Westfalia Herne

Westfalia Herne
Basic data
Surname	Sport Club Westfalia 04 e. V. Herne
Seat	Herne , North Rhine-Westphalia
founding	June 13, 1904
Colours	Blue White
Website	westfalia-herne.de
First soccer team
Head coach	Christian Knappmann
Venue	Stadium at Strünkede Castle
Places	32,000
league	Oberliga Westfalen
2019/20	16th place
home Away

Westfalia Herne (official name: Sport Club Westfalia 04 e.V. Herne ) is a sports club from Herne . The club was founded on June 13, 1904 and has the club colors blue and white. He offers the sports of soccer , triathlon and swimming .

The club became known for its football department. The first team has been playing in the fifth-class Oberliga Westfalen since 2017 . From 1933 to 1944 and from 1954 to 1963 the Hernians played first class in the Gauliga Westfalen and Oberliga West . In 1959 and 1960 the club took part in the final round of the German championship. From 1975 to 1979, Westfalia played in the 2nd Bundesliga . The club's venue is the stadium at Schloss Strünkede .

history

Early years (1904 to 1925)

The association was founded on June 13, 1904 by 16 young merchants , employees and high school students in the knight's hall of Strünkede Castle . Originally the club colors were red and white, before the current colors were adopted in 1914. As early as 1905, the club joined the West German Game Association and registered two teams for the championship games. Three years later, with the promotion to the A-class, Mark succeeded in making the leap into the top division, which, however, had to be left again after a year.

In the following years, Germania Herne (founded in 1909) and SV Sodingen (founded in 1912), two local rivals, with whom Westfalia would fight for local supremacy for many decades, were founded. With the outbreak of World War I , games were only played locally. Some of the competitions had to be canceled. During the occupation of the Ruhr in 1923, the board of Westfalia decided to officially dissolve the club in the register of associations . Unofficially, however, the Westfalia continued to exist, they mostly played in the second highest division.

The Kracht Era and the Second World War (1925 to 1945)

View into the stadium at Strünkede Castle

1925 took over teacher Hermann Kracht president. The chairman, also known as “German Hermann” because of his nationalistic attitude, initiated a merger with Fortuna Herne to form Westfalia-Fortuna Herne , which was dissolved again in 1931. In terms of sport, the Hernians turned on the road to success. In 1926, Westfalia failed in the promotion round to the first-class 1st Ruhr district class due to Germania Bochum and Sportfreunde Essen . A year later, SV Castrop 02 was ahead.

Then the Herner rose twice in a row in 1929 and 1930 and were first class again. Westfalia had bad luck there. The team ended the 1930/31 season tied with Germania Bochum, which was overshadowed by the professional player affair for FC Schalke 04 . The decider for the group victory was lost in the neutral Castrop with 1: 2, so that the Bochum team reached the final of the Ruhr Championship against Union Gelsenkirchen .

In the following seasons the Westfalia slipped into mediocrity and was not taken into account when the Gauliga Westfalen was founded in 1933. She finally secured the ascent there a year later; so she initiated the first successful era in the club's history. After finishing sixth and fifth in the first two seasons, the Hernians became runner-up in the 1936/37 season behind FC Schalke 04, which at the time was almost unbeatable.

A year later , Westfalia finished third and beat Borussia Dortmund , which only became first class in 1936, 8-2 over the course of the season . Paul Matzkowski was the top scorer this season with 28 goals. Although there were also significant defeats such as a 0:14 at FC Schalke 04 in the 1939/40 season , Westfalia was never in danger of relegation during the entire Gauliga era; she occupies second place in the "eternal table of the league".

Post-war period (1945 to 1954)

After the Second World War , the British headquarters closed the stadium and refused the club to reconstitute itself. The background was the nationalistic attitude of club president Kracht. Only after a friendly game against British soldiers did the Herner return to their stadium. The Westphalian Gauligists from 1939 to 1944 then formed the two-pronged Landesliga Westfalen .

In the very first season , Westfalia was runner-up behind FC Schalke 04, who were beaten 3-1 on their own pitch. In the following season , the Herner missed the qualification for the newly created Oberliga West as fourth and were second class again. The road to the top division was long. In 1948 , the team missed the final of the Westphalia Championship after a 5-0 defeat in the playoff against SuS Recklinghausen . A year later , Westfalia was included in the newly created II. West Division , in which it slowly played its way up and qualified for the single-track league in 1952 .

