Karlsruher FC Phoenix

FC Phönix coat of arms (around 1930)

The Karlsruher FC Phönix was a German sports club that was founded in 1894 as a pure football club , expanded to include athletics in 1922 and a large field handball department in 1925. The club was one of the founding members of the German Football Association in January 1900 and became the sixth German football champion in 1909 . In 1912, FC Phönix merged with FC Alemannia to form the Karlsruhe FC Phönix (Phönix-Alemannia) , and after the First World War it moved into an area in the Karlsruhe “ Wildlife Park ”. However, FC Phönix was never able to match the sporting successes of the first two decades of its existence . In 1952 the club finally went up through the merger with VfB Mühlburg in Karlsruher SC . The full official name of the KSC, "Karlsruher Sport-Club Mühlburg-Phönix e. V. “ , still reminds us today of the two previous clubs.

Founding years

Club coat of arms around 1897

Team and officials of FC Phönix in the early years

In the early years of football in Germany , the young sport found it difficult to establish itself in gymnastics and sports clubs. Uniformity and harmony counted here, sporting preferred joint exercises by groups with the aim of discipline. The performance-oriented competition of the new sport that came to the continent from England, in which the individuality of an athlete also played a major role, was referred to as "louting" or "English disease". Since the 1880s, pure football clubs have been founded in many places. In Karlsruhe founded after the International Football Club (1889), the Karlsruher FV (1891) and the FC Karlsruher Kickers (1893) some members of the Karlsruhe Turngemeinde on June 6, 1894 Karlsruher FC Phoenix . Initially it consisted mainly of schoolchildren, but soon the English sport also became popular in middle-class circles; a membership directory for the period from October 1, 1898 to April 1, 1899 shows that among the 54 members, 20% of pupils were mainly merchants and craftsmen and officials from. As in most clubs, workers were completely absent.

In 1897, Phoenix was one of the eight clubs that founded the South German Football Association , but left shortly afterwards. At a general assembly of the Phoenix, it was decided to purchase fielded blouses in the club colors black and blue, which had to be ordered in England and paid for by the players. The first district championships at the turn of the century were consistently decided by the Karlsruhe FV, who mostly reached the finals in the subsequent knockout rounds from 1898 to 1902 and consistently won the title from 1900/01. In 1900 the association and with it the clubs joined the newly founded German Football Association (DFB) , whose 86 founding clubs also included Phoenix Karlsruhe, represented as an individual club by Walther Bensemann .

Rise to the top team

The "blue and black" 1907

After standing in the shadow of local rivals Karlsruher FV for a few years , FC Phönix developed into a top team not only on a regional but also on a national level from around 1904/05 . The foundation stone for this was laid in 1902 with the establishment of a youth department. The fact that all four Phönix youth teams won their games against KFV in 1904 and the men's team also beat their arch rivals 4: 3 that year can be interpreted as a first sign of the later successes. From 1906, the club also had its own sports grounds, and now had around 150 members, from which a strong team emerged.

In addition to the Phönix “veterans” Arthur Beier ( the first, albeit unofficial Phönix national player through a deployment in one of the original international matches against England in 1899 ) and Robert Neumaier (who joined Phönix at the age of eleven in 1896), who were in the middle or left Defenders formed the pillars of the Phoenix defense, it was above all the young players Karl Wegele and Emil Oberle as well as Otto Reiser , who came from the KFV in 1905 together with his brother Fritz , who ensured the club's steep rise. The "blue-blacks" defeated the reigning German champions Freiburg FC in 1907 , but in the middle Baden district in the 1907/08 season the Karlsruhe FV was still ahead.

The championship team after the 1909 final

The success report reached the followers in Karlsruhe by telegram

That changed the following year. In the first single-track Southern District League, the top division at the time, FC Phönix won the championship in the 1908/09 season, leaving the Stuttgarter Kickers , 1. FC Pforzheim and Karlsruher FV behind, all of whom had already done that in previous years Had reached the final of the German championship and thus qualified for the finals for the southern German championship. With five wins in six games, they also prevailed against the competition, 1. FC Nürnberg , FC Hanau 93 and FV Kaiserslautern and also secured the southern German championship title. This was the first time that FC Phönix qualified for the final round of the German championship, which at the time was held in knockout mode. In the finals, the Karlsruhe team beat 1. FC Mönchengladbach 5-0 in the quarter-finals and SC Erfurt 9-1 in the semifinals , thus reaching the final. In Breslau , 800 kilometers away - the Badeners needed 20 hours to get there - FC Phönix won 4-2 against BFC Viktoria 1889 , who had reached the final for the third time in a row and had started as defending champion, and became German champions (see also statistics of the final ).

