FC Concordia Wilhelmsruh

FC Concordia Wilhelmsruh

Full name	FC Concordia Wilhelmsruh 1895 e.V.
Founded	1895
Ground	Nordendarena (Capacity: 3,000)
2007–08	Bezirksliga Berlin, Staffel 1 (VII), 14th (relegated)
Home colours Away colours

FC Concordia Wilhelmsruh is a German association football club based in Berlin. The club was founded on 29 June 1895 as Concordia Berlin and was one of the founding members of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fussball Bund or German Football Association) in Leipzig in 1900. It is named after Concordia, the Roman goddess of unity.

History

In its early years the club moved between first and second division level play on the local city circuit and captured its first honors with a second division title in 1901. That advanced the club to the Oberliga Berlin where they played a single season before becoming part of the Berliner Meistershaft, a competing first tier circuit. They returned to Oberliga play in 1911. The team twice appeared in Berliner-Pokal (Berlin Cup) play, being put out by Weißensee 1900 in a 1910 semifinal match, and in 1929, being thrashed 11–0 by Hertha Berlin in a quarterfinal contest. ^[1]

Concordia fell to amateur level play at the end of the 1911–12 campaign. They merged with an unnamed local side in 1924 to become Ballspiel-Club Concordia vom Jahre 1895. ^[2]The team remained a lower tier side until after World War II in 1945. In the aftermath of the war Allied occupation authorities banned all existing organizations in Germany, including sports and football clubs. Concordia was re-established as SG Wilhelmsruh and resumed play in the Amateurliga Berlin (II) in the 1947–48 season. The next year the club was re-named FC Concordia Wilhelmsruh and played two more seasons in the Amateurliga as a mid-table side.

The burgeoning Cold War that would divide the country into East and West Germany led to the formation of separate football leagues in the Soviet-occupied areas. Being based in what would become East Berlin, Concordia was ousted from the Amateurliga Berlin to play in the DDR-Liga (II) as SG Concordia Wilhelmsruh. They were immediately relegated to the Landesliga Berlin (III) after only a single season and a last place finish. The club then played third tier football until the mid-1950s when it slipped deeper into the amateur ranks, making only occasional and fleeting appearances in the Bezirksliga Berlin through the 1970s and 1980s.

The club collapsed in the early 1990s and was re-established in May 1992. Today the team fields a total of eighteen teams and emphasizes its youth sides. The men's team (I) plays in the Bezirksliga Berlin (VII).

References

1. ^ Grüne, Hardy (1996). Vom Kronprinzen bis zur Bundesliga. Kassel: AGON Sportverlag ISBN 3-928562-85-1
2. ^ Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon. Kassel: Agon-Sportverlag. ISBN 978-3-89784-147-5.

External links

• Official team site