a shock. Goalkeeper Georg Lindner died of tuberculosis at the age of 26. But his successor Eduard "Edi" Schaffer , who was the only club player not from Franconia, quickly showed that he was in the tradition of the great club goalkeepers. Ex-master player Seppl Schmitt took over the coaching position and issued the motto: “We don't play a system, we play football.” After the championship title in the Oberliga Süd was won again, a final round of the German championship was on the program for the first time. Here the club had to cope with the loss of old masters Billmann (broken jaw) and Julius Uebelein (TBC). After a difficult 3-2 after extra time in the semifinals against FC St. Pauli , they met in the final on August 8, 1948 in Cologne against 1. FC Kaiserslautern with Fritz and Ottmar Walter . After just 24 minutes, the club was leading with goals from Konrad Winterstein and Pöschl. Then they shifted back a gear and came after an own goal Hans "Abel" Uebeleins in the 62nd minute still in distress. But Edi Schaffer saved the FCN the seventh German championship with an excellent performance. This time, however, the only trophy was the traditional championship pennant, as the previously awarded “Viktoria” was lost after the war and the championship trophy had not yet been created.

The championship team from 1948:

Eduard Schaffer - Hans Uebelein , Adolf Knoll - Gerhard Bergner , Georg Kennemann , Robert Gebhardt - Helmut Herbolsheimer , Max Morlock , Hans Pöschl , Konrad Winterstein , Hans Hagen

Valznerweiher 1948.jpg

Up and down in the 1950s

As the first German post-war champions and finally back with their own stadium in Zerzabelshof, which was released after the final victory, the club seemed to be facing new golden times. But it turned out differently. The old masters around Kennemann, Abel Uebelein and Billmann were no longer able to build on their old achievements. In the spring of 1949, goalscorer Pöschl was the first club player to move abroad to the Grasshoppers Zurich . The club ended the 1948/49 season in eleventh place for the first time with a negative point relationship and had to experience how the former master player and coach Hans "Bumbes" Schmidt led VfR Mannheim to the championship. Although Schmidt returned as a coach in December 1949, things were hardly any better in 1949/50. As eighth of the table, they experienced the last soaring of SpVgg Fürth, which advanced to the semi-finals of the DM finals as southern champions .

Things went better from 1950. With the Leipzig Gunther Baumann a successor for Kennemann was found as a middle runner, the Schweinfurt Kurt Ucko acted as a half-forward. At the end of the 1950/51 season, Max Morlock was again the best scorer with 28 goals and the club was again champion of the Oberliga Süd. At the DM finals in 1951 , the FCN failed in the group games because of the poorer goal quotient at Prussia Münster . The club players felt cheated because Münster defeated tennis Borussia Berlin 8-2 in the last game . The Berliners allegedly previously told Nuremberg players that they should not reach the final. In the following season the 1. FCN again won the championship in the Oberliga Süd. In the group matches of the finals , the team failed again.

Since neither Bumbes Schmidt 1951 nor Alv Riemke 1952 could build on their old coaching success from the pre-war period, from 1952 Toni Kugler, a four-time master from the golden 1920s, took over the training. Nothing came of the hoped-for great success - on the contrary. The club was in the meantime in last place in October 1952 and ended the season as eighth of the table. The spectacular change of the Fürth center forward Horst Schade raised high hopes . 1. FC Nürnberg had offered him to buy up the inventory of his indebted sports shop. Schade fulfilled their hopes with 22 goals, but in the end the club was only fourth. Nevertheless, there was reason to celebrate in 1954 thanks to Max Morlock's participation in the 1954 World Cup . With his goals, he made a significant contribution to the title win of the German national team . To this day, Morlock is the only player who ever played in a World Cup for Germany while he was a member of 1. FC Nürnberg. Strehl and Köpke were later in the squad, but were not used.

Trainer Toni Kugler was replaced in 1954 by the Viennese Franz "Bimbo" Binder . The former Rapid Wien goalscorer was respected by all players. But the first two years things didn't really go smoothly for him either. In 1955 as ninth and 1956 as seventh, the club was only mediocre. Some regular players like defender Mirsberger therefore took advantage of offers from other teams and left the club. Contrary to customary practice, however, the Presidium stuck to Binder. Because he gradually succeeded in successfully integrating young players into his own team. Heini Müller as the left winger was one of the first "young savages" to belong to the team as early as 1956/57, which won the southern championship for the first time since 1951. In the final round in 1957 , the club finally failed in the group games at Hamburger SV. The same opponent was also the last stop in the group games in 1958 . In second place, the team had again qualified for the finals, now with the young players Roland Wabra in goal and Richard Albrecht as winger. In addition, center forward Günther Glomb , with the club since 1951, was in great shape during this time and scored three goals in the 4: 3 win against 1. FC Köln. Another young player made his debut in this game, right winger Heinz Strehl.

With young players and attacking football, at the end of the 1958/59 season the club was the most dangerous club in the south with 80 goals. However, the team missed the final round as third in the table again. Striker Glomb then left the club and Strehl was converted into a center forward. With 30 goals, he was promptly top scorer at the age of 20. The starting eleven included other young players such as defenders Ferdinand Wenauer and the two 19-year-old Tasso Wild and Gustav Flachenecker in attack. However, when Max Morlock was injured as a leading figure for five months, the club ended the 1959/60 season only in sixth place.

The last championships and the Bundesliga

In 1960 Herbert Widmayer replaced Franz Binder as trainer. Binder's six complete seasons in the coaching bench mean the record time for a coach of the FCN football team to this day. With his successful integration of young players, Binder also laid the foundation for the next championship team of 1. FCN. Widmayer continued Binder's course and added the youth players Steff Reisch, Kurt Haseneder as well as Karl-Heinz Ferschl and Horst Leupold to the young team. On June 24, 1961 , Max Morlock was finally able to fulfill his dream of the second German championship with 1. FC Nürnberg. In the final in Hanover, Borussia Dortmund had no chance in a 3-0 win after goals from Haseneder, Müller and Strehl, as had the league competition for the whole season, which the club won by seven points and 96:30 goals.

The championship team from 1961:

Roland Wabra - Paul Derbfuß , Helmut Hilpert - Josef Zenger , Ferdinand Wenauer , Steff Reisch - Gustav Flachenecker , Max Morlock, Heinz Strehl , Heini Müller , Kurt Haseneder

Valznerweiher 1961.jpg

In the 1961/62 season, 1. FC Nürnberg went for the first time in its history with the double burden of national game operations and participation in the European Cup . The team survived the first two rounds in the games against Drumcondra Dublin and Fenerbahçe Istanbul relatively easily. In the quarterfinals, however, they failed to Benfica Lisbon to star player Eusebio . Nevertheless, the 3-1 first leg win is still one of the highlights in the club's history. In the second leg, however, the team went down 6-0. In the end, however, Heinz Strehl was the competition's top scorer with eight goals . The club, which for the first time since Schade 1953 had signed Reinhold Gettinger, a player from SpVgg Fürth, ended the league round as champions. However, this time he was tied with Eintracht Frankfurt . Once again they made it to the final of the German championship. But this time 1. FC Köln was an overpowering opponent. The 1962 final was lost 4-0.

But just three months later you had the chance for the next title. On August 29, 1962 , the club in Hanover met Fortuna from Düsseldorf in the final of the DFB Cup . Without Morlock it was 2-1 after extra time. Tasso Wild scored the decisive goal in the 93rd minute.

The 1962 cup winners:

Roland Wabra - Paul Derbfuß , Helmut Hilpert - Gustav Flachenecker , Ferdinand Wenauer , Steff Reisch - Kurt Dachlauer , Kurt Haseneder , Heinz Strehl , Tasso Wild , Richard Albrecht

Winning the cup again entitles them to participate in a European competition. This time the club competed in the European Cup Winners' Cup and, after successes over AS St. Etienne and BK Odense, advanced to the semi-finals. Max Morlock had his last major international appearance against the Spanish representative Atlético Madrid on April 10, 1963. After a 0-1 deficit, he drove the team to a 2-1 win with two goals from Tasso Wild. In the second leg, 1. FC Nürnberg were eliminated 2-0 despite a very good performance.

Parallel to the European Cup successes, the club was still one of the top clubs in the major league. In the last league season in 1962/63 before the introduction of the Bundesliga, TSV 1860 Munich achieved a second place three points behind. This also entitles them to participate in the DM finals. In the group stage, the team missed the final as second. The decisive game was clearly lost 6-2 against 1. FC Köln.

This ended the time in the Oberliga Süd for 1. FC Nürnberg. In the 18 years of its existence, the club collected a total of 739: 381 points and scored 1348: 754 goals. With that he led the eternal table of the league and was qualified for the Bundesliga, the introduction of which and the associated profitability the FCN Presidium had long resisted: "Profitism does not fit the structure of our clubs any more than journalism does stealing horses", was a comment from the board.

From the foundation of the Bundesliga to the first relegation

Seasonal balance sheets 1963–1969
season space Gates Points spectator Squad
1963/64 09. 45:56 29:31 24,924 Squad
1964/65 06th 44:38 32:28 27,482 Squad
1965/66 06th 54:43 39:29 25,085 Squad
1966/67 10. 43:50 34:34 23,519 Squad
1967/68 01. 71:37 47:21 37,233 Squad
1968/69 17th 45:55 29:39 25,844 Squad
green: win the German championship

The club management of 1. FC Nürnberg was skeptical about the establishment of the Bundesliga and the introduction of professionalism. Nevertheless, after the successes they had immediately before, Nuremberg hoped to play a good role in the league. The first four Bundesliga seasons were not very successful for the club. Two sixth places were the best results the team achieved. 1. FCN also recorded the first coach dismissal in Bundesliga history when Widmayer had to leave in 1963. The championship players from 1961 alone were no guarantee of success in the Bundesliga. It was only under coach Max Merkel and after a few transfers that the first Bundesliga championship succeeded in 1968. At the same time, this championship was the last title of 1. FC Nürnberg in football until the cup victory in 2007. In the following season the club was relegated as defending champion from the Bundesliga, which is unique to this day.

The first coach discharge

1. FC Nürnberg went into the first Bundesliga season optimistically, as the club has been among the top German players in the last three seasons. In addition, most of the team was still young. After a successful start to the season with 8: 2 points and the jump to 3rd place, however, it set bitter defeats. After a 2: 4 defeat against Karlsruher SC , there were three more defeats with 0:12 goals, the last of which was a 0: 5 home defeat against 1. FC Kaiserslautern. As a result, the first coach dismissal in Bundesliga history happened at 1. FC Nürnberg. Herbert Widmayer had to leave on October 30th, Jenő Csaknády , who had already trained with SpVgg Fürth between 1957 and 1959, became the new head coach. It did not get any better under Csaknady's authoritarian style. He lost his first two games. The club stayed just short of relegation ranks throughout the season and only made it to 9th place at the end of the season. Max Morlock's career ended with the first Bundesliga season. Defender Paul Derbfuß decided against the risks of a professional career and opted for a career in the public service.

Sixth place and trade fair trophy

Csaknady left voluntarily, the former league player Gunther Baumann was his successor. Things went better under him. The team held up to the 23rd matchday connection to the top of the table, only seven games without a win at the end of the season let the club finish the 1964/65 season only in sixth place. Things went well in the DFB Cup for a long time before Nuremberg was eliminated in the semi-finals against Borussia Dortmund. After coach Baumann fell out with President Luther, surprisingly Csaknady became a club coach again. This led the team again to the DFB Cup semi-finals and, after a difficult start to the season, sixth in the league, which entitles them to participate in the Messestädte Cup .