Almost two months before the championship final, two players from the future championship eleven, Oberle and Neumaier, were appointed to the national team for the first time. The game of the German selection on April 4, 1909 was not only the first international game that took place in Karlsruhe, but also the first victory in the sixth game (1-0 against Switzerland). With Wegele (15 international matches since 1910) and Reiser (one appearance in 1911), two more Phoenix players could prove themselves in the national team in the following years.

The following season 1909/10 closed Phoenix and the KFV tied with 27: 5 points. Since the goals scored (KFV 80:12, Phoenix 61:22) were not taken into account, a playoff had to decide on the championship of the Southern District League. Here, in front of 5,000 spectators in Pforzheim, the KFV had the upper hand 3-0, but Phönix was still qualified as defending champion for the final round of the 1910 German Championship . The “blue-blacks” defeated VfB Leipzig in the quarter-finals and met their city rivals Karlsruher FV again in the semifinals. 8,000 spectators at the KFV-Platz on Moltkestrasse meant a record for a game in the championship finals, the KFV reached the final with a 2: 1, remained victorious there too and thus secured the championship title in 1910. It was the last time a Karlsruhe Association of German Masters. In mid-2013, the Karlsruhe journalist Thomas Alexander Staisch discovered film footage of this semi-final derby in London - to this day they are the oldest moving images in German football. In the following two seasons, the FC Phönix fell far behind the KFV, which was apparently due to the fact that the team had exceeded their performance peak: "Reiser and Oberle had come into foreign positions; Leibold , Karl Schweinshaut , Heger , Noë and Neumaier only played occasionally, and Beier had to pay tribute to his age. "

In 1912, FC Alemannia joined FC Phönix. The club founded in 1897, which had its sports field in Rüppurr behind the former castle, was also represented in the southern district league from 1908, but only took back places there. The fusion club was now called Karlsruher FC Phönix (Phönix-Alemannia) . However, the merger did not bring any significant sporting successes, the last two seasons of the southern district league before the First World War ended in seventh and sixth place. At the same time, financial problems had arisen, which finally forced the association to give up its own premises on the Maxau Railway. After the outbreak of the First World War, gaming was initially suspended, but was resumed at local level as early as 1915/16, however, national championship finals were only played again after the end of the war. Phönix won the Gaume Championship in 1916 and 1917 in front of the old competitor KFV.

Between the world wars

Move to the "wildlife park"

In the first few years of its existence, FC Phönix had changed venues several times: In the first two years they played on the Körnerwiese in what is now Weststadt, and from 1896 to 1905 on the so-called Engländerplatz. This place, which had previously served the military as a parade ground, was given by Grand Duke Friedrich I “the entire student youth of Karlsruhe as a playground”, and a tower of the fire brigade served as a changing building. Since it served several clubs as a venue, there were often disputes about the use of the space, so that Phoenix and other clubs looked for their own area. Arthur Beier , who rejoined the club in 1904 after a professional break, and Ferdinand Lang bought an 18,000 m² plot of land opposite the Neureut Schützenhaus not far from the Maxaubahn , on which a clubhouse and a tennis court were built next to the soccer field; the opening game on the new club grounds took place in September 1906.

After the facility could no longer be held for financial reasons, a plot of land on Stösserstraße in the Mühlburg district was leased in early 1914 . Due to the start of the war in August, no space could be prepared here that was suitable for games, so the association games in 1915 were held on the FC Mühlburg square on Honsellstrasse, and in 1916 and 1917 they moved to the grounds of the Karlsruhe FV. After the war, games could no longer be started on Stösserstraße because the area had to be ceded for the cultivation of vegetables. Temporarily they switched to the place of the FC Alemannia at the Fasanengarten, but its capacities were insufficient. After the First World War, the city of Karlsruhe gave the association an area in the Hardtwald north of the city center. The lease contract was concluded on August 19, 1921 for 50 years, in 1923 the facilities of the “Phönix Stadium at the Wildlife Park”, the forerunner of today's Wildpark Stadium , were completely completed.

