South German Football Union

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The Süd-Westdeutsche Fußball-Union (SWDFU), renamed the Süddeutsche Fußball Union (SDFU) a little later , was the first regional football association in southern Germany. It was a short-lived forerunner of today's South German Football Association (SFV). The association existed from 1893 to 1895, its radius of action was essentially limited to the Upper Rhine region between Strasbourg and Frankfurt am Main . The main focus of the union was Karlsruhe , as most of the clubs existed there.

founding

The founding meeting took place on June 4, 1893 in Karlsruhe. The seat of the association was in Baden-Baden. The founding members were five associations:

The association was founded on the initiative of the captain of the Strasbourg FK 1890, the club's founder and later founder of the sports newspaper Der Kicker , Walther Bensemann . The British military chaplain Reverend T. Archibald S. White from Baden-Baden , who was also chairman of the local FC, became president. Vice-President was Walther Bensemann, who was replaced by Ludwig Stasny after his resignation in 1894.

Association activity

Football, both association football and rugby football, was still largely unknown in southern Germany and thus underdeveloped compared to Berlin. Few clubs existed in those years. During the two years of the SDFU's existence, no championship games were played, but as a rule only internal friendlies between the member clubs took place, as well as some international matches and selection games of the Union.

Other clubs joined the union, including a. of FC Frankfurt , Karlsruher FC Celeritas 1892 (later KFC Argo), Strasbourg FC Celeritas 1894. A complete list of members was not known.

On July 8, 1893, the SDFU defeated FC Frankfurt 1-0 in their first game in Heidelberg , and on July 23, 1893, FC Frankfurt won the revenge within its city walls 1-0. During the first Bundestag and at the same time the second delegates' meeting of the SDFU on October 7, 1893 in Karlsruhe, the Union held a selection game against Villa Longchamp FC from Lausanne, which according to contemporary reports (games and sports) was one of the best continental clubs of its time should and was considered invincible. However, the SDFU's selection won 2: 1. On April 11, 1894, the SDFU was able to play an international rugby friendly against a city selection from London, but lost with 3:16 points.

Problems inside and outside the association

In early 1894, President Rev. White established an "honorary pocal" for Association Football. Walther Bensemann went even further, who wanted to organize the “Championship des Continents” in Strasbourg at the end of March and made his own trophy available for it. This caused the first resentments within the Union, whose board of directors refused to pay for any financial losses, and this was also publicly stated after the SDFU's coffers were already minus 150 marks at this point in time. Furthermore, there were differences about the puritanical rules of the Süddeutsche Fußball-Union regarding alcohol consumption after a game, as well as the mere stay in a pub. There was an absolute ban on taverns on the match day.

The hostility, especially from the national conservative and often Catholic faculty, parts of the nobility and, on a very large scale, the German gymnastics club against the “un-German” game of football began to intensify the greater the popularity of football. These were paired with later attacks by the German Language Association against the use of the widespread English terms in football at a time when most players came from the middle class and were still often academics . Game bans for schoolchildren were not infrequently the result in an increasingly restrictive German Reich, in which there was far less personal freedom than in other Western European countries, such as England and France in particular. Numerous players, and not only in the south, were forced to compete under a "stage name " in this way . If their participation in games was discovered anyway, they could face severe penalties from their school.

In the spring of 1894 the dispute within the South German Football Union also escalated. The FC Karlsruher Kickers was excluded from the union “because of a gross violation of its duties”. Thereafter, due to a fine of 5 Marks, the Karlsruhe FC Celeritas 1892 resigned and FC Frankfurt resigned on June 15, 1894. At the same time, the cooperation with the Berlin- based German Football and Cricket Association (DFuCB), which was itself in its first serious crisis, was strengthened. The DFuCB was viewed by the SDFU board as the “supreme authority” of football in Germany. Since Bensemann had not asked the Union or the DFuCB for approval for the organization of his championship of the continent , the attacks on him increased accordingly. In the end, the tournament took place on the private initiative of Bensemann, but not in the intended form, but more of a local character.

Bensemann's resignation and the end

In May 1894, Walther Bensemann drew the consequences of his dispute with the remainder of the Union's executive board and made his post as "Vice President" available.

The planned connection of the South German Football Union to the German Football and Cricket Association ultimately did not materialize due to excessive demands on the part of the Berliners. At the turn of the year 1894/95, the DFuCB undertook a tour to southern Germany for the first time and played three games there.

After some clubs that used to play the game by picking up the ball had merged to form a rugby federation, the SDFU had further ground underfoot. In May 1895 the Strasbourg FC Celeritas 1894 left the association. Then the South German Football Union was dissolved. Without a driving force like Walther Bensemann, she was no longer viable. After a short period of activity there was nothing but standstill and regression; the Union could no longer go beyond more than an association of gentlemen.

Two years later, on October 17, 1897, a successor institution was founded in Karlsruhe, the Association of South German Football Associations (VSFV), the forerunner of today's South German Football Association (SFV).

literature

  • Philipp Heineken : Memories of the Cannstatter Football Club. Hermann Meister publishing house, Heidelberg 1930.
  • Spiel und Sport (Berlin), various editions born in 1894 & 1895, accessed on October 30, 2016 at sammlungen.ulb.uni-muenster.de