City gymnastics club Winterthur
The Stadtturnverein Winterthur , STV Winterthur for short , is a gymnastics club from Winterthur that was founded in 1845. The club is still active today mainly through its trampoline section , but earlier also had successful sections in athletics and handball , which have now left the club through mergers. There is also a game team and a «gymnastics for everyone» section.
history
In 1845, the Stadthausstrasse gymnasium was built in Winterthur, Switzerland's first gymnasium. As a result, the Turnverein Winterthur was founded on May 1, 1845 , which also took part as the first activity at the Federal Gymnastics Festival in Chur with only 100 athletes at the time, where it was accepted into the Swiss Federal Gymnastics Association . In 1846 the STV received its first club banner. In 1860 the club was a co-founder of the cantonal gymnastics club.
On September 17, 1864, it merged with the men's gymnastics club to form the Stadtturnverein Winterthur . The STV Winterthur was also involved in the founding of the District Gymnastics Association in Winterthur in 1881, and three years later they received the second club banner. The senior team was founded in 1896, the men's team in 1903. The third club banner was given in 1905. At the Swiss Federal Gymnastics Festival in 1906 in Bern, the STV Winterthur Gymnastics Festival winner in section gymnastics. In 1907 the shooting section was founded. From 1912, the association published its own journal, the Stadtturner. Numerous other sections were founded by 1935: the women's team in 1914, a youth team in 1921, a singing section in 1924, an athletics section in 1927 (which emerged from the athletics section of FC Winterthur founded in 1920 ), the women's team in 1930, the handball section in 1934 and finally in 1935 a ski suite.
In 1936, the association organized a major event with the Swiss Federal Gymnastics Festival in Winterthur , which attracted 22,000 participants to Eulachstadt from July 17th to 20th. In the thirties, the decathlete Armin Guhl was successful for the STV, who also took part in the Olympic Games twice. On 16./17. In June 1945 the club was fortunately able to celebrate its 100th anniversary after the end of the war and for this occasion bought a new club flag, the fourth since its foundation. The 50s were probably the most successful of the city gymnastics club's existence. In addition to the handball section, which played in the national field handball league , the gymnasts and track and field athletes were also successful. The Winterthur International Hans Wehrli took part in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki and on August 23, 1953, the Swiss Athletics Club Championships were the first gymnastics team ever to win on the Deutweg . In 1958, a senior and a girl team were added to the large number of already existing sections.
From 1971 onwards the athletics section had the first merger talks with the LC Winterthur , which initially failed at a general assembly in 1972. After a slow rapprochement, the merger with the LC Winterthur took place to form the Winterthur Athletics Association . In 1982 the fitness section was founded again. Due to the decreasing participation in gymnastics, it was decided that in future gymnastics would be concentrated on trampoline jumping. In 1987, through the merger with HC Artus and the handball section, another section with a large number of members left the club. In 1995 the club started its 150th anniversary and got its 5th club banner. In 2006 the shooting section merged with the Winterthur rifle club to form the Winterthur city rifle club , whereby another section left the club. Today the STV Winterthur is still mainly present through its trampoline section, the original size of the club can no longer be guessed.
Handball section
The handball department was founded in 1934, although at that time it was not yet an official section of STV Winterthur. The handball department grew rapidly and by 1937 had 60 members. In March 1948 the handball group was able to constitute itself as a separate section of the STV Winterthur and thus became more independent. In 1950 the club succeeded in advancing to the national league , having previously been champions in the 1st division . As part of a reorganization of the highest league in 1953, however, they lost their membership in the top division and were relegated to the NLB , from where they were even passed down to the first division in the following season . While you could finally catch yourself in field handball in the first division, the STV managed to move up to the National League B in the 1954 indoor season. They stayed there for two years, then played again in the first division for two years before mastering the promotion. In 1960 the third-class field team was able to advance to the quarter-finals in the Cup. In the indoor season in 1962 they said goodbye to the second highest league while simultaneously reaching the quarter-finals, where TV Aarau could almost be brought to its knees. As the group first in the first division, they failed in 1964 with a win and a defeat in the fight for promotion to goals.
In 1966 field handball, which is becoming less and less important, is switched from large to small fields. An important step for the indoor handball players was the opening of the Eulachhalle in 1971, where the Fanion team could from then on play their games instead of in the cold indoor arena . In 1973, however, with relegation to the second division, another step into insignificance followed. In 1974 there is a merger with the HC Handelsschule , which has a new junior team. In 1974 the Fanion team was even relegated to the fifth-class 3rd division, but this could still be prevented by the promotion of another team. This descent became a definite fact a year later, but rose again in the following season. The now much less important small field handball team was able to rise to the first division in 1980 due to restructuring. In 1985, the STV Winterthur achieved a sensational commitment with the commitment of Ernst Züllig (vice-top scorer at the 1980 Olympics), but he did not use him, as Pfadi Winterthur had few staff this season. In 1986 the indoor handball players narrowly missed promotion to the first division again.
On March 28, 1988, the merger with HC Artus finally came about to form STV Artus. This club still plays in a syndicate with HC Neftenbach in the 4th division and has to struggle with personnel problems similar to those of the handball section of TV Veltheim , which is no longer active in the game.
Literature and source
- Peter Müller: 150 years of the Stadtturnverein Winterthur 1845-1995 . Festschrift. Winterthur 1995, p. 141 .