VfK 1901 Berlin
| Surname | Association for Body Culture 1901 eV |
|---|---|
| Club colors | black-and-white |
| Founded | 1901 |
| Members | about 500 |
| Departments | 8th |
| Chairman | Gunnar Hoppe |
| Homepage | vfk1901.de |
The Association for Physical Culture 1901 is a sports club from Berlin- Charlottenburg . The club's premises are located in Eichkamp at Maikäferpfad 36. VfK 1901 Berlin is currently best known for its success in fistball and the lawn tennis tournament that was organized until 2017.
Sports / departments
Current departments
- Fistball
- tennis
- Bounce ball
- Bacon board (Bambi tennis)
- Table tennis
- Parent-child gymnastics
- Leisure & recreation
- School & Sport
Former departments
history
The founding years 1901–1918
The association for physical culture has only existed by name since 1905. The association was founded in 1901 under the name: "GERMAN ASSOCIATION FOR INTELLIGENT LEIBESZUCHT" The home of the association was the "Licht-Luft-" which opened shortly before on May 31, 1901. Sportbad am Kurfürstendamm ”(Wilmersdorfer Str. 78).
Old ideals - new sports 1918–1933
After the First World War (1914–1918) and the establishment of the first German democracy in Germany, the association no longer had to fight for its right to exist. Sport became the focus in the 1920s. Numerous new sports, such as hockey , track and field , handball (all from 1924), table tennis (1929) and a ski department (1927) were now offered (among other things to increase the number of members).
In addition to the well-known and popular fistball game, a new game called tambourine (a disc with a calfskin covering with which a rubber ball was hit over a string) began at this time. This game was developed into today's Bambi tennis or bacon board game . In the 1920s and 1930s, however, handball and athletics were particularly prominent , as, in contrast to other sports, they were practiced competitively.
In the second half of the 1920s, constant attempts were made to increase the number of members and to create a sociable club life. In the early 1930s this seemed to have been particularly successful. In addition to the doubling of the number of members (1926: 390; 1931 over 800) and 25,000–30,000 visitors per year in the air bath, boxing events with German amateur and professional champions took place on the VfK club premises as special highlights.
The VfK under the swastika 1933–1945
Although the number of members declined in 1932, it was again considerably reduced by the " Aryan Paragraph " introduced in the VfK on June 17, 1933 . While the association's announcements of April 1933 still said “No politics in the system” because the association's peace is higher, the new national government of Adolf Hitler was approved by the 1st chairman Rissmann at the general meeting on June 17, 1933.
In the years that followed, a lot more changed. For example, participation in training and camaraderie evenings became compulsory. The VfK joined the " Reichsbund für Leibesübungen " (from 1939 "National Socialist ..."). The greetings "Heil Hitler" and "Sieg Heil" were also made mandatory and for one year (from February 1934 to February 1935) they called themselves the "Verein für Körperzucht". However, this name was never entered in the register of associations.
The club's internal sporting highlights of this time were the victory of the fistball women at the Brandenburg Gaufest (including Berlin) in 1937 and the four-time victory of the VfK women in the “Potsdam-Berlin” relay run from 1938 to 1941. Otherwise, as in the 1920s, handball and athletics were the main focus of sporting activities, but gymnastics and skiing were also very popular.
During the Summer Olympics in Berlin in 1936, the Canadian athletics team, which had its training facility here , caused a particular sensation on the VfK-Platz . For this purpose, the site was fundamentally renovated in advance. The Finnish team found the 350 m long cinder track too short, which is why they refused to use it for their training.
New beginning - construction - construction of the wall 1945–1961
The new beginning after 1945 was difficult in several respects. In addition to the destruction of the entire club premises with the exception of the sun hall by fire bombs, the Allies dissolved all clubs in 1945. From 1946 (officially from April 1947), however, there was at least the possibility of existing as a VfK sports group in the Charlottenburg Sports Office until the VfK became a regular club again in 1949. The basis for this was the statutes of November 19, 1950, amended in 1950, according to which the association wanted to promote humanity and international understanding and to work on the democratic renewal of the German people.
Otherwise, the second half of the 1940s and 1950s were all about reconstruction. There was a lack of material, balls, money, etc .; only there was no shortage of work to be done. Attempts were made very quickly to get the club going again. There were z. B. organized social evenings and founded a party committee. The women's air bath was reopened for the 50th anniversary in 1951. However, due to the material situation, this anniversary could not be celebrated so extensively.
