VfB 03 Bielefeld

VfB 03 Bielefeld
Full name	Association for movement games from 1903 e. V. Bielefeld
place	Bielefeld , North Rhine-Westphalia
Founded	March 3, 1903 (as Bielefelder SK Cheruskia )
Dissolved	June 30, 1999
Club colors	Red White
Stadion	VfB-Kampfbahn (until 1970) Stadion Rußheide (from 1970)
Top league	Gauliga Westphalia
successes	West German runner-up in 1931
home

The VfB 03 Bielefeld , the association for movement games from 1903 e. V. Bielefeld, was a sports club from Bielefeld . It was founded on March 3, 1903 and had the club colors red and white. On July 1, 1999, VfB 03 merged with SpVgg Fichte Bielefeld to form VfB Fichte Bielefeld . The club recently offered the sports of football , table tennis and women's gymnastics . Earlier there were departments for handball , light- and heavy athletics .

VfB 03 became known through its football department. The team was West German runner-up in 1931 and thus reached the final round of the German championship . Between 1939 and 1942 VfB 03 played in the then first-class Gauliga Westfalen . After the Second World War , three more years followed in the then second-class II Division West. The players of VfB 03 were known as the "Reds" or the "Hüpker". The word "Hüpker" comes from the Low German and describes young football players ("young hops") who ran through an alley and jumped to reach the sports field.

The handball players, who twice became West German runners-up in the 1960s, achieved regional successes.

history

Early Years and West German Championship (1903 to 1933)

On March 3, 1903, the fencing club Bielefelder SK Cheruskia was founded, which in 1907 changed its name to VfB 03 Bielefeld. At the same time, the club took part in the league game for the first time and was last in Department B of the seventh district. In 1912, the team in the now A-Class Westphalia, East Group, called league, came second behind Preußen Münster . Three more years should pass before the first success. With the outbreak of the First World War , regular game operations came to a standstill and games were only played at the district level. In the Ravensberg-Lippe district league, VfB 03 and 1. BFC Arminia finished first with equal points. The "Hüpker" won the game with 1-0. In addition, VfB won the district cup with a 2-1 win over Arminia.

After the end of the war, VfB played with varying degrees of success in the eastern group of the highest Westphalian league, which was dominated by Arminia at that time. In 1921 the club acquired a fallow land on Heeper Straße, on which the VfB arena was built. It was not until 1928 that the "Hüpker" group winners, but lost the final of the Westphalia Championship against Borussia Rheine . Now the most successful period of the club began. In 1930 , VfB became Westphalia champions and narrowly missed qualifying for the final round of the West German championship. A year later the team was more successful. In the final round, the "Reds" beat Alemannia Aachen and drew a tie with Fortuna Düsseldorf and Meidericher SV , making VfB runner-up.

In the final round of the German championship, however, the "Hüpker" had no chance. After numerous players from FC Schalke 04 had been banned for illegal donations, VfB waived its paid star players. As a result, the end of the last sixteen came against the eventual champions Hertha BSC around Hanne Sobeck . The capital city won the game played in front of 20,000 spectators at the Rote Erde stadium in Dortmund 5-2. The "Hüpker" used the following players : Hermann Fleckenstein, Erich Geisendörfer, Alfred Heinold, Karl Hoffmann, Josef Hornmersen, Erwin Huwendick, Erich Kramme, Gustav Nolte, Alfred Peperkorn, Max Schmitt, Ewald Strothmann. Erwin Huwendick and Max Schmitt scored the goals for VfB 03 Bielefeld.

Third Reich and war gambling community (1933 to 1945)

In 1933 VfB missed the qualification for the newly introduced Gauliga Westfalen and from then on played in the second-rate district class. The "Hüpker" champions were straight away, but failed in the following promotion round . Union Recklinghausen had a better goal quotient . Also in 1935 and 1936 VfB 03 failed in the promotion round at TuS Bochum 08 and Erler SV 08 or SV Rotthausen and Borussia Dortmund , before the "Reds" had to give way to Arminia in the following two years.

It was not until 1939 that the team became champions of the district class again and made the leap into the Gauliga in the promotion round . At the same time, the team qualified for the Tschammer Cup , the forerunner of today's DFB Cup . In the first round, however, the "Hüpker" lost to VfL Osnabrück with 1: 3. In the first Gauliga season , VfB caused a sensation. On February 18, 1940, the team sensationally won 3-1 against Schalke 04 with three goals by the player Kaiser; one of only six Gelsenkirchen defeats in Gelsenkirchen between 1933 and 1944. After finishing fifth in the 1939/40 season, the “Reds” even came third a year later . Both games against Borussia Dortmund were won during the season.