In 1954 the breakthrough came under coach Rudolf Prokoph . Led by amateur national player Günter Grandt , who was top scorer with 29 goals , was promoted to the league as runner-up behind Duisburg SpV . On the last day of the match, the Hernians had to compete against their direct pursuer SG Wattenscheid 09 , on which the Westfalia had one point ahead. With a 2-1 win at Beckmannshof , the winning goal scored Günter Grandt, the Herner secured promotion. In contrast to other Ruhr area associations , Westfalia was not supported by a mine ; the electrical company Funke & Huster was behind the club, which again caught up with local rivals SV Sodingen, who had risen two years earlier. Outside of the Ruhr area, Herne's rise caused skepticism. The president of 1. FC Köln , Franz Kremer , is said to have asked "what a nest like Herne with two major league clubs wants".

Oberliga West (1954 to 1963)

Helmut Benthaus

Westfalia struggled in the upper league and only managed to stay in the league in the 1954/55 promotion season on the last day of the match with a 3-2 win at Duisburg SpV. Local rivals Sodingen provided support with a 2-0 win against Meidericher SV . In 1955 Fritz Langner , who was born in Silesia, took over the coaching post in Herne and built local talents such as Helmut Benthaus , Alfred Pyka and Hans Tilkowski into the team, all of whom later became national players. On December 28, 1958, the three named players were in the starting line-up of the DFB selection at an international match in Egypt .

In the league season 1958/59 , the Herner surprisingly became champions. The newspaper Der Fußball-Sport spoke of a “solid rebellion against the established dynasties in the West”. For the final round of the German championship, Westfalia had to move to Dortmund's Rote Erde stadium because the DFB stipulated a stadium capacity of 40,000 seats. With two wins - 1-0 against Tasmania Berlin and 3-1 against Hamburger SV , the Herne group came third . A year later , Westfalia secured the runner-up and qualified again for the finals after a 1-0 victory in the decider in neutral Hanover over Kickers Offenbach . There the Herner came last.

In the early 1960s, sport went downhill. The introduction of the Bundesliga became apparent; but the board was reluctant to take risks in order to reach the Bundesliga. According to Alfred Pyka, the team wanted to go to the Bundesliga, but the board always said that “the risk was too great”. The successful team that stayed in the top half of the table for two years fell apart. With a third from last place in the last league season 1962/63 , the Herner gambled away the qualification for the Bundesliga .

Between regional and association league (1963 to 1974)

After a sixth place in the first regional league season in 1963/64 , the Herner quickly slipped into mediocrity in the second division. Year after year, the club had to give up its top performers in order to make ends meet financially. Even in the 1965/66 season , Westfalia had to tremble seriously about staying in the league. Two years later , Westfalia was then relegated as the penultimate. Nine years after the championship in the Oberliga West, the Herner arrived in the third division.

The direct ascent was missed by far. It was only in the 1969/70 season that Westfalia secured the relay championship with one point ahead of the Hombrucher FV 09 . The final of the Westphalia Championship against Eintracht Gelsenkirchen , however, was lost 2-1. Nevertheless, the Herner moved into the promotion round to Regionalliga West, in which the team managed to get promoted again with a 3-0 win over Sterkrade 06/07 .

Even after returning to the second division, the only thing left to the Hernern was the fight for relegation, which was successfully mastered three times. The 1973/74 season was about qualifying for the newly created 2nd Bundesliga. With the penultimate place, Westfalia missed the already theoretical chances, as the DFB had decided in advance that the bottom three of the table could not qualify for the new league even with sufficient points.

A board member of the Herner then turned to a mineral oil merchant from Wanne-Eickel , whether he would not help to ensure that the Westfalia stadium was full again. One legend has it that Erhard Goldbach , the owner of the gas station chain Goldin , only hesitated a moment before he promised.

The Goldin Era (1974 to 1979)

Thanks to the financial support from Goldbach, Westfalia was able to celebrate promotion in the following season 1974/75 . Led by striker Hans-Joachim Abel , who became the top scorer with 30 goals, the Herne team first secured the relay and then the Westphalia championship against SVA Gütersloh . In the promotion round , the team then made the promotion perfect with a 6-0 win over Spandauer SV .