In the sporting field, the fistball game took on the role of VfK's figurehead. In the 1950s, for example, numerous Berlin championship titles and participation in German championships were recorded. Particularly noteworthy are the German championship titles in 1950 in age group 50 (age group 50) and in 1959 in age group 40. The first men's team was also one of the top national teams, as it was always among the six best teams in the German championships over the entire decade.
Other departments such as athletics and skiing also got going again in the course of the 1950s. The tambourine players had to struggle with particular material problems, since there were no calfskins, so many different kinds of wooden constructions were developed. As always, the air bath and the gymnastics department were central institutions of the association.
As early as the mid-1950s, the construction of a new clubhouse, which still offers us all “home”, was planned, which could be inaugurated as a self-made gift for the 60th anniversary.
Continuity in the divided city 1961–1989
Even more than in the previous decade, the fistball department was able to record successes for VfK in the 1960s. Several teams took part in the German championships, in which the men 40 four times German champions (1959, 1960, 1961 and 1964), the men 30 twice German champions (1964 and 1966) and the youth German runner-up (1961). The first men's team was still a regular participant in the German championships. There, however, it was usually not enough to achieve similar successes as in the 1950s.
In addition to the fistball, the bounce ball department, newly founded in 1961/62, became a new flagship of the VfK. Already in 1964 the men 40 became German runners-up, which in 1968 the men 50 also succeeded. Just a year later, those men 50 even won the German championship title.
After the fistball players were able to get some successes in the early 1970s with the German runner-up title of the 1st men's team in 1971 (in the hall) and the men 40 in 1971 and 1972 (on the field), the DM participations were less and twice the descent was possible from the Bundesliga, which was introduced in the 1960s, cannot be avoided.
In the bounce ball , the VfK was able to show national league teams in the men's division (1971-1975 and 1979) and in the women's division (1976-1979).
The Bambi tennis department , which was founded in 1971, brought new momentum and, after building hard courts, established contacts to Münster in 1973 and imported the so-called bacon boards from there.
The fistball players of the first men's team had proven to be the “ elevator team ” in the early 1980s , until they narrowly missed the step into the first division in all promotion games from 1984 to 1989. It wasn't until 1990 that the promotion was supposed to be successful again, but before that they were always represented at the top of the table with two teams in the regional or 2nd Bundesliga. In the AK teams, it was mainly the men 50 who achieved success with their 1982 German championship title and their 1983 gymnastics festival victory.
Although the prelockers were almost always represented by women (until 1985) and men in the regional and 2nd Bundesliga, it was above all the AK teams with DM participations that ensured success. Especially the men 30 of the Prellballer were always among the top 4 from 1981 to 1985 and German champions in 1981. The men 40 won another German championship title in 1989.
In addition to the well-known activities in VfK, the offer was expanded to include a parent-child gymnastics group in 1984.
The VfK in Transition 1990–2015
In the 1990s, the fistball men were only sporadically represented in the 1st Bundesliga . In the numerous now “all-German” championship participations in this department, the men's 30 team with the DM titles in 1995 and 2003 and the runner-up championships in 1999 and 2002 achieved the greatest successes. The men 50 also achieved a runner-up title in 2000.
After 1989, the 40s became German champions in 1990 and runner-up in 1991. The series of successes continued in the 50s with the German championship titles in 1994 and 1999.
In order to steer the use of the sports field in one's own sense, the baseball players of SG Rupenhorn were temporarily included in addition to the youth of the ice hockey Prussians. With the inclusion of the sport of lacrosse in VfK in 1996, the club expanded its own range of products and thus also its usage needs. After several German runner-up titles, women were able to become German champions for the first time in 1998. In 1999 the men followed suit and the women defended their title. The German championship M 2000 organized by VfK again brought the title for women and men.
In 2005 the "Leisure & Recreation" department was founded, which offers various sporting activities. The dissolution of the lacrosse and gymnastics department in 2006 and 2007 was offset by the establishment of the tennis department in 2008, which today forms the largest department of the club. In the same year, the annual lawn tennis tournament began, which was ranked in the second year.
Among the many outstanding achievements of the athletes in the VfK in recent years, the German championship of the fistball men in 2009 as well as the runner-up championships in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014 should be highlighted. In 2012 (field) and 2014 (field + hall) the men became 35 German champions.
In 2010 the VfK hosted the men's European fistball cup and in 2012 the women's European fistball cup and the men's IFA cup.
In August 2011, the players of the first men's team, Sascha Ball and Lukas Schubert, became world champions with the German national team. In 2013 Lukas Schubert also won the World Games in Cali, Colombia with the national team.
Web links
swell
- Power and Beauty 1901–1907
- later association newspapers of the association for physical culture