At that time, 1. FC Nürnberg played with a team that was still almost unchanged from the 1961 championship and the 1962 cup win. Wabra in goal, Hilpert in defense, Wenauer, Reisch and Flachenecker in the middle as well as Strehl and Wild in the storm were still there, and defender Leupold from the last league season 1962/63. These were supplemented since 1964 in the defense by the young Haßfurter Ludwig Müller and since 1965 in the attack by the young Ansbach Georg Volkert . But there were also some special transfers. In 1964 the club strengthened the squad with the Swiss national player Anton Allemann in attack, who never really gained a foothold and left again in 1966. Instead, Franz Brungs , who was brought in by Dortmund's Borussia, played at Strehl's side since 1965 .

From last place to ninth championship

After two sixth places, things should finally go better in 1966/67 . The start of a new era was marked by the sale of the stadium in Zerzabelshof, which was demolished. The club used the proceeds to finance the construction of a modern training ground at Valznerweiher in the immediate vicinity of the new venue, the municipal stadium , which was built in 1928 and expanded in 1965. Instead of better times, things went down rapidly after a good start to the season, which led to 3rd place on matchday 8. In the first round of the UEFA Cup, the club retired just against FC Valencia out. This elimination was followed by a series of 13 games without a win, which could not stop even the dismissal of Csaknady on November 7th. Amateur trainer Jenő Vincze did not manage to win a single victory. During the short Christmas break he was replaced by Max Merkel , who won the championship with TSV 1860 Munich in the previous season. Under Merkel there were initially no victories either, instead the club found itself in the bottom of the table. The turning point came with a 1-0 win against Hamburger SV on February 18, which Brungs secured with a header in the 90th minute. The club lost just two more games: the home game against FC Bayern on the 24th matchday and the German champions Eintracht Braunschweig on the last matchday . In the end, the club had saved itself to 10th place in the table. Merkel's mixture of "carrot & stick" was just as effective as his tactical concept of fast and direct play.

For the 1967/68 season , Heinz Müller, Reisch and Flachenecker, three of the championship players from 1961, had to go. Instead came from PSV Eindhoven for the attack by the Yugoslav Zvezdan Čebinac and August Starek from Rapid Vienna for the midfield . Merkel quickly found a regular formation that played almost the entire season. In total, only 15 players were used during the season. From the fifth match day, the FCN was in first place in the table until the end of the season. Only the quarter-final in the DFB Cup against FC Bayern hurt a little. But against the then runner-up FC Bayern on December 2, 1967, the team managed one of the best games in the club's history. In the end, the club won 7-3. Franz Brungs alone scored five goals. At Bayern, the club secured their ninth German championship on the penultimate match day with a 2-0 win. The striker duo Strehl / Brungs scored 43 goals, Cebinac on the wing made 21 assists. And even in the DFB Cup, the club wrote a piece of history, if not in sports, then in literature. Because the team exhibition from the first round match against Bayer 04 Leverkusen immortalized Peter Handke in his poem "The line-up of 1. FC Nürnberg from January 27, 1968" :

The line-up of 1. FC Nürnberg on January 27, 1968

Wabra
Leupold - Popp
L. Müller - Wenauer - Blankenburg
Starek - Strehl - Brungs - H. Müller - Volkert

Valznerweiher 1968.jpg

Incidentally, this list is not entirely correct. In fact, Hilpert defended alongside Popp, who was otherwise only used four times during the season. Leupold, on the other hand, came on for Blankenburg in the 76th minute.

In 1968 there was also an international success when 1. FC Nürnberg (together with 13 other teams) won the Intertoto Cup . In a group with RSC Anderlecht and Inter Milan , the club won all games except for a draw against the Belgians. The tournament at the time was more like a test series than a European Cup.

Descent as a master

The last master coach Max Merkel is often blamed for the first relegation.

Max Merkel wanted the new German champion to shine on a European level in the 1968/69 season . Ten players went, including with Ferschl, Starek and Torjäger Brungs important supports. This was offset by thirteen new signings. So came goalkeeper Jürgen Rynio and striker Klaus Zaczyk from Karlsruher SC , Merkel lured his former protégé Hans Küppers from Munich in 1860 , and Johnny Hansen from Denmark was a talented defender who later celebrated great successes with FC Bayern. The newly formed team did not harmonize properly. At the beginning there was a 1: 4 home defeat against the later runner-up Alemannia Aachen . Although they made it to 7th place for a short time, the preliminary round did not go as desired and in the European Cup, the team was eliminated in the first round against Ajax Amsterdam without a chance . After half the season the club was only in 16th place and when the team finally slipped to the bottom of the table in March, Max Merkel had to leave - curiously, two days after a home win against Eintracht Frankfurt. Under interim trainer Robert Körner there was another defeat, after which Kuno Klötzer tried to stabilize the team. After three wins in a row, including against eventual champions FC Bayern, Nuremberg was still last, but tied with the first non-relegation place. Two more draws ensured that the club was on a non-relegation zone before the final game day. On the last day of the match the team had to go to 1. FC Köln, which was also threatened with relegation, and lost 3-0. Since Dortmund won the second relegation final against the 18th from Offenbach as 17th, the club had to relegate as last year's champions from the Bundesliga to the second-rate regional league.

Many Nuremberg residents are still puzzling over the exact causes of their relegation. The guilt is mostly identified with Max Merkel's great player upheaval. In addition, there was an unprecedented level of performance during the 1968/69 season. As relegated Nuremberg, they ended up just nine points behind runners-up Aachen and missed the UEFA Cup participation by just seven points. Finally, bribery is the cause. Defender Wenauer claims that goalkeeper Rynio was bribed on the penultimate match day at 2-2 against Dortmund, who were also threatened with relegation: "It is known that Borussia Dortmund bought our goalkeeper Jürgen Rynio, who in the game of fate, the 2-2 against Dortmund, at least one probably a durable hit. ”However, this has not been proven. The decline was problematic not only from a sporting, but also from a financial point of view. Because with the construction of the training area, inaugurated on October 31, 1968, the club had borrowed in the hope of lucrative income in the Bundesliga and European Cup. 1. FC Nürnberg went into the second class with the most modern training facilities in Europe, but there was no funding for sporting reinforcements.

Nine years in second class

Seasonal balances 1969–1978
season space Gates Points spectator Squad
1969/70 3. 64:29 57:19 12.184 -
1970/71 1. 81:39 55:17 13,278 -
1971/72 9. 49:62 34:38 13,944 -
1972/73 5. 61:52 41:27 14,353 -
1973/74 2. 63:42 44:24 18,588 -
1974/75 6th 70:52 42:34 13.131 Squad
1975/76 2. 78:42 54:22 19,586 Squad
1976/77 5. 77:51 49:27 10,799 Squad
1977/78 2. 75:46 53:23 16,340 Squad
orange: regional league; from 1974/75 2nd Bundesliga

After only six years of membership in the Bundesliga, the German record champions had to compete in regional football again. At that time, the second-class substructure of the Bundesliga was made up of five regional leagues (south, southwest, west, north, Berlin), with the regional league south comprising the area of ​​the former Oberliga Süd. The sporting descent meant meeting many well-known opponents from the league times such as SpVgg Fürth and FC Schweinfurt, Karlsruher SC and VfR Mannheim. As mentioned, the club was financially heavy and the completely unexpected relegation hit the leadership hard. President Walter Luther had to deal with the problem of financing the resurgence instead of leading the association to European successes as planned. After the first two years in the regional league, Luther was replaced by the handball player Hans Ehrt, who reduced the mountain of debt from six million D-Marks by two million DM during his tenure until 1977. However, the footballers only succeeded in returning to the Bundesliga at the end of the 1977/78 season .

Regional league football

The descent was tantamount to another bloodletting. Players remaining from the last championship team such as goalkeeper Wabra, who was disabled in sports, defender Ludwig Müller, who moved to Borussia Mönchengladbach , and attackers Cebinac (to Hannover 96 ) and Volkert (to FC Zurich ) left the club. Players like Leupold, Heinz Müller, Popp, Strehl and Wenauer also stayed. There were also young talents from the relegation season such as striker Dieter Nüssing , Dane Johnny Hansen and defender Amand Theis . The club played for a long time under coach Kuno Klötzer, but only came in third place in the final accounts and thus missed participation in the promotion games. The young coach Barthel Thomas took over the command for the next season . Right at the start, the team had a bang when FC Bayern Munich was defeated 2-1 in the first round of the DFB Cup with goals from the young newcomers Rudi Kröner and Roland Stegmayer . In the league, the club remained unbeaten for 27 games in a row and was ten points ahead of the Karlsruher SC champions of the Regionalliga Süd. In the promotion round, the first three games were lost at Borussia Neunkirchen , against Fortuna Düsseldorf and the later last Wacker 04 Berlin . The great hope of resurgence, which attracted 75,000 spectators to the stadium in Nuremberg for the game against Düsseldorf, was not fulfilled.

Hans Tilkowski (photo from 2005) coached the club from 1973 to 1976.

At the head of the association, Heinz Ehrt replaced Walter Luther as president and gave priority to debt reduction. The following 1971/72 season saw three coaches. Only Tschik Cajkovski as coach stabilized the team and led them to 9th place. In contrast, the Franconian rival FC Bayern Hof made it into the promotion round. In 1972/73 the club was fifth, but was again only number two in Franconian football, as this time SpVgg Bayreuth landed in front of it. Meanwhile, the Rhinelander Dieter Nüssing established himself more and more as a new identification figure for the followers. Together with Kurt Geinzer and Slobodan Petrović , he formed a midfield with Bundesliga format. He was also extremely dangerous - in 276 games in the second division he scored 90 times. The midfield around Nüssing was a guarantee that under the new coach Hans Tilkowski in the 1973/74 season the promotion round was reached again. This ended tied with Eintracht Braunschweig, who rose because of the one goal better goal difference.

Second division football

In 1974, the foundation of the Bundesliga was strengthened with the introduction of the double-track 2nd Bundesliga . After the club had not been able to return to the Bundesliga in five years in the rather simple regional league, it now had to try the strong 2nd Bundesliga. In the first season 1974/75 the team was only sixth and ended up behind the Franconian competition from Hof ​​and Schweinfurt. The latter had only missed the promotion games because of the goal difference. Then in 1975/76 things went better. Coach Hans Tilkowski's continuous work (in office since 1973), unusually for a club, paid off. In addition, the strong midfield with Hans Walitza finally had a striker again as a buyer, who scored 21 goals every season between 1974 and 1977. As second in the southern league, the team met in the playoffs for promotion to Borussia from Dortmund, trained by Otto Rehhagel . But the first leg in front of their own audience was lost 0: 1, the second leg 2: 3.

Coach Tilkowski threw in the towel, disappointed. Successor Horst Buhtz was initially able to build on the success of the previous season, but towards the end of the season the team gambled away the opportunities for promotion. The audience gave up. The last home game - after all, the Franconian derby against FC Bayern Hof - only 1743 spectators came on May 21, 1977, thus setting the club's record low. Before the 1977/78 season, the club had to part with top performers such as Nüssing, Geinzer, Pechthold and Hannakampf. So the club started the new season without any great ambitions. In the meantime, some talents had developed in the youth, who became German youth champions for the first time in 1974, and among the amateurs. Young players like Norbert Eder , Bertram Beierlorzer , Horst Weyerich , Peter Stocker and Reinhold Schöll complemented the experienced players like goalkeeper Manfred Müller , midfielder Petrovic and attacker Walitza. Above all with an excellent preliminary round, the team secured second place in the table and thus the deciding game for promotion against Rot-Weiss Essen. However, since the last games of the second half of the season were a little worse, the new club president Lothar Schmechtig dismissed coach Buhtz and signed Werner Kern, the previous assistant coach of Bayern Munich. This unusual move was at least not a failure. The club won the first leg 1-0 with a goal from Walitza. In the second leg in Essen, a 2-2 goal from Walitza and Petrovic and an outstanding goalkeeping performance by Müller, who saved a penalty from Horst Hrubesch in the 82nd minute, were enough to make it back to the Bundesliga after nine years.