After a false start, the team managed to stay up in 1975/76 without any problems. The highlight was a 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund in front of 27,000 spectators. But in the following 1976/77 season the team stagnated in midfield despite top-class newcomers such as Søren Busk and coach Ivica Horvat , who won the 1972 cup with FC Schalke 04. To achieve the goal of the Bundesliga, patron Goldbach introduced full profit in the summer of 1977. At the same time, the licensed players department was spun off as SC Westfalia 04 Gold in Herne .

In addition, Westfalia continued to upgrade and signed Klaus Scheer from 1. FC Kaiserslautern for 300,000 marks ; nevertheless, she got stuck in midfield of the league. In the DFB Cup , the Herner missed the quarter-finals against Schwarz-Weiß Essen only in the replay with a 0-1 defeat. For the 1978/79 season they signed Gerhard Prokop as a coach, who finally brought the team up. After a fifth place, the team was one of the promotion favorites for the next season.

On July 24, 1979, the crew heard on the radio that the customs investigation team had raided Goldin. Only through systematic tax evasion was Goldbach apparently able to finance the sporting upswing of Westfalia. Goldin had evaded mineral oil tax totaling 345 million marks. When it turned out that Goldbach's donation of 3.4 million marks was not a gift but a loan , the association also got into financial difficulties. Against testimony, the club management managed to protect at least equipment and balls from seizure.

On the first day of the 1979/80 season , Westfalia was still on; she won 1-0 at SC Herford , the Goldin lettering on the jerseys was covered with packaging tape . The Herner had to return their license after the game and were downgraded to the Oberliga Westfalen.

Senior league years (1979 to 1990)

Sports presenter Michael Steinbrecher was a player for Westfalia in the 1985/86 season

Horst Wandolek , member of the league championship team from 1959, then took over the coaching position. Five players remained from the professional team, plus many players from the second team playing in the regional league. Nevertheless, the Herner managed to stay in the league. At the beginning of the 1980s, Westfalia slipped deep into the table cellar and took a place above the respective first relegation place three times in a row. It was not until 1984 that the Herner found the connection to the middle field of the table and worked their way up.

In 1987 the team was already third, before a year later the runner-up was reached under coach Pedro Milansincic. In second place, however, Westfalia was 17 points behind Meister Preußen Münster . She qualified for the German amateur championship , in which she failed in the first round at Bayern league club TSV Vestenbergsgreuth .

The successful team then fell apart. After a fifth place in the following season, the Herner slipped into the table cellar in the 1989/90 season . Having started as one of the favorites, Westfalia, who had been unlucky with injuries, was the last to relegate at the end of the season. For the first time in their club history, she was only fourth class.

In the regional league and back (1990 to 1999)

Westfalia Herne office

After the direct resurgence was missed, the Herner fought promisingly again for the return to the league in 1992. Westfalia finished third, one point behind the amateurs of SG Wattenscheid 09. Because of the legal dispute about the withdrawal of ASC Schöppingen from the league, second place would have meant promotion for the Herner. Just two years later, however, the Herner found themselves in the association league in the relegation battle.

In 1995 the dairy farmer Jürgen Stieneke (1947–2020) took over the chairmanship of the association. Due to the poor perspective, the cashier at the time is said to have suggested the dissolution of the association. At the end of the 1995/96 season, Westfalia rose to the state league and was sixth class for the first time. Goalkeeper Bernd Giese then took over the team as coach and led it back to the association league two years later.

There, the team fought head-to-head with SV Rotthausen for the championship. With a 5-0 win at SSV Meschede , the Herner won the championship and returned to the league. More than 1,000 Westfalia fans accompanied their team to the decisive game in the Sauerland .

Renewed elevator era (1999 to 2008)

The team got off to a successful start in the first few years after returning to the league and reached 5th place in the 1999/2000 promotion season and 6th place two years later . But in the 2002/03 season, Westfalia was penultimate as relegated at the end of the season in the association league. The direct ascent failed.

In the following season 2004/05 the Hernern succeeded in promotion to the league. Sami El-Nounou, who became the league's top scorer with 30 goals, played a major role in the success . His storm colleague Michael Erzen scored 24 goals and helped the team to displace rival SSV Hagen in second place. In the upper league, Westfalia had nothing to do with relegation, it placed itself in the secured midfield.

In the 2005/06 season, the Hernians won the Westphalia Cup with a 6: 4 final victory over Delbrücker SC and thus qualified for the DFB Cup . There, the Westfalia met in the first round to FC Erzgebirge Aue . In front of more than 10,000 spectators, the Herner had to admit defeat 1: 2.