Athletics and field handball department

The new area also included running tracks and jumping facilities for the athletics department of the club, which was dissolved in 1921 and re-established in 1922, which soon celebrated its first successes: in 1924 the 4 × 100 m relay won the German championship title and improved the German record several times. Shortly afterwards , Georg Amberger , a middle-distance runner and Olympic participant from 1912, joined Phönix, a trainer from Karlsruhe FV, who led the athletes to numerous successes not only on a regional, but also on a national and international level in the 1920s. In 1924, Phönix was Baden team champion and winner of the 20 × 300 m relay, the 4 × 100 m relay with Alex Natan , Otto Faist , Kurt von Rappard and Robert Suhr won the South German in the same year and in 1926 in 42, 1 s the German championship title, shortly afterwards they broke the European record with 41.9 s at a sports festival. As early as 1925, Phönix was the best athletics club in Baden with 14 titles, not least because of consistent youth work, far ahead of the KFV with 7 wins. With Gertrud Gladitsch , Phönix presented another top athlete at this time, she set world record performances at the German championships in 1927 with 12.0 s over 100 m and 5.62 m in the long jump, but these were "only" held as German records. Hans Steinhardt , German champion in 1927 and over 110 m hurdles in 1928, was the first Karlsruhe athlete to take part in the Olympic Games in 1928. Sprinter Otto Faist, who was also a member of the national team, was only unable to travel to Amsterdam because of an injury.

After the First World War, another, still young, sport became popular in Karlsruhe with large field handball . At Phönix it was initially run by the women in the athletics department when the other training and competition activities were idle in the cold season. In 1925 an independent handball department was founded in the club. The Phoenix women turned out to be the undisputed number one in Karlsruhe, but failed again and again in the battle for the Baden championship until 1945 at VfR Mannheim , which also won the German championship title twice during this time. It was not until June 1947 that the Mannheim women were defeated for the first time in the title fight with 8: 1 and 3: 1, and Phoenix won the Baden championship in 1947, 1950 and 1951, the title win could be repeated again after the merger to form Karlsruher SC in 1955. In the final round of the southern German championship, Phönix achieved third place as the best result (1950).

Cutting off the soccer team

In the 1920s, as in the years before the war, the Phönix football team was mostly behind the Karlsruher FV.In 1922, for example, they won the championship of Division 2 of the Southwest district with 24: 4 points, but failed in the finals the district championship at the other season winner, the KFV. In 1924 Phönix was relegated to the second division for two years, but in 1928 with 21: 7 points and 41:24 goals only two goals were missing from the district championship, which - how could it be otherwise - the Karlsruhe FV secured. It was only in the last season of the Württemberg / Baden regional league (season Baden) that Phönix won the championship in 1932/33, but in the final round for the "Süddeutsche" they had no chance.

After the National Socialists came to power, the division of the divisions for the 1933/34 season was redesigned: the district leagues of the seven regional associations were replaced by 16 district leagues , which were based on the structure of the NSDAP -aue. As champions of the district league, FC Phönix was qualified for the Gauliga Baden , as were local rivals Karlsruher FV and VfB Mühlburg, and played there with one break (1936/37 season) until the game was closed in 1944; in the last season together with Germania Durlach (the predecessor club of ASV Durlach ) as a war sports community Phönix / Germania Karlsruhe .

However, Phönix could not prevail in the league dominated by the three Mannheim clubs SV Waldhof , VfR and VfL Neckarau , which won all twelve championships of the Gauliga Baden: the best place was second behind champions VfR Mannheim 1934/35. In the “city-internal” comparison of the Karlsruhe teams during the Gauliga seasons, VfB Mühlburg, which only emerged from the merger of FC Mühlburg with VfB Karlsruhe in 1933, was mostly ahead of its old rivals Phönix and KFV; a development that soon found its continuation after the Second World War .

