TV Mainz-Zahlbach
The TV Zahlbach is a sports club founded in 1862 in the then independent municipality of Zahlbach (now part of Mainz ). The first statute of August 12, 1862 still speaks of the Zahlbach gymnastics club . After many years of popular sporting activity, after the Second World War the focus was also placed on competitive sports. For example, the club achieved great national success in badminton . The team of TV Mainz-Zahlbach became German champions in this sport in 1985, 1986 and 1987. In the two years before the title hat trick and in the year after, Mainz-Zahlbach was runner-up. Today the main focus of the association is on rehab, gymnastics , table tennis and traditionally on badminton.
history
The village of Zahlbach was a popular excursion destination for Mainz citizens around 150 years ago and was still far from incorporated. The reason for the day trippers to come to Zahlbach were the many restaurants. In this way the ideas of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn , better known as gymnastics father Jahn, spread rapidly. And not only in Zahlbach, but also in many other small villages around Mainz. So in the spring of 1862 a gymnastics club was founded in Zahlbach, which committed itself to Jahn's idea of “fresh, pious, happy, free”, ultimately “serving the German fatherland by doing physical exercise”. In times of many wars, it is more likely to be geared towards maintaining military strength.
According to the statutes, which were adopted at the general assembly, this date should fall on August 12, 1862. In old traditions it is even said that the TV Zahlbach was founded in 1861, because the association is said to have been present with a delegation at the inauguration of the Schiller monument. However, the celebrations for the inauguration of the monument took place from October 15 to 19, 1862, so TV Zahlbach was able to participate - as an association that was founded on August 12. There is no further evidence that TV Zahlbach was founded in 1861. In old membership books, however, April 1, 1862 is mentioned. On this day the founding members were accepted. The founding members were Messrs. Josef Wilhelm, Josef Porth and the brothers Gottfried, Simon and Paul Müller in the documents that still exist. This means that the association was founded on April 1, 1862, but that its first general meeting with the adoption of the statutes only took place on August 12. In this context, the first sporting activities of the association are interesting: gymnastics, fencing, gymnastics and singing. Even then, not only was sporting competition encouraged, but sociability as well.
In terms of sport, they started out a bit primitive, because there was no money to buy gymnastics equipment. The very old gymnasts passed on from the founding years that the first horizontal bar was still built by themselves. Gradually, however, the association attracted more citizens, who then always donated some money for devices. So many new devices could be purchased during this time. Once again wars brought the numberbacher gymnastics life to a standstill in the following years. In 1872 gymnastics was revived in garden taverns and bars due to the lack of gymnastics facilities. The number of members in the association rose to around 55 people.
In 1873 20 men from the Zahlbacher Turner founded the volunteer fire brigade , which was only dissolved in 1895 when the Mainz professional fire brigade was created. The garden taverns and restaurants were used until 1890, when TV Zahlbach was given its own gymnasium, 374 square meters in size and located on the milk path. The prerequisite for the permission to use this space were cooperation rights, comparable to today's registered associations. A request to obtain cooperation rights was granted this year by the Grand Ducal Government in Darmstadt - Mainz was part of Hesse at the time - with the approval of the Mayor of Mainz, Heinrich Gassner . Nothing stood in the way of buying the site. A small hall was built on the property as an equipment and changing room. There was a nice opening ceremony at which the club's own singers, drummers and of course the gymnasts took over the place. The whole village was on its feet and celebrated. And many from the village joined the gymnastics club. Summer evenings were used for extensive exercises on the gymnasium and it was only a matter of time before Zahlbacher Turner appeared on the winners' lists at the Gau, Middle Rhine and Landkront gymnastics festivals.