At the end of the 2007/08 season , the Oberliga Westfalen was dissolved. The first four teams were promoted to the regional league, while the following seven teams were to switch to the newly created NRW league . After a failed first round, the Herner fought their way up and remained 15 games in a row without defeat. In the end, Sportfreunde Lotte was three points short of fourth place .

Fourth and fifth leagues and bankruptcy (since 2008)

In the NRW League, the team kept up well in the first two years and reached midfield positions. Then things went downhill again in terms of sport. The downward trend reached its climax in the 2011/12 season , when Westfalia was knocked off bottom of the table with 109 goals conceded. The low points of the season were 8-0 defeats at FC Viktoria Köln and Arminia Bielefeld II . The abolition of the NRW League at the end of the season prevented the relegation of Westfalia.

Instead, the team played in the reintroduced Oberliga Westfalen. But there, too, the team found itself in a relegation battle. The class could be held in the first two years, but then dropped after the 2014/15 season . After two years in the Westphalia League, the Hernern managed to return to the league under coach Christian Knappmann . In the two following seasons 2017/18 and 2018/19, the class was kept safe with 9th and 8th place respectively.

On December 5, 2019, the association had to file an application to open insolvency proceedings. As a result, the FLVW deducted nine points on December 27th .

successes

• West German champion: 1959
• Participation in the final round of the German championship: 1959, 1960
• Westfalenmeister: 1975
• Westphalia Cup Winner : 2006
• Participation in the DFB Cup : 2006/07
• Champion of the Association League Westphalia / Westphalia League 2 : 1970, 1975, 1999, 2005, 2017
• A-Youth Westphalia Champion: 1968
• C-Youth Westphalia Champion: 2006
• German runner-up among the over 40 seniors: 2015

In the all-time table of the Oberliga Westfalen, Westfalia is in 6th place with 969 points from 762 games.

Known players

• Paul Matzkowski (? –1945) youth, (1945–1948) (* 1920), played for Westfalia Herne until 1948; Center forward (German record goal scorer with 28 hits in 1938); then (1948–1958) Schalke 04
• Alfred Pyka (1949–1953) youth, (1953–1964, 1967–1969), (* 1934), defender, 1 A and 1 B international game (1958), 335 major league and regional league games (1954–1968) for Herne
• Helmut Benthaus (1954–1961), (* 1935), outside runner, 8 A-internationals and 1 B-game (1958–1960); 167 league games (1954–1961) for Herne
• Hans Tilkowski (1955–1962) (* 1935), goalkeeper, 39 A and 4 B internationals, participant in the World Cup in 1962 and 1966 ; 219 league games for Herne
• Otto Luttrop (1959–1963), (* 1939), defender, 93 league games for Herne, later 1 B international game for 1860 Munich
• Hans Cieslarczyk (1963–1964), (* 1937), outside runner in the 1963/64 season, ex-national player (for Sodingen and Dortmund)
• Gerhard Clement (1963–1964), (* 1938), striker, 256 major or regional league games (between 1957 and 1967) with 100 goals for Herne
• Lutz Gerresheim (1965–1976) youth, (1976–1979), (* 1958), midfielder, 20 times A youth national team (7 goals), 86 games in the 2nd Bundesliga with 11 goals for Westfalia Herne, went 1979/80 after Goldin's bankruptcy at VfL Bochum
• Werner Lorant (?) Jugend, (? –1971), (* 1948), later a. a. still with Rot-Weiss Essen , Borussia Dortmund , Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Schalke 04 ; as a trainer later u. a. at TSV 1860 Munich , Fenerbahçe Istanbul and Apoel Nicosia
• Hans-Joachim Abel (1974–1977), (* 1952), striker, 63 league goals for Herne (32 goals in 29 appearances in the Verbandsliga Westfalen Gruppe Südwest 1974/75, then third division; 31 goals in 73 appearances in the 2. Bundesliga North 1975–1978), given to VfL Bochum during the 1977/78 season
• Søren Busk (1976–1979), (* 1953), defender, 105 points games and 16 goals for Herne, became a Danish international while he was still in Herne; later he took part with the national team at the European Championship 1984 , the World Cup 1986 and the European Championship 1988 .
• Sönke Wortmann (1980–1981), (* 1959), film director, played in defensive midfield at Westfalia Herne in the 1980/81 season
• Michael Steinbrecher (1984–1987) (* 1965), defender and right wing, in the 1985/86 season with Westfalia Herne, later moderator of the ZDF sports studio
• Jörg Lipinski (? –1986) youth, (1986–1990), (* 1967), the midfielder came from his own youth in 1986 and belonged to the top division squad from 1986–1990
• Karsten Kirschke (1990–2000), (* 1968), called " Football God " by the supporters , 263 league appearances for Westfalia Herne between 1990 and 2000 with 141 goals; Odds: 0.54 goals per game
• Stefan Wächter (? –1994), (* 1978), youth player with Westfalia Herne, later Bundesliga goalkeeper with Hamburger SV and Hansa Rostock
• Miroslav Šola (* 1968), striker in the 1990s, also known as "Bosnia Bomber", 17 times A youth international for Bosnia-Herzegovina (6 goals)