Elevator team instead of European Cup

Seasonal balances 1978–1994
season space Gates Points spectator Squad
1978/79 17th 36:67 24:44 34,422 Squad
1979/80 01. 88:38 61:19 18,935 Squad
1980/81 14th 47:57 28:40 28,122 Squad
1981/82 13. 53:72 28:40 20,643 Squad
1982/83 14th 44:70 28:40 17,821 Squad
1983/84 18th 38:85 14:54 14,379 Squad
1984/85 01. 71:45 50:26 14,388 Squad
1985/86 12. 51:54 29:39 27,182 Squad
1986/87 09. 62:62 35:33 25,275 Squad
1987/88 05. 44:40 37:31 24,614 Squad
1988/89 14th 36:54 26:42 17,458 Squad
1989/90 08th. 42:46 33:35 23,197 Squad
1990/91 15th 40:54 29:39 21,929 Squad
1991/92 07th 54:51 43:33 34,640 Squad
1992/93 13. 30:47 28:40 31,135 Squad
1993/94 16. 41:55 28:40 32,817 Squad
orange: 2nd Bundesliga

After the long second division came to an end in 1979, he was relegated from the Bundesliga again and in 1980 he was immediately promoted again. The record champions began to become an elevator team. In the first era of President Michael A. Roth (1979-1983) he planned to return to the top of the Bundesliga. But the concept with old stars like Rudolf Kargus , Manfred Burgsmüller and Rüdiger Abramczik did not work, instead, in 1984, after a catastrophic season without any away point, relegation followed. The following second division season was the turning point. When in October 1984 the experienced players refused to work with coach Heinz Höher , they were fired. Around young players such as Hans Dorfner , Dieter Eckstein , Roland Grahammer and Stefan Reuter , a team was formed that not only managed to get promoted again immediately, but even qualified for the UEFA Cup in 1988. The costs for the modernization of the stadium and training grounds, a clumsy transfer policy and finally tax evasion and bribery of referees led back to the 2nd Bundesliga and the club shortly before financial ruin until 1994.

The Roth I era

After returning to the Bundesliga, 1. FC Nürnberg had big plans. But second division hunter Walitza remained just as ineffective in the Bundesliga as his initial strike partner Siegfried Susser. The club responded by signing up for the attack. Detlev Szymanek came from Fortuna Düsseldorf . Most spectacular, however, was the signing of Uli Hoeneß , who left FC Bayern for the club on October 30, 1978. After his severe knee injury, he was also ineffective and only played eleven times for the club. After the preliminary round and only nine points, coach Wolfgang Kern had to leave again. His successor was old master Robert "Zapf" ​​Gebhardt, who stabilized the team a bit, but could never lead from a relegation zone. So the DFB Cup remained the only highlight: the club was only eliminated in the semi-finals after extra time against Fortuna Düsseldorf. And on the third to last game day, the duel against FC Bayern Munich was decided 4-2. The chronic weak storm meant the second relegation at the end of the 1978/79 season .

The new president, Michael A. Roth, aimed for immediate resurgence - despite the departure of Manfred Müller, Petrovic and Walitza. Immediately after three match days and a false start of 1: 5 points, Roth dismissed the new coach Jef Vliers and brought Robert "Zapf" ​​Gebhardt back. He managed to establish a successful team around the two Austrians Reinhold Hintermaier and Franz Oberacher , which made their promotion perfect four match days before the end of the 1979/80 season .

The club started the 1980/81 season with the new coach Horst Heese and a relatively young team. In the defense with Beierlorzer, Eder, Reinhardt, Weyerich and the young Jürgen Täuber, except for veteran Peter Stocker, there were only home grown. In order not to fail again due to the weak storm, a special coup succeeded with the return of Georg Volkert. With at least ten goals, he helped to keep the league at the end of the season. The defensive behavior was improved in the course of the preliminary round with the commitment of the former national goalkeeper Rudolf Kargus . Nevertheless, coach Heese was dismissed in the second half of the season, which is why Norbert Eder resigned his captaincy in protest. Fritz Popp, a master player from 1968, became the new coach. Because of his lack of a coaching license, however, Fred Hoffmann had to officially take over the coaching position at Popp's side for the last three games.

After relegation, Heinz Elzner should establish the club in the Bundesliga as a coach. After five defeats at the beginning of the 1981/82 season , Elzner was dismissed by President Roth and Udo Klug was introduced as the fifth head coach of 1981 at 1. FC Nürnberg. With him, the team stabilized and with the "squirrel method" issued by Klug (one point per game day) actually hoarded 28 points in 29 games. At the same time, the 1982 DFB Cup made it into the cup final. On May 1, 1982, this legendary game was lost 4-2 to Bayern Munich despite a 2-0 break lead.

After this return to the spotlight of football, things should look better in the 1982/83 season . In fact, the team, half of which still came from their own offspring, started the season well. But towards the end of the preliminary round a downward trend began, the negative climax of which was a series of 0:24 points from the last twelve away games. However, contrary to previous practice, the club's management stuck to coach Klug. The old national players Rüdiger Abramczik and Manfred Burgsmüller should improve the lack of quality for the 1983/84 season . The start of the season was mixed, after 8:14 points in the first eleven games, coach Klug was dismissed. Ex-player Rudolf "Rudi" Kröner as the new coach was extremely unsuccessful. Until the winter break, the club only scored a single point. In the second game under Kröner's leadership, VfB Stuttgart suffered the highest away defeat in Bundesliga history with a 7-0 defeat at VfB Stuttgart. Nevertheless, at the end of the preliminary round, the situation was not yet completely hopeless. Only one point separated the club from a non-relegation zone.

Heinz Höher was supposed to lead the club as the new coach. In addition, Gerd Schmelzer replaced Michael A. Roth as President in December 1983. Since Roth himself had invested 2.5 million DM in the club, the club was at least largely debt-free at this point. But the chronic away weakness persisted, the club didn't get a single away point for the whole season - together with the twelve defeats in the previous season, the FCN had a negative run of 29 away defeats in a row. The team was only able to get five plus points under Höher - with only 14 points and 85 goals conceded, the club became the third worst relegation in Bundesliga history after Tasmania 1900 Berlin and Wuppertaler SV .

Heinz Höher and the "Club Foals"

After relegation, twelve players left the club, but coach Heinz Höher was allowed to stay. Before the 1984/85 season , the team's prospects were completely unclear. Some experienced players such as goalkeeper Kargus and newcomer Udo Horsmann were mainly supported by young players. Roland Grahammer , Dieter Eckstein and Rainer Geyer came from their own amateurs, who had made it to the Bavarian amateur league in the previous season . The talented Hans Dorfner came from Bayern Munich . The season started out mixed. In autumn 1984 the club was in the middle of the field before the "October Revolution" occurred at the end of October. Only five players took part in a penalty training at 6 a.m., ordered by coach Heinz Höher after the 1-1 draw at Rot-Weiß Oberhausen on October 27th. The rest of them boycotted the measure and wrote an open letter calling for the coach to be replaced. President Gerd Schmelzer supported coach Höher and instead dismissed the ringleaders Horsmann, Lottermann , Kargus, Krella , Weyerich and Walz without notice. Only Thomas Brunner was allowed to stay, as his transfer value had been transferred to a bank as security. For the next game at Alemannia Aachen , the club played with the youngest club team of all time: the average age was under 21 years. Stefan Reuter from his own youth was one of them, who had just made his debut in the first team at the age of 17. Although the game was lost in Aachen, the club team then stormed towards the top of the table with youthful vigor. On the last day of the match, the decisive game against KSV Hessen Kassel was 2-0. Kassel fell back to fourth place, 1. FC Nürnberg had managed to get back up immediately.

Andreas Köpke (photo from 2006) was the last German national player for 1. FCN so far.

After the promotion, 1. FC Nürnberg under coach Heinz Höher had the most successful phase in the Bundesliga since the last championship with the young “club foals” around senior Dieter Lieberwirth . The team established itself step by step and after three years finally reached fifth place in the 1987/88 season and thus qualified for the UEFA Cup. It was one of the few times in the club's recent history when the coach, president and team could all work in a quiet environment. The team played together largely continuously. The team management was also lucky with the few newcomers. In the first season after promotion, new signing Joachim Philipkowski and the subsequent signings Anders Giske in defense and Jørn Andersen in attack contributed significantly to staying up. For the 1986/87 season Dorfner returned to Bayern Munich, but was replaced by Manfred Schwabl . In addition, Andreas Köpke quickly made the sports disabled Herbert Heider forget in goal . However, it was also the season in which FC Bayern Munich became the sole record champions by winning their tenth championship, after having drawn level with Nuremberg only a year earlier. Before the 1987/88 season came from SpVgg Bayreuth Jörg Dittwar , who was able to replace Lieberwirth, and youth national player Martin Schneider and they quickly established themselves in the team.

On August 24, 1988, the women's and girls' soccer department was founded.

The "Club 2000"

With the qualification for the UEFA Cup, the era of the “club foals” under Heinz Höher was over. Reuter and Grahammer moved together to Bayern Munich for 5.8 million Deutschmarks. Trainer Höher retired to the newly created managerial post. The training took over for the season 1988/89 Hermann Gerland . In addition, they gave in the attack from Andersen in order to be able to sign second division top scorer Souleyman Sané from SC Freiburg . The club deliberately renounced the commitment of Bundesliga players, but brought two other top performers from the 2nd Bundesliga in addition to Sané with Ulf Metschies and Stephan Kuhn .

Parallel to the sporting success, the club presidium around President Schmelzer and Treasurer Böbel began to implement his “Club 2000” concept. This not only envisaged the establishment of the top-class team, but also the construction of a new stadium, the renovation of the club's premises and the future of the club by leasing a property on the club's premises to a hotel chain. Although these plans were implemented, they did not lead to success in sporting or financial terms. At the end of the Schmelzer era in 1991, the debt level had risen to 15.3 million Deutschmarks and the team was far from international success.

As the renovation of the municipal stadium was carried out in six steps until 1990, the club had to hold its first European Cup participation since 1968 on a construction site with a reduced audience. After a moderate start in the Bundesliga, the team managed a sensational game with a 2-1 first leg win at AS Roma . This was followed by a series of defeats in the Bundesliga and in the second leg they were out against the Romans 3-1 after extra time. A few days later Dieter Eckstein left the club and moved to Eintracht Frankfurt . It was not until the winter break that a successor was signed with the 25-year-old medical student Reiner Wirsching from 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 . With his hits, he at least contributed to staying in the league.

After the loss of Giske and Schwabl, the club went into the 1989/90 season without great ambitions. Although the club team enabled a special emotional climax for the supporters on November 25, 1989 with the 4-0 home win (goals by Brunner, Türr, Dusend and Kristl) against FC Bayern Munich, the team was just lagging for the rest of the season just before the relegation places. In April, coach Gerland was sacked. With Dieter Lieberwirth as interim trainer, the season was successfully concluded with an 8th place with 33:35 points. After that, President Gerd Schmelzer wanted to successfully implement his plans for the “Club 2000” by signing Arie Haans . However, the players were missing. Kuhn, Sané and Martin Schneider had left. There were no well- known newcomers apart from Uwe Weidemann . So there was another season in the relegation battle with the climax of the two own goals Vlado Kasalos in March 1991, who then went into hiding and was probably involved in illegal sports betting. Gerd Schmelzer had already resigned in January 1991. President Oberhof and treasurer Böbel provided Arie Haan Willi Entenmann as the second coach and ensured that Hans Dorfner, Dieter Eckstein and Sergio Zárate were signed back. With these they managed to stay up and in the following season 1991/92 , under the sole responsibility of Entenmann, almost the entry into the UEFA Cup, which was only missed on the penultimate matchday.