In 1904 Jean Rehm appeared, a young man who had devoted himself to the gymnastics idea. He was a high-class apparatus and folk gymnast who won first places at many gymnastics festivals. Jean Rehm's special training gift was also given to other gymnasts in Zahlbach, so that in the following years more and more gymnasts from Zahlbach appeared in the winners' lists. And when the gymnasts came back to Zahlbach, they were picked up at the Römersteine train station with music and celebrated. It stayed that way until 1911. In 1911 some gymnasts wanted a bigger gym due to a lack of space, the space was only used in summer. This was rejected in the general assembly and so many athletes decided to leave the club and to found the sports club Zahlbach. In addition to gymnastics, soccer and athletics were among the sports performed. After the First World War, however, the athletes came back to the parent club, too many had died or fallen in the war. In 1912, the 50th anniversary of the gymnastics club was celebrated, but without the athletes from the Zahlbach sports club, who no longer belonged to the club. So the festival was quite small, but in terms of its festive presentation it was unparalleled.
Between 1914 and 1921, the club life was idle due to the First World War. Jean Rehm managed to revive club life in Zahlbach in 1921. A school department provided the necessary offspring in the club. Zahlbach students celebrated successes again very quickly at the gymnastics festivals. In 1924, the gymnasium on which today's hall stands was acquired. A wooden hall was built in self-help so that the practice lessons could be carried out all year round. For the first time you were completely out of an inn. A handball department was also established, which quickly won two titles in its class. The gymnasium was flooded with water in the freezing winter of 1929 in order to create an ice rink, which was used by the whole village and the guests from Mainz. In 1937 the 75th anniversary was celebrated before the club life came to a standstill again in 1939 due to the Second World War. Alfred Keil was able to continue gymnastics on the gymnasium until shortly before the end of the war. In 1945, however, this was destroyed by a bomb attack. It wasn't until 1950 that sport continued in Zahlbach. Under the direction of Paul Eberle, the gymnasium was restored and the hall tackled together with Karl Margraf. The city of Mainz and Totomittel made sure that the hall could be built with hundreds of voluntary hours of work by Zahlbach athletes.
The hall was inaugurated on July 24, 1950. In terms of sport, there was now a table tennis department, which had to be closed a short time later due to the migration of players. Even the curb in Zahlbach was organized by TV Zahlbach in the following years, not to mention the many carnival events in which not only club members enjoyed themselves in the hall in Zahlbach. Unfortunately, both events have not been able to save themselves to this day. As always, there is a lack of money and helpers these days. From 1954 badminton was played in Zahlbach. Günter Cezane and his wife Margot brought the game to Zahlbach. After a year the number of players was so large that the badminton department joined the Hessian Badminton Association. The first team at TV Zahlbach was always in the top classes. In many German championships, also in the electoral palace in Mainz, they participated in order to always achieve good placements. Although there was only one playing field in the small hall available in the following years, the badminton department expanded.
In 1965 the hall was expanded and there were two fields available for badminton players. This resulted in titles and the promotion of the first team to the league. The next few years were devoted to youth work, which showed success in the early 1970s. In 1977 the youth team became German vice-team champions. The club's heyday in the field of badminton began, Zahlbach athletes were to be found in the national teams. The first German championship title came in 1978 through Thomas Künstler, the first team rose again to the Oberliga Südwest and Zahlbach made a name for itself internationally. Olaf Rosenow became the international champion of Hungary in 1978. Countless titles in the junior division followed. The gymnasts in the club stayed a little behind in public, but also celebrated success at gymnastics festivals. In 1980 a volleyball group was also founded, which met in the hall every Friday.
The badminton players ensured success over and over again in the following years. German titles and international titles were brought to Zahlbach. In 1983 the first team played in the Bundesliga. In 1985 the first of three consecutive German team championships followed. It was the high point of sport in Zahlbach. One reception followed the next in these years, the hall was also well filled with athletes and was bursting at the seams again.
In 1987 TV Zahlbach celebrated its 125th anniversary. At this festival there was again a lot going on in Zahlbach: parade, church service, a festive evening and a sporting event in the hall of the castle high school in front of several hundred people. The first Zahlbacher Badminton team also managed to win the German championship title in the anniversary run. Further titles at national and international level brought much reason to celebrate. It was certainly the most important year for TV Zahlbach.
The badminton boom came to an end in 1994. Due to financing problems, the first team had to withdraw from the Bundesliga. The top athletes migrated or ended their careers. The Zahlbacher Badminton Teams started building up again in the lower divisions.
