Football club (GDR)

Football club (German: Fußballclub) (FC) was a designation for the elite football teams in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), commonly known as East Germany. They were formed in the mid-1960s as centers of high-level football.

After World War II and the occupation of Germany by Allied forces, a separate football competition emerged in the Soviet-held eastern half of the country. The term "FC" continued to be used in its traditional sense in West Germany, but eventually became a specialized designation in East Germany.

A match between FC Karl-Marx-Stadt and SG Dynamo Dresden in the 1988–89 FDGB-Pokal at the Dr.-Kurt-Fischer-Stadion on 29 October 1988.

Since the introduction of the sports club (German: Sportclub) (SC) system in the mid-1950s, the football departments of sports clubs had dominated the DDR-Oberliga. Football was granted a special status in the East German elite sports in late 1965, when ten football departments were separated from their sports clubs to create ten pure football clubs. The ten football clubs were made into centers of excellence (German: Leistungszentrum) and were given the same rights as sports clubs.[1][2] Their autonomy was underpinned by liberal financial support from the central sports agency DTSB and support from state agencies and large state owned companies.[2] Most sports associations (German: Sportverinigung) (SV) were dissolved at the founding of the DTSB in 1957. However, the sports associations SV Dynamo and ASV Vorwärts continued to exist as districts organizations within the DTSB and were allowed to retain their own statutes.[3][4] BFC Dynamo and FC Vorwärts Berlin were therefore able to remain under the influence of their respective ministries.

The football clubs were given privileged access to the best talents in designated geographical and administrative areas.[2] All football clubs were assigned one or two districts in East Germany as catchment areas at their founding.[5] SG Dynamo Dresden was also declared a regional center of excellence in 1968. The club was given the same privileges as the designated football clubs.[6][7] The upper tier of elite clubs were able to establish structured programs for the development of their talents in special training centers (TZ) and sports schools.[8] The DFV would gradually build 196 training centers (TZ) based on guidelines from the DTSB across East Germany from the beginning of 1970.[9] And toung talents from the age of 13 started to be enrolled into the elite Children and Youth Sports Schools (KJS) at the same time.[10] A designated focus club (German: Schwerpunktclubs) had the right to accommodate twelve students in the district Children and Youth Sports Schools (KJS) every year.[11]

This special status of the sports clubs and football clubs as the only centers of elite sports led to an establishment of a two-class society in the DDR-Oberliga: the heavily supported and largely professionalized clubs dominated play in every respect, the best enterprise sports communities (German: Betriebssportgemeinschaften) (BSG) were used as a talent pool. Their players were delegated to the football clubs. From the time when the sports clubs were first established in 1954, there is just one instance when a BSG won the DDR-Oberliga. That is when BSG Chemie Leipzig were crowned champions in 1964. However, the team had been formed from two dissolved sports clubs the year before. Only football clubs finished in the top thee in the DDR-Oberliga from 1968 to 1991.

The football clubs in the GDR
Name Founded Sports club
SG Dynamo Dresden° 12 April 1953 SG Dynamo Dresden
1. FC Magdeburg 22 December 1965 SC Magdeburg
F.C. Hansa Rostock 28 December 1965 SC Empor Rostock
BFC Dynamo 15 January 1966 SC Dynamo Berlin
FC Karl-Marx-Stadt 15 January 1966 SC Karl-Marx-Stadt
FC Vorwärts Berlin°° 18 January 1966 ASK Vorwärts Berlin
1. FC Union Berlin 20 January 1966 TSC Berlin
FC Carl Zeiss Jena 20 January 1966 SC Motor Jena
1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig 20 January 1966 SC Leipzig
FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 26 January 1966 SC Turbine Erfurt
Hallescher FC Chemie 26 January 1966 SC Chemie Halle

° SG Dynamo Dresden existed well before the founding of pure football clubs. While the club was a "Sports Community" (German: Sportgemeinschaft) (SG) by name, it had the same status as the football clubs from 1968.

°° The club was relocated to Frankfurt an der Oder in Bezirk Frankfurt on 31 July 1971 and continued as FC Vorwärts Frankfurt.

See also

References
  1. Hesse-Lichtenberger, Ulrich (2003). Tor!: The Story of German Football (3rd ed.). London: WSC Books Ltd. p. 227. ISBN 095401345X.
  2. Dennis, Mike (2007). "Behind the Wall: East German football between state and society" (PDF). German as a Foreign Language (GFL). 2007 (2): 46–73. ISSN 1470-9570. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  3. Braun, Jutta (13 January 2013). "Gutachten zum Themenfeld "Sport" für die Enquete-Kommission 5/1 "Aufarbeitung der Geschichte und Bewältigung von Folgen der SED-Diktatur und des Übergangs in einen demokratischen Rechtsstaat im Land Brandenburg"" (PDF) (in German). Potsdam: Zentrum deutsche Sportgeschichte Berlin-Brandenburg (ZdS): 9. Retrieved 6 December 2021. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. Zink, Falko (December 2009). Written at Kaiserslautern. "Der Sport und seine Institutionen im Spannungsfeld von Staat und Politik: Eine zeitgeschichtliche Untersuchung zur Anpassungsfähigkeit der Institutionen des Sports" (in German). Saarbrucken: Saarland University: 126–127. Retrieved 6 December 2021. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. Luther, Jörn; Willmann, Frank (2000). Und niemals vergessen – Eisern Union! (1st ed.). Berlin: BasisDruck. pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-3-86163-106-4. Aber der Reihe nach: Die Fußballclubs hatten bei ihrer Gründung einen oder zwei Bezirke zugewiesen bekommen , aus deren Trainingszentren sie ihren Nachwuchs rekrutierten.
  6. "Jubiläumswelle im Osten: Beschluss der Sport-Führung war Auslöser". Frankfurter Rundschau (in German). Frankfurt am Main: Frankfurter Rundschau GmbH. 18 June 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  7. Pleil, Ingolf (2013). Mielke, Macht und Meisterschaft: Dynamo Dresden im Visier der Stasi (in German) (2nd ed.). Berlin: Christopher Links Verlag GmbH. p. 16. ISBN 978-3-86153-756-4. Mit Beschluss des DTSB-Bezirksvorstandes vom 5. August 1968 wird Dynamo zum Fußball-Leistungszentrum im Berizk Dresden, das damit in der gesamten Region auf Spielersuche gehen kann.
  8. Mike, Dennis; Grix, Jonathan (2012). Sport under Communism – Behind the East German 'Miracle' (1st ed.). Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan (Macmillan Publishers Limited). p. 141. ISBN 978-0-230-22784-2.
  9. Willmann, Frank (1999). "Fussball in der Zone". telegraph (de) (in German). Berlin: Prenzlberg Dokumentation e.V. 2010 (120/121). Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  10. "DDR-Fußball: Aus der Chronik des Deutschen Fußballverbandes der DDR (DFV)". nofv-online.de (in German). Berlin: Nordostdeutscher Fußballverband e. V. 10 April 2001. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  11. Leske, Hanns (2012). "Hierarchie des DDR-Fußballs: Privilegierung der Schwerpunktclubs". Fußball in der DDR: Kicken im Auftrag der SED (in German) (2nd ed.). Erfurt: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen. ISBN 978-3-937967-91-2.
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