Record debts, black funds and relegation

Financially, qualifications would have been of great importance. Because the club had already rented its advertising space for four years to finance the commitment of the three returnees. Zárate, Golke and Martin Wagner had to be sold for a total of 7.75 million Deutschmarks. The Zárate case made clear the problematic financial situation in which the club had gotten itself: of the 4.1 million transfer fees that Ancona Calcio paid, 1.2 million went to a sponsor who had made Zárate's commitment possible . The club itself received only 1.3 million, as the rest went to Zárate as hand money. Before the start of the 1992/93 season , there were just 15 players and two contract amateurs available. It was all the more astonishing that on matchday 20 the club was only one point behind a UEFA Cup place in seventh place. But then the Peruvian international Percy Olivares , who could be signed at short notice, left Nuremberg because his wife was too cold. Success also went with Olivares. The relegation was only achieved on the last matchday.

In contrast, 1. FC Nürnberg made headlines during this period because of its record debt level of 23 million D-Marks. In addition, there were “black coffers” and falsified balance sheets, which finally brought the public prosecutor onto the scene and treasurer Böbel even to jail. The suspicion of influencing the referees also caused a sporting uproar - sports equipment such as exercise bikes, away sports equipment or cosmetics were delivered to the entire team of referees, victories should be "secured" in this way, but too good bookkeeping let the matter be exposed. And the new president Gerhard Voack did nothing to bring the club to rest during the 1993/94 season . Although the squad was considered competitive thanks to the return of Zárates, Golkes and Schwabl as well as the signing of Alain Sutter and Luboš Kubík , instead of the expected single-digit place in the table, the club ended up relegated. President Voack initially sold the crowd favorite Eckstein to FC Schalke 04 during the season . Then he fired coach Entenmann after a 2-0 win over Bayern Munich. Neither interim trainer Dieter Renner nor from the winter break Rainer Zobel could prevent the relegation. With the phantom goal in the penultimate game at Bayern Munich, which led to the repetition of the game, the longest uninterrupted Bundesliga membership of 1. FC Nürnberg ended.

The Roth II era

Seasonal balances 1994-2007
season space Gates Points spectator Squad
1994/95 15th 38:47 30:38 14,954 Squad
1995/96 17th 33:40 33 15,158 Squad
1996/97 01. 75:26 80 15,328 -
1997/98 03. 52:35 59 22,010 Squad
1998/99 16. 40:50 37 34,994 Squad
1999/00 04th 54:46 55 17,279 Squad
2000/01 01. 58:35 65 20,356 Squad
2001/02 15th 34:57 34 29,736 Squad
2002/03 17th 33:60 30th 27,533 Squad
2003/04 01. 68:45 61 14,702 Squad
2004/05 14th 55:63 38 29,549 Squad
2005/06 08th. 49:51 44 30,756 Squad
2006/07 06th 43:32 48 41,015 Squad
2007/08 16. 35:51 31 43,300 Squad
2008/09 03. 51:29 60 33,544 Squad
orange: 2nd Bundesliga
yellow: third-rate Regionalliga Süd
blue: DFB Cup victory
Michael A. Roth was President of 1. FC Nürnberg from 1979 to 1983 and from 1994 to 2009.

After Voack's resignation and a brief interlude by Ludwig Haas as club president, Michael A. Roth returned to the office of president in October 1994 (officially in March 1995). He initially pushed through his plan to turn 1. FC Nuremberg into an umbrella organization to which the previous departments belong as independent clubs. In doing so, he separated the financial risks of professional football from the other departments. At the same time, thanks to long-term advertising contracts for his carpet company ARO Heimtextilien and personal guarantees, he succeeded in reducing the debt to 11.6 million D-Marks by October 1995 and protecting the association from a license withdrawal. The meanwhile low point of relegation to the third-class Regionalliga Süd became a turning point. Financially better positioned, the immediate promotion and the march through the 2nd Bundesliga into the Bundesliga succeeded. Since then, the club has been commuting as a typical elevator team between the Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga. It was not until the 2005/06 season , thanks to relegation, that 1. FC Nürnberg played three seasons in a row in the same division for the first time since the early 1990s. In 2006/07 they even managed to place sixth in the table and by winning the DFB Cup their first title in decades. Immediately afterwards 1. FC Nürnberg was relegated again, but then managed to get promoted again.

Two more descents

For the first time since 1985, 1. FC Nürnberg was back in the 2. Bundesliga after relegation in 1994. The catastrophic financial situation made it impossible to set up a competitive team. At the end of the 1994/95 season , the team missed the sporting league, but remained thanks to the license withdrawal of 1. FC Saarbrücken and Dynamo Dresden in the 2nd Bundesliga. In the 1995/96 season the club started with a six point deduction as a condition for violating the license requirements of the DFB. Neither Hermann Gerland, who had returned to the club, nor his successor, returnees Willi Entenmann, were able to prevent relegation to the third division as a coach.

One year regional league

The 1996/97 season in the Regionalliga Süd was extremely successful for 1. FC Nürnberg. With a regional league record budget of ten million Deutschmarks, the club was a huge promotion favorite. Players like Frank Baumann , Marc Oechler , Markus Kurth , Armin Störzenhofecker and Michael Wiesinger took part in the regional league and led the club to a sovereign regional league championship. The absolute highlights were the games against Fürth, which traded as SpVgg Greuther Fürth after the merger with TSV Vestenbergsgreuth . The local rivals met in four competitive games. In addition to the two regional league games, the club and SpVgg also played the final of the district cup and met on August 31, 1996 in the main round of the DFB Cup. To date (2007) the 44,181 spectators form the attendance record for a cup game between third division teams. At the end of the season, Fürth rose together with the club.

March through to the Bundesliga and relegation again

Felix Magath (photo from 2006) made it to the Bundesliga in 1997/98.

After a weak start to the 1997/98 second division season , Willi Entenmann was replaced by Felix Magath as coach after the fifth match day . Under Magath and thanks to the goals of the Macedonian Saša Ćirić , who was signed during the winter break , the hoped-for march back into the Bundesliga was achieved.

For the 1998/99 season , the kicker experts predicted that the fight to keep up the league "is hopeless if the coach and leadership shouldn't pull together." A few days later, Magath resigned as coach before the first match day because President Roth did not want to approve expensive reinforcements. Willi Reimann took over the coaching position, which he gave up again at the end of November 1998 because his wife was seriously ill. In the second half of the season under coach Friedel Rausch and with returning Köpke in goal, the league seemed to be successful. After the 1-1 draw on the penultimate matchday at Hansa Rostock , 1. FC Nürnberg were twelfth in the table, three points ahead of Eintracht Frankfurt in 16th and a goal difference that was five goals higher. Before the last home game against SC Freiburg, the club's management had already invited to the relegation party and had also sent letters to season ticket holders for the current season in which they spoke of “guaranteed relegation”. But 1. FC Nürnberg lost 1: 2 and Frankfurt won 5: 1 against Kaiserslautern, the champions of the previous season. Since other teams behind the club also scored points, the 40 Nuremberg goals against the 44 Frankfurt goals of the season to the detriment of 1. FC Nuremberg decided in the end with 37 points each and a goal difference of "minus ten". The club was once again unfortunate enough to be involved in a memorable Bundesliga event. However, 1. FC Nürnberg remained first class in football thanks to the rise of women in the women's league . In the following year, however, these also decreased.

Back to the Bundesliga with Augenthaler

Klaus Augenthaler (photo from 2011) rose in 2000/01, but fell again in 2002/03.

When the club under coach Rausch threatened to miss out on promotion after the start of the second half of the 1999/2000 season , Klaus Augenthaler was hired as the new coach. In the end, the club was only fourth and had to stay in the 2nd Bundesliga for a second year. Together with the new manager Edgar Geenen , Augenthaler brought three young talents from FC Bayern: David Jarolim , Nils-Eric Johansson and Frank Wiblishauser . It is no coincidence that this is reminiscent of the time in the 1980s when the club u. a. with Dorfner and Schwabl successfully signed players from the FC Bayern youth team. Johannson and Wiblishauser developed alongside players like Jacek Krzynówek and Marek Nikl to support the team and so Andreas Köpke was finally able to celebrate a promotion at the end of the 2000/01 season and thus at the end of his career after many relegations.

In the following Bundesliga season 2001/02 the relegation succeeded. The surprising sale of Johannson for 8 million Deutschmarks to Blackburn Rovers in October was a weakening. Thanks to the signing of the Norwegian international Tommy Svindal Larsen , the team stabilized and in the attack, Cacau , who was brought into the first team by his own amateurs, provided a boost with his goals. So the class could be secured on the penultimate game day.

With Milan Belić , Dušan Petković , Rade Todorović and Milorad Popović and returnees Saša Ćirić, manager Geenen and coach Augenthaler brought five players from the former Yugoslavia for the 2002/03 Bundesliga season . Only Ćirić could convince, all other newcomers turned out to be mistakes. Although the club still had five points ahead of a relegation zone after the preliminary round. But a catastrophic second half of the season with only nine points (2 wins, 3 draws, 12 defeats) led to relegation again. Even the dismissal of Klaus Augenthaler on April 30th after more than three years in office could no longer prevent 1. FC Nürnberg from becoming a record relegated from the Bundesliga. President Roth declared: “Klaus Augenthaler and Edgar Geenen are solely responsible.” In fact, contrary to previous habits, Roth had hardly interfered in the sporting business and held on to the coach for a long time.

Promotion and establishment in the Bundesliga

Marek Mintál was the top scorer once in the Bundesliga and twice in the 2nd Bundesliga.

Augenthaler's successor was Wolfgang Wolf , who with his two-and-a-half-year term for club conditions also remained in office for a long time. In the 2003/04 season he was immediately promoted again. Players like Larsen, Krzynowek and Ćirić could be held. Jarolim went to Hamburger SV during the season, but the Slovaks Marek Mintál and Róbert Vittek in particular turned out to be bargains. In contrast, the plan to offer the Turkish population of Nuremberg an opportunity to identify with the club with Oktay Derelioğlu did not work out.

Coach Wolf and the new sports director Martin Bader signed seasoned Bundesliga professionals with Tomasz Hajto and Markus Schroth for the season after their promotion. While Hajto did not convince in defense and the club was known for its vulnerability to opposing set pieces, the club owed the relegation primarily to Marek Mintál, who was the top scorer as a midfielder with 24 goals . For the 2005/06 season Wolf and Bader wanted to strengthen the defensive in particular with the commitment of the Tunisian national players Jawhar Mnari and Adel Chedli and the Czech Jan Polák . Mnari and Chedli were exhausted from participating in the 2005 Confederations Cup and missed much of the preparation. Marek Mintál broke his metatarsus after the third matchday and was out of the entire preliminary round. Since the defensive remained fragile, but the offensive had to get along without the best man, the club was after twelve match days with only six points at the bottom of the table.

Flight high after a long suffering

Hans Meyer was the coach from November 9, 2005 to February 11, 2008 and was able to win the DFB Cup.