After the Bundesliga team withdrew, the club was turned inside out, fitness and health are still the motto of TV Zahlbach today. The gymnastics department was again the strongest branch in the tree of TV Zahlbach, so it again provided the most members. While membership was around 250 to 300 in the 1950s to 1970s, there was a real explosion in membership in the years after the badminton boom. To date, the TV Zahlbach has around 600 members.
An important decision was made in 2011: to enlarge the hall. The aim is to expand the hall capacities for the sports area and thus to inspire new athletes for the club. In 2012, the anniversary year, the new, enlarged hall was inaugurated. In addition to the planned extension, it turned out that the entire floor had to be renewed, so that the hall now contains four badminton fields and a volleyball field. The ceiling lights were specially attached in such a way that they do not obstruct the view upwards during badminton.
Badminton department
The badminton department of TV Mainz-Zahlbach can look back on a successful past. In the 80s they reached the German championship 3 times and the German runner-up championship 3 times. After the Bundesliga team withdrew, there were no major successes. The active badminton teams now play in the Badminton Association Rheinhessen-Pfalz (BVRP) and can look back on some achievements but also setbacks in recent years.
After three active teams in the Northeast District League, Middle District League and Rheinhessen District Upper League were reported again in the season 14/15, three championships were immediately celebrated.
In the following season 15/16 an additional team was reported in the Association League Northeast. As a result, the first team was once again able to clearly win the championship in the Nordost Association League and was promoted to the Rheinhessen-Pfalz-Liga for the following year. After the season it became clear that the third team would also be promoted from the district league to the association league. Although they only reached second place in the final table 15/16 of the regional league, due to the composition of the upper leagues, the association decided that both the second and third of the regional league Rheinhessen should rise. The second team reached a respectable 5th place in the Association League Northeast, and the fourth team was able to occupy 3rd place in the District League Middle.
In the 16/17 season the first team was able to reach 3rd place in the Rheinhessen-Pfalz-Liga. The second team was involved in the fight for promotion in the association league until the end and in first place until the last matchday, but fell back to third place on this. The third team could not replace the many injured towards the end of the season, so that - just after sets - the relegation to the district league was initially determined, but was later withdrawn because of withdrawn teams. The fourth and fifth teams reached 4th place in the district and district leagues.
In the 17/18 season they started with 4 men's teams and had to withdraw the third team (Association League Northeast of the Badminton Association Rheinhessen-Pfalz) due to a lack of staff. The first team reached 3rd place in the Rheinhessen-Pfalz-Liga. Due to the withdrawal of the champions from Fischbach from promotion and various constellations paired with the unwillingness of various teams from the Badminton Association Rhineland, our promotion to the Rhineland-Palatinate League together with the runners-up from Landau could be secured. The second team also reached 3rd place in the Association League Northeast. The fourth team finished 7th in the district league.
The 18/19 season was very successful from start to finish for all three registered teams. The fourth team reported the year before was withdrawn. Instead, the players of the former fourth team now played together with one or the other from the third team, which was withdrawn in the previous season, directly in the regional league. The first team started the Rhineland-Palatinate League without expectations - only relegation and a lot of fun were given as the goal. In the end, however, with only 2 draws and otherwise only won games, it became the championship and thus the promotion to the Oberliga Südwest for the coming season. In the association league, however, expectations were set higher. After two years with third place in the Nordost Association League, they wanted to finally make it to the Rheinhessen-Pfalz-Liga and thus shorten the performance gap to the first team - and they did that with flying colors. Only one draw and 11 games won were recorded in the end. The third team could also win the championship. Here, too, this result was by no means expected. For the next season we are planning a fourth team, which should make it easier for youth players and ambitious badminton players to enter the adult sector.
| 14/15 | 15/16 | 16/17 | 17/18 | 18/19 | |
| Rhineland-Palatinate League | 1. | ||||
| Rheinhessen-Palatinate League | 3. | 3. | |||
| Association League Northeast | 1st / 5th | 3rd / 8th | 3rd / 8th | 1. | |
| District Oberliga Rheinhessen | 1. | 2. | 1. | ||
| District League | 1. | 3. | 4th | 7th | |
| District League | 1. | 4th |