literature

• Hans Dieter Baroth : Boys, Heaven is yours! The history of the Oberliga West 1947–1963 , plain text, Essen 1988, ISBN 3-88474-332-5 .
• 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 .
• Hardy Greens: Encyclopedia of European Football Clubs. The first division teams in Europe since 1885. 2., completely revised. Edition. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-89784-163-0 .
• Hartmut Hering (Ed.): In the land of a thousand derbies. The football history of the Ruhr area , Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-89533-372-7 .
• Ulrich Homann (Ed.): Farmer's heads, miners and a pascha. The history of the Regionalliga West 1963–1974 . Volume 1, Klartext, Essen 1991, ISBN 3-88474-345-7 .
• Kicker-Almanach 2004 , Copress, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7679-0803-4 .
• Harald Landefeld, Achim Nöllenheidt (ed.): Helmut, tell me dat Tor ... New stories and portraits from the Oberliga West 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-043-1 .
• Achim Nöllenheidt (ed.): Fohlensturm am Katzenbusch. The history of the Regionalliga West 1963–1974 . Volume 2, Klartext, Essen 1995, ISBN 3-88474-206-X .
• Ralf Piorr (Ed.): Much more than just a game - 100 years of SC Westfalia 04 , Frischtexte Verlag, Herne 2004, ISBN 3-933059-38-0 .
• Marcus Fiesseler: 100 years of football in North Rhine-Westphalia. A chronicle in tables , AGON Sportverlag Statistics 34, Kassel 1997, ISBN 3-89784-128-2 .
• Ralf Piorr / Gerhard Schiweck (eds.): 12 views - A homage to Westfalia Herne , Frischtexte Verlag, Herne 2008, 12 postcards in a slipcase, ISBN 978-3-933059-08-6 .

Web links

• Official club website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Ralf Jelitto: Association history. Westfalia Herne, archived from the original on January 14, 2016 ; Retrieved May 3, 2015 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Ralf Piorr (Hrsg.): The pot is round - The lexicon of Revier football: The clubs . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2006, ISBN 3-89861-356-9 , p. 121-124 .
3. ^ ^{A b c} German Sports Club for Football Statistics (Ed.): Football in West Germany 1902/03 - 1932/33 . 2009, DNB  997617357 , p. 38, 125, 137, 191 .
4. ↑ ^{a b c} 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. Pp. 193, 378, 387.
5. ^ ^{A b} German Sports Club for Soccer Statistics: Soccer in West Germany 1945-1952 . Hövelhof 2011, p. 10, 71 .
6. ^ German sports club for soccer statistics: Soccer in West Germany 1952-1958 . Hövelhof 2012, p. 97 .
7. ↑ Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 2: Bundesliga & Co. 1963 to today. 1st division, 2nd division, GDR Oberliga. Numbers, pictures, stories. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1997, ISBN 3-89609-113-1 , p. 81.
8. ↑ Ralf Piorr: Goldine times . In: 11 Friends Special 2nd League, p. 98 ff.
9. ↑ Nils Heimann: "Going down a disgusting feeling". RevierSport , accessed June 20, 2015 . 
10. ↑ This is how Westfalia Herne's team reacts to the insolvency , reviersport.de, accessed on December 6, 2019
11. ↑ Point deduction for Herne officially , fupa.net, accessed on December 31, 2019
12. ↑ ^{a b} Westfalenmeister field. FLVW , archived from the original on February 28, 2017 ; accessed on August 4, 2016 .