Wolfgang Wolf and the club separated, Hans Meyer became the new coach. He managed to stabilize the team and still lead to a non-relegation place in the preliminary round. The second half of the season started with a shock, as the returning Mintál broke his foot again in the third minute in the first game after the winter break against Hamburger SV, but the upward trend remained unbroken and thanks to the blooming storm around Róbert Vittek, who was in the second half of the season Scoring 16 goals, Iwan Sajenko and Stefan Kießling made Nuremberg the fourth best team in the second half of the season. With the eighth place in the table with 44 points, this was the most successful season since 1991/92. After the season most of the regular players stayed with the club. Only public favorite Stefan Kießling left the club for a transfer fee of 5 million euros.

Tomáš Galásek, team captain for the 2007/08 season

After the years of debt, the club had finally achieved a solid financial base again after this season and was able to announce a spectacular newcomer, the captain of the Czech national team, Tomáš Galásek from Ajax Amsterdam , who came on a free transfer. At the beginning of the 2006/07 season , the team was able to seamlessly build on the previous season and celebrate the most successful start in the club's history in the Bundesliga with two opening wins, cautiously strengthened by Galásek and returnees Mintál (who was again out for a long time after a few match days). where the championship lead (for the first time since 1968) was held until the third match day. The first half of the season ended the club after a 3-1 home win against Hannover 96 in seventh place in the table. In the second half of the season, with 13 points from five games, they also got off to a good start, leading the team to fifth place in the table and dreaming of a UEFA Cup participation. The games against FC Bayern Munich were also extremely important to the fans. After a 0-0 away match, Nuremberg won 3-0 in the second half of the season. This led to numerous fan articles under the motto "3-0 - I was there". At the end of the season 1. FC Nürnberg was in sixth place - the best position since fifth place in 1988. Goalkeeper Raphael Schäfer and the defensive row around Javier Pinola , Andreas Wolf , Dominik Reinhardt , Honorato Gláuber and Michael Beauchamp played particularly well this season , so that Nürnberg and Schalke had the fewest goals against in the league (32). And one week after the last day of the match, the final of the DFB Cup was on.

The DFB Cup in Nuremberg
The cup winners of 2007:

Raphael Schäfer - Dominik Reinhardt , Andreas Wolf , Marek Nikl ( Matthew Spiranovic ), Javier Pinola ( Ivica Banović ) - Tomáš Galásek , Marco Engelhardt , Jan Kristiansen , Marek Mintál ( Jan Polák ), Iwan Sajenko - Markus Schroth

Valznerweiher 2007.jpg

Participation in the UEFA Cup was already certain at this point, as the club had definitely qualified as a cup finalist against the German champions VfB Stuttgart. With a 3-2 win over VfB Stuttgart, 1. FC Nürnberg won a national title for the first time since 1968 with the DFB Cup on May 26, 2007. The club in the DFB Cup almost embarrassed itself in the first round in 2006/07 , because they only won 0: 1 at BV Cloppenburg , in the second round only 1: 2 after extra time at SC Paderborn 07 and in Round of 16 2-1 on penalties against Spielvereinigung Unterhaching . On February 27, 2007, after a 4-2 on penalties against Hannover 96, the semi-finals of the DFB Cup were reached for the first time in 25 years. There the club defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0 in front of their home crowd .

Relegation in Germany, successes in Europe

Angelos Charisteas: The most expensive purchase in the club's history
Scene from the cup match against SC Victoria Hamburg in the Hoheluft stadium , August 5, 2007
Thomas von Heesen could not prevent the descent.

As the DFB Cup winner, the club was directly qualified for the semifinals of the DFL League Cup. Nuremberg lost the only game in the club's history in this competition on July 24th in front of 25,500 spectators in their own stadium with 2: 4 against Schalke 04. 1. FC Nuremberg entered the 2007/08 season with a squad that was considered “meaningful and strengthened added "was true. From the previous season only regular goalkeeper Raphael Schäfer, midfielder Jan Polák and attacker Markus Schroth were recorded as significant departures. With the Czech national goalkeeper Jaromír Blažek , the Greek European champion Angelos Charisteas as well as Zvjezdan Misimović and Peer Kluge , the club brought four reinforcements. Charisteas was the most expensive purchase of all time at around 2.5 million euros. Nevertheless, the sports management was skeptical and warned against too much euphoria. Manager Bader only gave the "goal of relegation", which could not be achieved. At the end of the season, the seventh Bundesliga relegation was certain.

Part of the culprit was certainly bad luck with injuries: Róbert Vittek had a lot after the fourth match day and only returned on the twenty-second, Javier Pinola was out from the seventh until the winter break, Charistas was only able to play seven times in the first half of the season and also Misimović, who ended up being the top scorer with ten goals, had to keep pausing. Nuremberg went into the winter break in 16th place and was thus well behind the successes of the previous year, also in the DFB Cup : In the first round there was a clear 6-0 victory against the fifth-rate club SC Victoria Hamburg , in the second round But then Meyer's former team, the second division club FC Carl Zeiss Jena, was eliminated on penalties.

However, there were successes in the UEFA Cup . There 1. FC Nürnberg met the Romanian representative Rapid Bucharest in the first round . After 0-0 in the first leg, the 2-2 was enough in the second leg. This was the first time that the first round was over and Nuremberg moved into the group phase. There Everton FC first came to Nuremberg. The game remained goalless for a long time, but then the English won after a penalty and a connecting goal. The away game against Zenit St. Petersburg - the eventual cup winners - ended 2-2. In their home game against AZ Alkmaar , the Dutch led with one goal for a long time, but Marek Mintál was able to turn the game around with a one-two punch in the final minutes. Nürnberg finished second in the group with the following 3-1 win against AE Larisa and advanced to the third main round. In the sixteenth finals, the club met the Champions League relegated Benfica Lisbon . In the new edition of the European Cup quarter-finals of 1962, the FCN failed again to the Portuguese. After a 1-0 defeat in the first leg in Lisbon, Nuremberg led 2-0 in the second leg until the 89th minute, before Benfica scored the next goal and even equalized.

For the second half of the season came the newcomers Jacques Abardonado and Jan Koller , who was bought for around one million euros. Since the start of the second half of the season was also botched, 1. FC Nürnberg signed a new head coach with Thomas von Heesen on February 12, 2008, despite their success in the UEFA Cup . After seven more Bundesliga games without a win and the end of the UEFA Cup, the new coach did not win their first victory until matchday 27 with a 3-1 win at Eintracht Frankfurt. However, this success overshadowed a 21-minute break in the game, which was triggered by supporters of the 1. FCN. After 30 minutes, when the score was 1: 1, several fireworks were thrown from the FCN block onto the field, so that referee Peter Gagelmann had to interrupt the game and threatened to abandon it. On April 8, the DFB Sports Court sentenced Nuremberg to a fine of € 50,000 for “lack of protection for the referee, assistant referees and the opponent in offense with unsportsmanlike conduct”. Eintracht Frankfurt had to pay € 25,000.

Ironically, the next game against VfL Wolfsburg was actually canceled by referee Jochen Drees , but not because of human misconduct, but because of too heavy rain. The sixth game abandonment in Bundesliga history - the first due to rain - was particularly bitter, as Nuremberg was in the lead with Iwan Sajenko's first goal of the season against VfL Wolfsburg, the best second half team at the time, and goalkeeper Jaromír Blažek had saved a penalty. After a clear 3-0 defeat in Stuttgart, the club then scored eight points from four games (including the 1-0 in the replay against Wolfsburg, the first home win in 2008), but also missed it against their direct rival Arminia Bielefeld at home a 2-0 save over time. With the 2-2 final result, the club stayed behind Arminia; a victory would have been enough to keep the league if the results were otherwise the same. On the last day of the match there was a "final" against FC Schalke 04. Since Bielefeld did not win, Nuremberg would have kept the class with a win. However, the game ended 0-2, which meant the only home defeat in the second half of the season. With seven relegations, Nuremberg became the only record relegation, while Bielefeld had to share second place with Duisburg from now on. Despite the relegation, Nuremberg provided five players for the following European Championship : the three Czechs Tomáš Galásek, Jan Koller and Jaromír Blažek, the Greek Angelos Charisteas and the Russian Iwan Sajenko.

Second division for the seventh time and seventh promotion

Raphael Schäfer set a new second division record with 945 minutes without goals.

For the following second division season 2008/09 , the club planned to achieve immediate promotion with experienced Bundesliga players. After the income from the cup win and the UEFA Cup games had made it debt-free, they raised a budget of 17.8 million euros that would not have been possible for more than a season in the second division. However, the concept only partially worked. Four weeks before the start of the season, the French energy company Areva was also presented as the new main sponsor. A contract was signed with the Erlangen- based company, which is “the global leader in the field of nuclear technology”, which will bring 1. FC Nürnberg around 1.9 million euros per second division season and double that for a first division season. There were a large number of transfers in the team. The most important departures included Galásek, Sajenko, Vittek, Abardonado, Blažek, Koller, Misimović, Gláuber and Kristiansen. However, some well-known players such as Mário Breška , Daniel Gygax , José Gonçalves , Ioannis Masmanidis , Pascal Bieler , Juri Judt , Isaac Boakye , Aleksandar Mitreski and - after a long time playing poker - Christian Eigler were also signed . In addition, there was the return of Raphael Schäfer, who had not been able to assert himself at Stuttgart. The first game of the season was won, the second lost. Thereupon Thomas von Heesen announced his resignation on August 28th, saying: “It is not understandable for me to completely question a coach after two match days - against better knowledge that a newly formed, rejuvenated team needs time to develop. "

Michael Oenning managed to rise again immediately in 2008/09.

The previous Kotrainer Michael Oenning then initially took over the duties of head coach as interim coach, but was officially appointed as the same on September 5th. In the period that followed, Nuremberg played below expectations and soon lost its position as a promotion favorite. The lowest table position was the 14th place from the fifth to the seventh match day. Red bans and many injuries ultimately led to the increased use of young players. For example, Peter Perchtold and Mike Frantz surprisingly became regulars. Dominic Maroh and Markus Fuchs from the second team, which had a successful start to the season in the Regionalliga Süd, even made unexpected professional appearances. The first away win came on the 13th matchday. In the next game, however, a season highlight followed: Nuremberg won a mandatory home game against Greuther Fürth for the first time since the 1996/97 regional league season. This 252nd Frankenderby was with 46,243 spectators also the best-attended game in the league this season. On the last match day of the first half of the season, however, this record was broken by 1860 Munich - in the game against 1. FC Nürnberg, with around 20,000 club fans among the 57,200 spectators.

During the winter break, Nuremberg won the "Antalya Cup" at the training camp in Turkey. The club also relied on young players for the second half of the season. With Marcel Risse , Stefan Reinartz and Dennis Diekmeier came three German U-20 national players and at the same time reigning U-19 European champions . After the first matchday it was announced that Albert Bunjaku and the youth international İlkay Gündoğan would also come with immediate effect, although they should only switch to the new season. But there were also departures, including the experienced Engelhardt and Charisteas as well as the newcomers Masmanidis and Breška. The club was able to build on the successes at the end of the first half of the season, but did not make it for a long time to get promoted. A dramatic draw in Duisburg dampened all hopes on matchday 23, but after that Nuremberg was able to advance to second place with a series of five wins in a row. Since all of these games remained clean, Nuremberg set a new club record in professional football. The following 1: 2 away defeat at FSV Frankfurt was also memorable, as around 12,000 of the 16,112 visitors were club fans. After the season, Nuremberg took third place in the table and therefore competed in the newly re-introduced relegation games against FC Energie Cottbus. In the first leg in Lausitz, the club was surprisingly able to assert itself 3-0, in the second leg it made the promotion perfect with a 2-0. Nuremberg also set further records: In the Frankenstadion from the 14th to the 34th matchday no goal was conceded, which at 945 minutes means the longest series without goals against home in the history of the 2nd Bundesliga. In addition, Marek Mintál was again top scorer with 16 goals and the club had the best defense of the season with only 29 goals conceded, although the actual defense chief Andreas Wolf, who had been elected new captain before the season, only made seven appearances due to two serious injuries was. Financially, the second division year had caused a deficit of 5.8 million euros after taxes, including 1.2 million euros in bank debt.