Then things went downhill in terms of sport. VfB was last in the 1941/42 season and was relegated back to the second division. On July 25, 1943 VfB 03 entered a war syndicate (KSG) with DSC Arminia . The so-called " Bielefeld football remnants " had no chance and ended the Gauliga season 1943/44 in last place. After the season the Gauliga was dissolved and replaced by three war Gau classes. In this, however, the KSG only played one game against Union Herford , which ended 1: 1.

Away from the football field, the club came to terms with National Socialism . The later club president and sponsor Walter Goldmann was excluded from the club because of his Jewish origins. His parents made it possible for him to flee Germany before he returned to Bielefeld in 1953. In 1935, signs were hung on the VfB arena that Jews were "undesirable" in the stadium. The frequently made statement that local rival Arminia Bielefeld was alone in supporting the Nazi regime in the city thus turned out to be false.

Post-war period (1945 to 1963)

After the end of the Second World War, those responsible at VfB 03 and Arminia discussed a merger, which however did not materialize. The 18 clubs that played in the Gauliga Westphalia between 1939 and 1944 formed the two-track state league as a provisional arrangement . While Arminia had to relegate, VfB 03 came in sixth . A year later , however, the "Hüpker" missed qualifying for the Oberliga West as fifth . In 1949 the "Reds" failed to qualify for the newly created II. West Division and slipped into the third division for the first time. In 1950 the "Hüpker" rose to the second division as the Westphalian runner-up. Although the Bielefeld were subject to TSV Detmold 1: 1 and 0: 4 in the finals of the Westphalia Championship, they were able to advance through voluntary withdrawals of various second division clubs.

Already after two years the team had descended again. 1953 later the VfB Westphalia champion. On the last day of the match, the "Hüpker" prevailed 3-2 at Hombrucher FV 09 and relegated TSV Hüls to second place. As the Westphalian champion, the club renounced the promotion opportunity and took part in the German amateur championship . In the preliminary round, the "Reds" remained against Hertha Zehlendorf , TuRa Bremen and TuS Güldenstern Stade without losing points. The highlight was the game against Zehlendorf in front of 35,000 spectators in the Berlin Olympic Stadium . In the semifinals, however, the team was eliminated after a 2: 4 defeat against Homberger SV .

In 1955, the "Hüpker" were Westphalian runners-up behind Eintracht Gelsenkirchen . On the last day of the round, both teams met in the Gelsenkirchener Glückaufkampfbahn . The goalless draw secured the championship for Eintracht. Since both the Middle Rhine champion SV Bergisch Gladbach 09 and the runner-up Stolberger SV renounced promotion to the II. Division, a playoff against the Lower Rhine runner-up Homberger SpV was scheduled. The "Reds" won the game played in Dortmund 2-1 and made it to the 2nd Division West. After only one season the immediate relegation followed. The 1955/56 season was the last in which VfB 03 played a league higher than Arminia.

As the new top Westphalian league, the two-track association league was established in 1956 , where VfB was third in 1960, two points behind master BV Selm . In the meantime, the "Hüpker" negotiated a merger with Arminia in 1959. This burst after VfB President Walter Goldmann demanded that Arminia “first have to put its finances in order”. In 1962, Arminia was promoted to the 2nd Division West, which means that the two clubs have separated to this day. A year later , VfB became champions of the northeast group and met Lüner SV in the final of the Westphalia Championship , but lost 1: 3 in the Hammer Jahnstadion . As a result, the team missed the chance to qualify for the newly introduced Regionalliga West .

Association league years (1963 to 1973)

In the following years, VfB was one of the top teams in its association league relay. In 1964 the team was runner-up behind Eintracht Gelsenkirchen, before the "Hüpker" took third place two years later. In the late 1960s, however, the team fell back into the mediocrity of the league. For the 1967/68 season, VfB and local rival SpVgg Fichte planned a merger of the clubs, the product of which was to bear the name of the 1st Bielefelder Sport Association . Both clubs hoped that they would no longer have to steal sponsors from each other. However, the clubs could not agree on the terms for a merger, so the plans were discarded.

In 1970, the heavily indebted and threatened in its existence VfB sold its club's own VfB arena to the trading company Marktkauf , which built a supermarket in the same place . From then on, the "Hüpker" played in the Rußheide stadium, where the later merger partner SpVgg Fichte already played. After two years in the middle of the table, the "Reds" were again champions of Group 1, after the team won the game against SC Hassel in Hamm with 3-1. VfB 03 had the opportunity to secure the title on the last day of the match, but the team lost 3-1 in front of 5,000 spectators at SC Hassel.