Relegation to the third class and merger

In the first season after the Second World War, they finished in the newly created Oberliga Süd in 1946, only in 15th place, and a year later they were relegated to the bottom of the Landesliga Nordbaden. When the 2nd league was introduced as the second contract player class in 1950 , Phoenix at the green table was not considered despite a fourth place in the preseason and instead divided into the 1st Amateur League North Baden, which was a major setback for the club in economically difficult times meant. Phönix was unable to finance its departments and the almost 30-year-old facilities in the wildlife park in view of the drastically reduced income.

The local rival VfB Mühlburg, on the other hand, was only promoted to the league in 1947, but had now established itself in the top division. In the search for a way out of the sporting and financial emergency, FC Phönix came up with the idea of ​​merging to form a large Karlsruhe club, into which VfB Mühlburg and Karlsruhe FV were to be integrated in addition to Phönix . In the event of a merger, the city of Karlsruhe promised to build a new modern stadium with facilities for athletics competitions.

While the Karlsruher FV ruled out a merger, the management floor of VfB Mühlburg met open ears. The newly elected Lord Mayor of Karlsruhe Günther Klotz , whose father Franz Klotz had founded the youth department of FC Phönix in 1902 and was thus one of the Karlsruhe “football pioneers”, actively supported the merger, he saw a major club and a modern stadium Figurehead for the city. With the membership of VfB Mühlburg, which had rebuilt its destroyed stadium after the Second World War into a stately arena with a capacity of 30,000, and which had been much more successful in sport than Phönix in previous years, the intentions to merge and the associated move to the Hardtwald met with to less love, but ultimately they were convinced by the arguments for a better economic and sporting basis for a large club.

At separate general assemblies, the members of both clubs finally agreed to the association to form Karlsruher SC Mühlburg-Phönix , so that FC Phönix and VfB Mühlburg merged to form Karlsruher SC on October 16, 1952 .

In the newly founded club, the athletics department was also taken over, which was revitalized after the Second World War by the former phoenix sprinter Robert Suhr in 1948. He was able to win around 30 athletes for the club by the 1949/50 competition season, including Lilli Unbescheid , the German runner-up in 1942 and champion in 1943 and 1946 in the shot put, who switched from MTV to Phoenix. In 1951 the sprinter Heinz Fütterer came to Karlsruhe.

literature

• Thomas Alexander Staisch: The German Masters. 1909 - a forgotten championship. The history of the Karlsruher FC Phönix 1894. Badner Buch-Verlag, Rastatt 2014, ISBN 978-3-944635-09-5 .
• Ernst Otto Bräunche, Stadtarchiv Karlsruhe (ed.): Sport in Karlsruhe - from the beginning until today . Info-Verlag, Karlsruhe 2006, ISBN 3-88190-440-9 .
• Heinz Forler, Rainer Speck, Karlsruher SC (eds.): 100 Years of the Karlsruhe Sport Club . Self-published by Karlsruher SC, Karlsruhe 1994, DNB 947527060 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bräunche: Sport in Karlsruhe. 2006, pp. 191/192.
2. ^ Paul Flierl: Sixty Years of the South German Football Association. Stuttgart 1957, p. 16.
3. ↑ Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 1: From the Crown Prince to the Bundesliga. 1890 to 1963. German championship, Gauliga, Oberliga. Numbers, pictures, stories. Agon-Sportverlag, Kassel 1996, ISBN 3-928562-85-1 .
4. ↑ quoted from: Festschrift for the 60th anniversary of the Karlsruhe Sports Club 1894–1954. Karlsruhe 1954, p. 36.
5. ↑ between Weinbrenner-, Sofien-, Uhland- and Körnerstraße, i.e. at the current location of the Lessing-Gymnasium .
6. ↑ Bräunche: Sport in Karlsruhe. 2006, p. 174.
7. ↑ Bräunche: Sport in Karlsruhe. 2006, p. 192.
8. ↑ History of the Wildpark Stadium ( Memento of the original from April 11, 2012 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. (ksc.de). 
9. ↑ Bräunche: Sport in Karlsruhe. 2006, pp. 258-260.
10. ^ The German Football Archive.
11. ↑ Matthias Kropp: Karlsruher SC (= Germany's big soccer teams. Part 11). Agon Sportverlag, Kassel 1998, ISBN 3-89609-115-8 , p. 76.
12. ↑ History: Athletics - German Championships (shot put - women). on: sport-komplett.de

Web links

Commons : Karlsruher FC Phönix  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Match report from the final of the German soccer championship 1909