On June 8, 2009 Michael A. Roth announced his resignation. He justified this with the statement: “I will withdraw more into private life and concentrate on my work in my company ARO. With my promotion in 2008/09 I also achieved the goal I had set for myself. ”Franz Schäfer, who had been Vice President since 2004, succeeded him as interim president.

Five years of the Bundesliga

Seasonal balances 2009–2014
season space Gates Points spectator Squad
2009/10 16. 32:58 31 42,335 Squad
2010/11 06th 47:45 47 42,020 Squad
2011/12 10. 38:49 42 41,968 Squad
2012/13 10. 39:47 44 41,518 Squad
2013/14 17th 37:70 26th 40,412 Squad

After Roth's resignation, it was decided that the association should in future be headed by a full-time executive. Franz Schäfer was in charge of the club until it was implemented on October 7, 2010, and in his first year he managed to stay in league, the following season Nuremberg even finished sixth. After two more successful seasons, each of which ended in tenth place, there was relegation again in 2013/14.

Change of statutes to the full-time executive board and club bond

On October 13, 2009, 93.3% of those present agreed to an amendment to the statutes at the ordinary general meeting. According to this, the association is to be headed by a full-time, two-person board from October 2010. As a result, there will no longer be any honorary presidents. The general assembly should, however, remain the highest body, as it elects a nine-member supervisory board to determine the executive board.

From December 10th, 2009 to March 19th, 2010 1. FC Nürnberg offered a “club bond” to get money for a new building at Valznerweiher. A new young talent center and a club museum are to be built there. The bond bears interest at 6% pa and has a term of six years. At the end of April 2010, the association announced that the money received was sufficient for the construction. Vice President Ralf Woy said: “Due to the numerous subscriptions we can now issue the planned issue volume of 6 million euros. That far exceeded our expectations. This means that we can realize the future project of the 1. FCN, which is so important to us, solely through the club bond and without bank financing. Thanks to our fans and investors! "

Relegation to keep up

Albert Bunjaku was the most successful striker of the season with twelve goals.

While the Bundesliga clubs jointly set a new record for transfer fees before the 2009/10 season , the club initially only strengthened itself with youth players, the free transfer Thomas Broich and returnee Charisteas. Only after the start of the season did the club pay a low six-figure amount to be able to borrow the players Håvard Nordtveit and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting . The most important departure was Stefan Reinartz, who was called back to Leverkusen early. In addition, the long-time Nuremberg Dominik Reinhardt was awarded to FC Augsburg and left the club for good after the season.

The first game of the season was lost at home to FC Schalke. With a draw on the second match day, the club reached 13th place in the table - the best placement in the first half of the season, so that Nuremberg was involved in the relegation battle from the start. On matchday 13 there was a surprising first away win at champions VfL Wolfsburg, which resulted in a jump to 14th place. However, goalkeeper Schäfer caused a sensation in this game with an assault, for which he was punished with a four-game suspension. The last first round games were all lost, so the club wintered in the penultimate place in the table. The board reacted on December 21st by giving trainer Michael Oenning a leave of absence. Dieter Hecking was signed as his successor . Its first act was to cut the players' vacation by five days. Nuremberg strengthened themselves with Bayern players Andreas Ottl and Breno as well as Mickaël Tavares from Hamburg , which increased the number of loan players to six, but gave a top performer to Schalke 04 with Kluge.

Dieter Hecking managed to stay in the league.

In the second half of the season there were several incidents with some of the fans. The club had to pay a fine of 6,000 euros for throwing a lighter at an assistant referee on February 6th and has already announced an even clearer action against violence and vandalism. But on February 27, another incident occurred during the away game in Bochum when magnesium powder was set on fire in the Nuremberg block and several fans suffered, in some cases serious injuries. As a consequence, 1. FC Nürnberg announced that it would only sell personalized tickets for away games in the future. As a fine, the club had to pay 40,000 euros to the Nuremberg youth welfare office over two years. In addition, the standing room had to remain empty in two away games and the club also had to compensate for the loss of income for the home clubs. This resulted in a total fine of around 100,000 euros.

The second half of the season went better for 1. FC Nürnberg. After a series of five games without defeat between the 23rd and the 27th match day, during which they also defeated the previously undefeated autumn champions Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Nuremberg seemed to have already left the inner circle of relegation candidates. Since then, however, four of the last five games were lost, the club finished the season in 16th place in the table and had to take part in the relegation games again. The opponent there was FC Augsburg . In terms of play, Nürnberg was superior in both games. In the first leg in front of their home crowd, the Franconians missed numerous chances, but in the end they still managed a 1-0, in the second leg they finally managed to stay up with a 2-0 victory.

Nuremberg provided four players for the following World Cup : the Swiss Bunjaku, the Cameroonian Choupo-Moting, the Greek Charisteas and the Australian Vidosic, who was awarded to MSV Duisburg for the last six months. In addition, with Michael Beauchamp , Cacau , Lars Jacobsen , Joshua Kennedy , Stefan Kießling and Róbert Vittek, six former Nürnbergers were in the squad, with Vittek in particular standing out with four goals.

The 2010/11 season: sixth place

Christian Eigler (photo from 2009) scored four goals in a 5-0 home win against FC St. Pauli; the only "four-pack" of the Bundesliga season.

The amendment to the Articles of Association came into force on October 7, 2010. Martin Bader for sport and public relations and Ralf Woy for finance and administration became the full-time directors. The supervisory board was enlarged to nine members.

In sporting terms, the 2010/11 Bundesliga season began with a draw against alleged relegation rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach. When the following home game against SC Freiburg was lost, the fans began to doubt the transfer policy: After the departure of some top performers such as Diekmeier, Ottl, Risse or Choupo-Moting, the club again relied on young talent. Julian Schieber , Mehmet Ekici and Jens Hegeler were loaned from other Bundesliga clubs, Almog Cohen , Rubin Okotie and Róbert Mak were firmly committed. With Per Nilsson and Timmy Simons , Nuremberg had only brought two veterans. Two away draws against Hamburg and Leverkusen meant small successes before the club celebrated their first win of the season against Stuttgart. Five more followed by the winter break, with Schalke, Wolfsburg and Bremen also being beaten; on the other hand there were defeats against smaller teams like St. Pauli or Kaiserslautern. Overall, however, the 22 points at the half-season meant a great success. In the cup too, the second round was survived for the first time since winning the title in 2007; However, the game of the third round was postponed due to too strong winter. However, the start of the second half of the season began with a defeat against Borussia from Mönchengladbach. The club won the catch-up game in the DFB-Pokal again 2-0 in Offenbach and made it into the quarter-finals against league rivals FC Schalke 04, which was only lost after extra time. In the league, however, Nuremberg followed up with successes with a winning streak against Hamburg, Leverkusen, Stuttgart and Frankfurt. On matchday 25, the club won one of the highest Bundesliga victories in the club's history with a 5-0 win against FC St. Pauli, which resulted in a jump to sixth place. Nuremberg was able to maintain this rank until the end of the season, with theoretical chances of qualifying for the Europa League even up to the penultimate matchday. In contrast to the joy about the good season stood the emotional departure from Marek Mintál after eight years of membership in the club. In the summer break, captain Andreas Wolf also left the club after he did not agree to the offered contract.

Two tenth places

Defender Philipp Wollscheid left Nuremberg after only one and a half years in professional football for seven million euros.

In the 2011/12 season , Nuremberg again relied on young players, although it was already possible to borrow fewer players. The club paid a transfer fee of around two million euros for striker Tomáš Pekhart . Other significant reinforcements were the midfielders Alexander Esswein and Markus Feulner as well as the Swiss defender Timm Klose . Furthermore Daniel Didavi was loaned from Stuttgart. In Finalzell, İlkay Gündoğan's departure was particularly profitable: Borussia Dortmund paid four and a half million euros.

Scene from the home game against 1. FC Kaiserslautern on matchday 14; The final score was 1-0.

At the start, Nuremberg won 1-0 at the newly promoted Hertha BSC and reached seventh place. With two more wins on the next four match days, the club had a successful start to the season. After that, however, the club rose to the worst place in the table - 16th place, which was occupied after match days 13 and 16. In the last game before the winter break, Nürnberg was able to improve to 15th place with a 3-0 victory in Leverkusen. On December 20, Nuremberg lost the second round of the Cup in their own stadium against SpVgg Greuther Fürth, who only just lost to Dortmund in the semifinals and were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time at the end of the season. In the middle of the season, Nuremberg strengthened itself with the experienced Hanno Balitsch and Adam Hloušek , for whom another million was paid. In the second half of the season, the best place was achieved ninth. The highlights were a 1-0 win in Bremen, a late 1-0 win against Mönchengladbach and a 4-1 home win against FC Schalke 04. Up until the last matchday there were theoretical chances of participating in the UEFA Europa League. The final game, which also meant Michael Ballack's last appearance in the Bundesliga, the club lost 4-1 against Leverkusen and remained in tenth place in the table.

Nuremberg had a hard time replacing the successful trio Ekici, Gündoğan and Schieber among the players. The most successful strikers in the end were Pekhart and Didavi with nine goals each, with the latter reaching a series of six goals in five match days. In defense, Philipp Wollscheid ensured stability. He left the club at the end of the season for seven million euros for Leverkusen. It was the highest sum ever paid for a Nuremberg citizen. Timm Klose, on the other hand, was replaced by Dominic Maroh after 13 match days. Maroh also left the club in the end after it became apparent that he was not planned as a regular player again for the coming season. Other departures were Christian Eigler, Albert Bunjaku and Juri Judt.

Center-back Per Nilsson (photo from 2011) became the club's top scorer with six goals.

Before the following season, Marek Mintál returned to Nuremberg to support the second team with his experience. For this he got a farewell game with the professional team, which was won 4-2 against champions Dortmund. In the DFB-Pokal 2012/13 , however, the Nürnberger experienced a first round against the fourth division TSV Havelse . For the 2012/13 season , among others, the Japanese international Hiroshi Kiyotake , Timo Gebhart , Marcos António Elias and loaner Sebastian Polter moved to Nuremberg. While Kiyotake in particular was convincing, Marcos António did not prove to be the hoped-for reinforcement of the defense and only played one Bundesliga game. In his place, Timm was able to convince Klose, who was the third best defender in the league after the preliminary round. With seven points from the first three games, including a 1-1 draw against Borussia Dortmund, Nuremberg started the season well. However, it was followed by a slump with only one point from six games. Then the team stabilized again. The home game against FC Bayern ended 1: 1. For Munich this meant both the only goal conceded and the only point loss in the first half of the season. A week later, the first Frankenderby in Bundesliga history also ended in a draw. Finally, the FCN finished the preliminary round in 14th place and with a total of 20 points and eight points ahead of the relegation place. During the winter break, however, coach Hecking surprisingly changed for a transfer fee to league competitor VfL Wolfsburg , who at that time was one place and one point behind Nuremberg. The previous U23 coach Michael Wiesinger and the previous co-trainer Armin Reutershahn were the new coaching team shortly afterwards , with Wiesinger being assigned the leadership role within the duo.