In the final of the Westphalia Championship, the “Reds” under coach Willi Haubrock beat the group 2 champions Rot-Weiss Lüdenscheid in Lünen with two goals from Bernd Spiekerkötter 2-1. In the promotion round to Regionalliga West , the "Hüpker" met next to Rot-Weiß Lüdenscheid on the Mittelrheinmeister SC Viktoria Köln and the Niederrheinmeister Union Ohligs . The Bielefeld team started with a 3-0 win over Viktoria Köln and were already hoping for regional league games against Arminia. However, the following five games were all lost and the "Reds" finished the promotion round as bottom of the table. Since with Rot-Weiss Essen and Fortuna Köln two West German regional league teams were promoted to the Bundesliga and only one with Rot-Weiß Oberhausen was relegated from the Bundesliga, the penultimate place was enough for promotion.

Decline (1973 to 1987)

In the following years things went downhill in terms of sport. After the team was just able to keep the class in the 1973/74 season , the Bielefeld team had to go into relegation against SuS Hüsten 09 a year later . The Sauerland won 2: 1 and 2: 2. Since Westfalia Herne, a Westphalian association league, was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga and no Westphalian second division took the opposite route, the relegation games lost their importance and VfB 03 remained an association league.

The sporty descent was only postponed. In the 1975/76 season , the "Hüpker" were beaten last with only 6:26 points and rose for the first time in the fourth division. The team remained without a win throughout the season. The direct re-promotion was missed because the team behind the relegated TuS Schloß Neuhaus was only runner-up. In 1978 the "Reds" missed promotion to the association league as sixth when there was an increased promotion due to the introduction of the Oberliga Westfalen . Instead of just the champions, the first four of the table rose straight away.

Thus, for the first time in its club history, VfB was only fifth class. In 1980, Bielefeld qualified for the DFB Cup again. In the first round, the team met the Württemberg association league club VfB Friedrichshafen . In front of only 400 spectators, Neeven was able to compensate for the tour. Two goals by Friedrichshafen in the last five minutes sealed the 3-1 defeat of "Hüpker".

Coach Peter Albersmeier's team was more successful in the championship. In the 1980/81 season he returned to the association league as champions. After a fourth place in the promotion season, the "Reds" were able to establish themselves in the secured midfield. After five years, he was relegated to the state league again in 1986. The "Hüpker" were passed down in the 1986/87 state league season and now had to compete in the sixth class district league.

The last years before the merger (1987 to 1999)

In the 1987/88 relegation season, seventh place was the lowest point in the club's history. After finishing fourth in the following season, VfB made it to the national league in 1990 with one point ahead of TSG Harsewinkel . In the national league, VfB reached fifth place in 1991 and 1994 and was still in the sporting shadow of SpVgg Fichte. In the meantime, the "Hüpker" had to tremble for a long time in the 1991/92 season to stay in the league, but were eleventh with five points ahead of the first relegated VfL Mennighüffen .

Finally, the team managed to return to the association league in the 1995/96 season. Coach Mario Ermisch's team ended the season tied with SV Steinheim from the Höxter district , so a playoff for the championship was necessary. The “Reds” won the decisive game in Horn-Bad Meinberg 4-1 and returned to the association league after ten years. In the last few years of its existence, the "Hüpker" became an elevator team . The league was missed with four points behind VfB Waltrop .

After another year of the national league, the Bielefeld team managed to immediately rise again as champions in 1998 with a three point lead over local rivals SV Gadderbaum . Thus VfB 03 Bielefeld went into its last season as a league club and ended the 1998/99 season as ninth in the table. The "Reds" were tied with their merger partner SpVgg Fichte, with Fichte finishing eighth due to the better goal difference. The merger did not go entirely smoothly. While the members of VfB 03 immediately agreed, the Fichte members only gave the green light for the merger in the second vote.

successes

• West German runner-up in 1931
• Westfalenmeister 1930, 1931, 1953, 1973

Personalities

player

Walter Bulik Karl-Heinz Diehl Walter Düding Justus Eccarius Andreas Ellguth Peter Füllbier Reinhard Haseldiek Karl-Heinz Henke

Siegfried Hessenauer Karl Hoffmann Otto Höxtermann Horst Jablonowski Franz Klepacz Efthimios Kompodietas Herbert Konieczny Herbert Kordfunke

Adolf Lukaschewski Wilfried Meinert Wolfgang Mittendorf Bernd Naschke Wilhelm Noë Willi Nolting Karl-Heinz Nonnenbruch Friedhelm Renno

Hannes Sachs Hans-Joachim Sommer Bernd Spiekerkötter Dieter Schulz Adolf Urban Joachim Werner Klemens Zielinski

Trainer

• Willi Haubrock
• Fritz Kerr
• Hellmut Meidt
• Wilhelm Noë
• Georg Stürz
• Erwin Turk

environment

Stages

→ Main articles : VfB arena  and Rußheide stadium

VfB 03 Bielefeld initially played on a sports field on Theesener Strasse in the Schildesche district . In 1921, the club acquired a fallow area on Heeper Strasse at the corner of Huberstrasse and three years later opened the VfB-Kampfbahn, which offered 15,000 spectators. In 1970 the club sold the stadium to Marktkauf Holding, which built a supermarket there. Two years earlier, the "Hüpker" moved to the Rußheide stadium, where the later merger partner SpVgg Fichte Bielefeld played. The Rußheide on Mühlenstrasse offers space for 12,000 spectators and has an athletics facility .