Michael Wiesinger Armin Reutershahn
Coach duo: Wiesinger and Reutershahn

The second half of the season went well for the club in large parts. On the 29th matchday a weaker phase began again with a 4-0 defeat, during which the Fürth team also won their game in Nuremberg. On the penultimate matchday, success returned with a win over Düsseldorf, on the last matchday the Franks improved by three places thanks to a 3-2 win over Werder Bremen and ended the season in tenth place as in the previous year. A total of 44 points had been won in the season. The team's top scorer was center-back Per Nilsson with six goals. Hiroshi Kiyotake was the fourth best preparer in the league with ten assists - and the best who did not play for champions Bayern Munich. The goal hoped for by many fans to stay in the table ahead of Heckings Wolfsburg was also achieved; like at the winter break with a place and a point.

The eighth descent in 2013/14

Josip Drmić was the third best goalscorer in the league with 17 goals and moved to Bayer Leverkusen after the season.

For the 2013/14 season , Nuremberg wanted to keep the majority of the top performers. Only Timm Klose was poached from VfL Wolfsburg. Furthermore, with Mū Kanazaki, Sebastian Polter, Alexander Stephan, Nick Weber and the previously awarded Almog Cohen, Manuel Zeitz and Wilson Kamavuaka some substitutes left the club. It was only shortly before the start of the season that Timmy Simons unexpectedly said goodbye after his former club, Club Bruges, offered him a two-year contract with the option of joining the coaching staff. The club got Martin Angha , Daniel Ginczek , Mariusz Stępiński , Emanuel Pogatetz and Josip Drmić to strengthen their position . Before the fifth matchday, Hasebe Makoto followed to fill the gap left by Simons.

Gertjan Verbeek (photo from 2007).

In sporting terms, the season started with a 2-2 draw at TSG Hoffenheim, and the same result came a week later at home against newcomers Hertha BSC. Nuremberg only took three points from the following five games, followed by a 5-0 home defeat against HSV. After this game, Wiesinger and Reutershahn were given leave of absence. On the following day, the team under interim coach Roger Prinzen picked up a point at Frankfurter Eintracht. On October 21, 2013, the Dutchman Gertjan Verbeek was signed as the new coach. In its first three games, despite the sometimes strong style of play, only one point was captured, which is why the club found itself in the last place in the table after the twelfth match day. This was left by a draw on the following match day, but Nuremberg had to hibernate as penultimate in the table. A 3: 3 in Hanover on the 16th matchday was particularly dramatic, in which Nuremberg had led 3-0 up to the 60th minute and 3-2 up to the second minute of stoppage time. The club became the first team in Bundesliga history that could not celebrate a victory in the entire first half of the season. The record for the longest winless series overall is still with Tasmania Berlin. The start of the second half of the season went well with a 4-0 win over Hoffenheim and a 3-1 win in Berlin, so that the Franks were in fifteenth place after matchday 19. In the following home game, which was lost 2-0 to Bayern Munich, Timothy Chandler, who was out until matchday 32, was injured, then Daniel Ginczek, who could not play for the entire season. On the next two match days, there were two more wins against Augsburg and Braunschweig. The victory against Lower Saxony was largely made possible by Raphael Schäfer, as he saved two penalties. When Nürnberg subsequently failed from the point, the encounter became the first game with three penalties awarded in Bundesliga history. Mainly because of persistent bad luck with injuries, only the game on matchday 27 could be won, all other games were lost. After a 4-1 home defeat against Leverkusen, Gertjan Verbeek was on leave after only twenty-two match days and Roger Prinzen took over the position of interim coach again. But he couldn't get a point in the three remaining games. On the last match day there were still chances of reaching the relegation place, but after a 1: 4 defeat at Schalke, the eighth Bundesliga relegation of 1. FC Nürnberg was certain. Josip Drmić's move to Bayer 04 Leverkusen was announced just two days later; The Werkself are said to have paid a transfer fee of six to seven million euros.

Recent history

Seasonal balances since 2014
season space Gates Points spectator Squad
2014/15 09. 42:47 45 30,743 Squad
2015/16 03. 68:41 65 30,709 Squad
2016/17 12. 46:52 42 28,834 Squad
2017/18 02. 61:39 60 30,522 Squad
2018/19 18th 26:68 19th 40,072 Squad
2019/20 : Squad
orange: 2nd Bundesliga

After relegation Nuremberg had to spend four years in the second division. There had not been such a long absence from the House of Lords since the 1990s. In the first year, the highly favored Franconians only finished ninth, and in the following season they did not participate in relegation games. When the third year ended only in twelfth place, the rise succeeded in 2017/18. After the immediate relegation, the fall in the third division 2019/20 could only be prevented in the relegation games.

Ninth place

Valérien Ismaël on the day of the start of training at 1. FCN.
René Weiler (photo from 2018).

After relegation, the majority of the players left the club. Only Schäfer, Rakovsky, Pinola, Gebhart, Stark, Petrák, Pachonik and Bihr stayed in Nuremberg for the new second division season , Mendler returned after his loan but did not appear in the first team. Among the most spectacular newcomers were the reigning top scorer of the second division Jakub Sylvestr , returnee Jan Polák, Niclas Füllkrug , Danny Blum , Alessandro Schöpf and loaner Peniel Mlapa .

Valérien Ismaël was hired as the new coach, leading a professional club for the first time. Nuremberg was considered one of the league's biggest favorites. The first game was won 1-0 against Erzgebirge Aue, but a week later there was an embarrassing defeat with a 1: 5 in Fürth. In the cup, Nürnberg was eliminated in the first game against third division club MSV Duisburg. After seven game days, the club was in sixteenth place in the table, which meant the negative value of the season. After the thirteenth match day, Ismaël was given leave of absence, and René Weiler from Switzerland was hired as his successor . During the winter break, three reinforcements came with Guido Burgstaller , Sebastian Kerk and Adrian Nikci . The best place was sixth after twenty-two games. In the end, with position ninth, the goal of direct recovery was clearly missed.

Unsuccessful relegation

In the run-up to the 2015/16 season , the licensing process was difficult for financial reasons. A major problem was the expiry of the club bond from 2009, which the club had to reschedule. The team has also changed significantly again, and the contract of the long-time audience favorite Javier Pinola was not renewed, who then returned to Argentina, where he was even called back to the national team. Other significant departures were Čelůstka, Mendler and Mlapa, Cedric Teuchert from his own youth, Tim Leibold , Thorsten Kirschbaum , Rúrik Gíslason , Kevin Möhwald and Hanno Behrens , who was later appointed captain, are particularly noteworthy among the new signings . The first game was lost 6: 3 in Freiburg, with Nuremberg immediately taking the last place in the table. In September 2015, they also parted with the sports director Martin Bader, who was unpopular with many fans. The club was able to stabilize and get into the promotion battle. In the second round of the cup there was a 5-1 home win against Düsseldorf, before the end against Hertha BSC followed. During the winter break, Schöpf moved to FC Schalke 04. Since the eighteenth matchday, FCN has been in third place and has also been able to set up some impressive series in the second division: eighteen league games in a row without defeat, eighteen home games in a row without defeat and six wins across all seasons as a result. All three series ended on the twenty-ninth matchday against the bottom of the table MSV Duisburg, who celebrated their first away win of the season in Nuremberg. The next game against Karlsruhe was also lost, but then a 0-2 break deficit against Union Berlin could be turned into a 6-2 win. It was the first time since a 7-3 win against Mainz in 1975 that Nuremberg scored six goals in one half. At the end of the season Nuremberg was in third place and therefore had to play against Eintracht Frankfurt in the relegation games. The first leg ended happily with 1-1. The interim leadership came about through an own goal by Frankfurt's Marco Russ , whose testicular cancer disease only became public on the day of the game. In the second leg, the FCN was defeated in their own stadium with 0: 1 and thus missed promotion. Also worth mentioning this season is the unusually high rate of wrong referee decisions to the disadvantage of 1. FC Nürnberg. According to the website Wahrtetabelle.de, the club was disadvantaged fourteen times and only benefited three times. According to the corrected table, Nuremberg would have got a total of twelve points more and would have been five points ahead of first place in the league.

Twelfth place

Before the 2016/17 season , coach Weiler left 1. FC Nürnberg to take over RSC Anderlecht. Alois Schwartz was hired by SV Sandhausen as his successor . The players included Blum, Füllkrug, Kerk and Polák, while Tobias Kempe , Tim Matavž and Edgar Salli were the most important newcomers . After two draws at the beginning, the club lost 6-1 in Braunschweig and also lost the three following games, which meant that they had to take the last place in the table after the sixth game day. From there, Nuremberg was able to improve to eighth place with four wins in a row, but then stayed in the middle of the table. Burgstaller, on the other hand, caused a sensation, who was the most successful striker in the first half of the season with fourteen goals, but then moved to FC Schalke 04. In the end it was still enough for him to finish fifth among the top scorer. Sylvestr also left the club for good, Mikael Ishak joined the team. After the second Frankenderby of a season against Fürth had been lost on the 23rd matchday for the first time since the Regionalliga Süd 1972/73, Schwartz was replaced by Michael Köllner , who had previously coached the U-21 team. In his first game there was another win after three goalless defeats, but there was no real upward trend. After the 32nd matchday, the highest score of the season was reached with seventh place, but due to defeats in the last two games, only twelfth was occupied in the end, which meant the worst final placement since the 1995/96 season. In addition, Nuremberg was in the final table behind Fürth for the first time since the football league in 1952/53. On the 33rd match day (the last home game) Raphael Schäfer also ended his career with his 358th league appearance for Nuremberg. After the final whistle of the 3-2 defeat against Düsseldorf, he was ceremoniously adopted. Furthermore initiative crowdfunding was the Max shared the Consorsbank achieved that the stadium for three years the long-awaited by the fans name Max Morlock Stadium will wear.

The eighth climb

Promotion coach Michael Köllner

Before the 2017/18 season , Bulthuis, Hovland, Kempe, Matavž and Patrick Rakovsky, who had been the successor to Schäfer in previous years, were newly signed up, such as Enrico Valentini , Ewerton , Tobias Werner and Fabian Bredlow , who became the new regular goalkeeper, as did Sebastian Kerk, who was now firmly committed after a year of absence, but was already out on the third match day with a serious injury for the rest of the season. The sporting start was a 3-0 win against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, which ended the first matchday in first place in the table. There was also a victory on the second day. After just one point from the following three games, a 6-1 win at MSV Duisburg resulted in the highest second division away win in the club's history. On the eighth day of the match, Nuremberg won the Frankenderby away 3-1. It was the first competitive win in Fürth since 1979. Away wins in between were either friendly games or games that were played in the larger Nuremberg stadium despite Fürth's home rights. On matchday 15, Nuremberg moved up to third place and was no worse placed for the rest of the season, from the twentieth matchday the same applied to second place. During the winter break, Teuchert, Gíslason and Kammerbauer, Federico Palacios and Marvin Stefaniak turned out to be reinforcements. On the 23rd matchday, the championship lead was taken over and although a weaker phase followed with only three points from five games, which was also due to an injury break of the most successful Nuremberg scorer to date, Mikael Ishak , no club managed to displace the Franks from a direct promotion place . A preliminary decision was made on matchday 31, when the Nuremberg team won 3-1 against their direct rivals in Kiel and thus expanded their lead to five points. After a home win over Braunschweig, the promotion on the penultimate matchday was made perfect with a 2-0 win in Sandhausen. Since Fortuna from Düsseldorf, who had already been promoted safely on matchday 32, only played a draw at the same time, the club took over the championship lead again. In the last game of the season there was a duel between the two promoted players in Nuremberg. It was the only sold out home game for the FCN this season. The hosts took a 2-0 lead early on, but conceded 3-2 in stoppage time, which thwarted the fifth Nuremberg second division championship at the last moment. The joy of the fans over the eighth ascent, however, only slightly clouded that.

2018/19: A year of first class

Boris Schommers

The 2018/19 season began with a defeat at Hertha BSC, which was followed by two draws, and the first win was more likely on the fourth matchday against Hannover 96, whereupon eighth place in the table was the season's best. Immediately afterwards, however, with a 7-0 defeat in Dortmund, one of the biggest Bundesliga defeats in the club's history followed. In the following home game, the alleged relegation competitor Fortuna Düsseldorf was defeated 3-0, but only one more matchday later was a 0: 6 at RB Leipzig. Until the winter break, Nuremberg only scored in three draws, on matchday fifteen the club slipped to the penultimate place in the table and could not position itself better by the end of the season. In the second half of the season there was the first point on matchday 20. After the cup against the second-rate Hamburger SV and a 2-0 defeat against Hannover on matchday 21, coach Michael Köllner was on leave. Under his provisional successor Boris Schommers, a draw was reached in the second leg against leaders Dortmund, who was ousted from the top by Bayern a little later. Only the third game of the season was won on the 27th matchday, but hopes of relegation were raised again, especially since the two following games were also scored. On the 31st matchday it came to the home game against Bayern. Nürnberg took the lead through a goal by Matheus Pereira , but Munich were able to equalize. In the 90th minute, the Franconians were awarded a penalty, but could not convert it, as they did three times earlier in the season. Immediately afterwards, goalkeeper Christian Mathenia was able to prevent the opponent from scoring the winner in a 1-1 situation. The last three games of the season were all lost, however, after a 0: 4 on the penultimate match day against Mönchengladbach, the ninth relegation was certain, and it was the last place in the table at the end of the season for the second time in the club's history. The only three victories also form a negative record within the club.

Almost relegation to league three

Damir Canadi at the training session on June 20, 2019.
Jens Keller (photo from 2016).

For the second division season 2019/20 , 1. FC Nürnberg signed the Austrian coach Damir Canadi . The first game was narrowly won 1-0 in Dresden, but on the second match day Nuremberg lost 4-0 to Hamburger SV, setting the club's negative record of the highest home defeat in the second Bundesliga from the 1976/77 season . Six points were captured in the following five games, followed by success with a 4-0 win in Hanover. After a draw against St. Pauli, the season's best value was achieved with sixth place in the table (as well as after the first matchday). In the closing stages of the following narrow defeat in Aue, goalkeeper Christian Mathenia injured himself, which marked the start of a remarkable series of goalkeeping problems. First of all, Andreas Lukse took over the position of goalkeeper on the tenth and eleventh matchdays . In the second round of the DFB Cup , number three Patric Klandt was allowed to play and injured himself in the 115th minute. Since no substitution was possible, field player Enrico Valentini had to enter the goal. Nuremberg finally lost 5-6 on penalties against FC Kaiserslautern. Before the following league game in Bochum, Lukse fell ill and only sat on the bench, and since the regular number four Jonas Wendlinger was also not fit, number five Benedikt Willert made his professional debut. Since this game was lost with 1: 3, the club, standing in eleventh place in the table, dismissed coach Canadi. The following home game against Bielefeld took over Marek Mintál as interim coach. With a 1: 5 it came again to one of the highest second division home defeats in the club's history.

In the following goalless Frankenderby, the new coach Jens Keller sat on the bench for the first time and the newly signed, previously clubless Felix Dornebusch stood between the posts for the first time. After the following game against SV Wehen was lost, Nürnberg occupied the relegation place. A defeat in Stuttgart and a draw against Kiel followed before a win against Dresden in the last game before the winter break, which was already part of the second half of the season. In the new year regular goalkeeper Mathenia returned, but there was a 1: 4 defeat in Hamburg at the beginning, which resulted in seventeenth place in the table. This could be left with a victory over Sandhausen on the next match day. After another win against Osnabrück, Nuremberg scored four points from four games before the season had to be interrupted for several weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The last game before the lockdown was a 3-0 home defeat against Hannover 96 on March 6th. The next Nuremberg game was played on May 17th. In its first ghost game, the club lost 1-0 to St. Pauli. Mathenia also received a red card with a game suspension, which Dornebusch came to two more missions. With four draws in a row, Nuremberg then stepped on the spot and was finally in a deep relegation battle after a home defeat against Fürth, whereby the relegation place now occupied could no longer be left on one's own. On the following 32nd matchday, however, the Franconians won 6-0 in Wiesbaden. This also set a positive club record: The highest away win to date, a 6-1 at MSV Duisburg in the 2017/18 season, was beaten. However, since relegation rivals Karlsruher SC lost, Nuremberg was back in fifteenth place with three points and five goals ahead. Just one game day later, the improvement in the goal difference was already equalized: Nuremberg lost 6-0 against VfB Stuttgart in their own stadium, which now means the club's only highest home defeat in the second division. Nuremberg had managed to experience three historic home defeats and one historic away win in one season. Since Karlsruhe also played a draw against the already certain second division champions Arminia Bielefeld, the gap shrank to two points with an already worse goal difference. For the long-distance duel on the last matchday, Nuremberg had to compete in Kiel and Karlsruhe in Fürth. With a win, the club would have been safe from relegation, otherwise Karlsruhe should not have won. Both Franconian clubs were already in the lead after three minutes, but in the end Nuremberg could only record a 1-1, while Karlsruhe won 2-1.

So Nuremberg had to compete in the relegation games because of the two worse goal difference. Jens Keller was dismissed, the head of the youth performance center and former trainer Michael Wiesinger took over the supervision with Mintál as assistant trainer. In the first leg against third division club FC Ingolstadt, which had already been defeated 1-0 in the first round of the Cup, Nürnberg were able to create a good starting position with a 2-0 in their own stadium, an even higher victory would have been possible. In the second leg Nuremberg also started well, but then Ingolstadt was able to turn the game around with three goals after free kicks in the 53rd, 62nd and 66th minutes, which would have relegated the club. In the sixth minute of stoppage time, however, Fabian Schleusener was still able to score to 1: 3, which meant that due to the away goals rule, the league was successful.

See also

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  3. ^ Arthur Heinrich: The German Football Association. A political story. PapyRossa-Verlag, Cologne, ISBN 3-89438-194-9 , p. 143.
  4. Heinrich 2000, p. 141.
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  48. 0: 2 against Schalke: The club is in mourning , May 17, 2008.
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  51. AREVA is the new main sponsor of 1. FC Nürnberg , July 17th, 2008.
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  54. ^ Club trainer Thomas von Heesen declares his resignation , August 28, 2008.
  55. Michael Oenning becomes head coach of 1. FC Nürnberg , September 5, 2008.
  56. Opta Sport data game preview (PDF; 405 kB)
  57. 20m dream goal to win the derby , November 23, 2008.
  58. "Mintal is inviolable" (last paragraph), December 10, 2008.
  59. Match report on kicker.de
  60. 20,000 clubbers present: Festival before the holidays! , December 12, 2008.
  61. Club triumphs in the Antalya Cup , January 12, 2009.
  62. Diekmeier is coming: Third U19 European champion here! , January 9, 2009.
  63. a b c Bunjaku comes -Charisteas and Breska on loan , February 2, 2009.
  64. Ilkay Gündogan will come immediately , February 3, 2009.
  65. 1. FC Nürnberg lets the dreams of promotion fall  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (nn-online, March 10, 2009)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nn-online.de  
  66. Bitter! Club is subject to Frankfurt 1: 2 , April 26, 2009.
  67. Club with a bang in the relegation! , May 28, 2009.
  68. We were only gone briefly , May 31, 2009.
  69. Clubmagain on the relegation second leg.
  70. ^ President Michael A. Roth withdraws , June 9, 2009.
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  72. ↑ Heralded a new era at the club , October 13, 2009.
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  74. Club bond: final spurt! (fcn.de, March 17, 2010)
  75. Club bond: Subscription period will not be extended  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Nürnberger Zeitung, March 12, 2010)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nz-online.de  
  76. Product in the test - Club bond of 1. FC Nürnberg (geld-magazin.de)
  77. It's only available at the club! , April 25, 2010.
  78. ^ Mission Relegation , December 28, 2009.
  79. 6000 Euro penalty for the FCN  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (nn-online, February 28, 2010)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nn-online.de  
  80. Eight injured football fans in Bochum ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) 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. (nn-online, February 27, 2010) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nn-online.de
  81. FCN: After incidents in Bochum there is a risk of severe penalties ( memento of the original from March 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) 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. (nn-online, February 28, 2010) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nn-online.de
  82. 1. FC Nürnberg: Don't give criminals a chance ( Memento of the original from March 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) 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. (nn-online, March 3, 2010) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nn-online.de
  83. Club: Standing places remain empty outside ( memento of the original from March 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) 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. (nn-online, March 22, 2010) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nn-online.de
  84. Fire in the fan block costs the club 100,000 euros  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (nn-online, March 23, 2010)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nn-online.de  
  85. DFB: Away partial exclusion of fans , March 22, 2010.
  86. With a tailwind to Augsburg , May 13, 2010.
  87. Gündogan sets the course for relegation , www.kicker.de, May 16, 2010.
  88. ^ Farewell and Departure , October 6, 2010.
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  93. Match statistics: The FCN furious as (almost) never , nordbayern.de, April 24, 2016.
  94. 1. FC Nürnberg 2015/16 on Wahretabelle.de
  95. Corrected final table for the 2015/16 season on Wahretabelle.de
  96. Dovedan heads club to opening victory! , fcn.de, July 27, 2019
  97. Defeat at home start: FCN is subject to HSV 0: 4 , fcn.de, August 5, 2019
  98. 4: 0! Excellent club success at Hannover 96 , fcn.de, September 30, 2019
  99. Crazy 3: 4: Club is subject to Aue , fcn.de, October 18, 2019
  100. Preliminary report Aue: Seven in a row? , fcn.de, October 17, 2019
  101. Dramatic cup evening: Club fails in penalty shootout , fcn.de, October 30, 2010
  102. Pitiful debutant: Willert messes up in Club-Tor , nordbayern.de, November 4, 2019
  103. ↑ Comments on FCN - Bielefeld: "That was a catastrophe" , fcn.de, November 10, 2019
  104. ^ No goals in Frankenderby , fcn.de, November 24, 2019
  105. Club is subject to Wiesbaden , fcn.de, November 30, 2019
  106. Finally again: Club celebrates home win against Dresden! , fcn.de, December 20, 2019
  107. Defeat at the beginning of the year: Club is defeated in Hamburg , fcn.de, January 30, 2020
  108. 2-0 home win: Efficient clubbers beat Sandhausen! , fcn.de, February 2, 2020
  109. 1: 0! Club fights for three in Osnabrück , fcn.de, February 8, 2020
  110. 0: 3! Club is subject to the duel of the table neighbors, fcn.de, March 6, 2020
  111. Late defeat outnumbered: Club loses at St. Pauli , fcn.de, May 17, 2020
  112. Club loses the derby , fcn.de, June 13, 2020
  113. Very important! Club celebrates victory in Wiesbaden , fcn.de, June 16, 2020
  114. Table after the 32nd matchday , wikipedia, June 19, 2020
  115. VfB clearly beats the club , fcn.de, June 21, 2020
  116. Table after the 33rd matchday , wikipedia, June 22, 2020
  117. 1: 1! The club has to go into relegation on June 28, 2020
  118. Live ticker on bundesliga.com , June 28, 2020
  119. Nürnberger double pack: Club victory in the first leg! , July 7, 2020
  120. Madness in Ingolstadt! The club stays in! , fcn.de, July 11, 2020
  121. Live ticker on bundesliga.com , July 11, 2020