Fans

VfB 03's supporters came primarily from the proletarian east of the city. Until the early 1960s, the biggest rival was local rival Arminia Bielefeld, who has bourgeois roots. In the 1920s at the latest, according to the Arminia chronicle, “bitter competition” arose for sporting supremacy in the city. In the final phase of the Second World War, both clubs united to form a war game community, which was accepted by the fans despite mutual dislike. In a commemorative publication for the 60th anniversary of Arminia, it was said that the supporters of the clubs “found it perfectly okay that the Bielefeld football remnants defended themselves against anything that wanted to threaten the football fame of the people of Linenstadt”.

After the end of the war a merger was negotiated, but it failed. The rivalry between the two clubs revived. The Westfälische Zeitung wrote on November 26, 1951, that there was a “sensation-seeking, but sometimes irritable atmosphere” in the stands. At derbies in winter, there were always snowball fights between the supporters. Players like Herbert Kordfunke who switched to their respective rivals were branded as traitors . When the sporting paths of the clubs parted, the later merger partner SpVgg Fichte became their main rival.

Handball

The men's team of VfB 03 reached the final round of the West German Championship in 1927, but finished next to last. Only the Hagener SC 05 could the Bielefeld leave behind. Ten years later, the VfB men reached the promotion round to the then first-class Gauliga Westfalen . There, however, the team remained without a point and took last place.

The most successful era of VfB handball players began in 1961 when Hartmut Neumeyer, who was only 19 at the time, took over as coach. Under Neumeyer, VfB 03 Bielefeld was twice Westphalian champion and twice West German runner-up in field handball . The venue at that time was the Bielefeld cycling track . In 1964, coach Neumeyer said goodbye to a club from Bünde that was not known by name . In 1977, the VfB handball players rose to the then second-class Regionalliga West , but had to relegate after only one season as bottom of the table.

Later, the handball section of VfB 03 formed together with the handball players of the clubs TuRa 06 Bielefeld and fetus Ost Bielefeld the syndicate HSG East Fichte Bielefeld .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Hüpker are coming. VfB Fichte Bielefeld , archived from the original on February 28, 2009 ; Retrieved August 19, 2013 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Hardy Green , Christian Karn: The big book of the German football clubs . AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-89784-362-2 , p. 71.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Hendrik Köplin: Shadow player: VfB Fichte Bielefeld . In: Zeitspiel, No. 18, pages 20–23
4. ↑ Kirschneck, Uhlig u. a .: DSC Arminia Bielefeld. 100 years of passion . Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89533-479-0 , p. 227 .
5. ↑ ^{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. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1996, ISBN 3-928562-85-1 , pp. 111-112, 205.
6. ↑ Hardy Green, Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
7. ↑ cf. Grüne (1996), p. 205
8. ↑ Jan Ahlers: Historian works on the Nazi past of Arminia Bielefeld. Neue Westfälische , accessed on December 23, 2018 . 
9. ↑ cf. Grüne (1996), p. 270
10. ↑ cf. Grüne (1996), p. 333
11. ↑ Ralf Piorr (Ed.): The pot is round - The lexicon of Revier football: The clubs . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2006, ISBN 3-89861-356-9 , p. 118 .
12. ↑ Norbert Herbst: The missed climb. Neue Westfälische, accessed March 7, 2016 . 
13. ↑ Match statistics VfB Bielefeld - VfB Friedrichshafen 1: 3 (0: 0). Fussballdaten.de, accessed on August 19, 2013 . 
14. ↑ ^{a b} cf. Kirschneck, Uhlig u. a., page 35
15. ↑ Sven Webers: Field handball final West German Game Association (WSV in the DSB) 1926/27. Bundesligainfo.de, accessed on July 20, 2020 . 
16. ^ Gregor Winkler: Trainer is looking for his protégés. Neue Westfälische, accessed on August 16, 2017 . 
17. ^ Sven Webers: Regionalliga (II. League) women 1977/78. Bundesligainfo.de, accessed on August 7, 2018 . 

Coordinates: 52 ° 1 ′ 12 ″  N , 8 ° 33 ′ 46 ″  E