Berliner FC Alemannia 1890 is a
German football club based in northern
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. The club was founded in 1890 as ''Berliner Thor- und Fussball Club Allemannia 1890''. In 1994, the club saw an influx of members from ''
SC Wacker 04 Berlin
Wacker 04 Berlin was a German football club based in Berlin. The club folded in 1994 after becoming insolvent.
''Wacker'' played at the highest level in Berlin for many years throughout its history, in the Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg, the Gaul ...
'', which had folded, and took the name ''BFC Alemannia 90 Wacker''. However, in 2013 they returned to their original name.
Alemannia-Wacker hat es nie gegeben
Fussball-Woche.de, published: 18 March 2013, accessed: 28 November 2015
History
''BTuFC Allemannia'' was founded early in 1890 as ''SV Jugendlust 1890 Berlin'' before changing their name in February. They were also briefly partnered with ''Tambour-Verein Wanderlust'' that year. Sometime in the 1890s they adopted the name ''BFC Allemannia 90 Berlin''. Initially the club played cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
which, alongside football and rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
, were English sports becoming popular in continental Europe at the time. A football department quickly developed, and the team played in Berlin's earliest leagues, becoming one of the founding clubs of the DFB (German Football Association
The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of t ...
) in Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
in 1900.
From 1903 to 1911 the team played in the Märkischer Fußball-Bund where they captured league titles in 1905 and 1907. Through the 1920s, ''Allemannia'' played in the first division Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg
The Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg, also known as the VBB-Oberliga, was the highest association football competition in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg, including Berlin, from 1923 to 1933. The competition was disbanded in 1933 with the rise o ...
, winning the division in 1924 by defeating Norden-Nordwest Berlin
SV Norden-Nordwest is a German football club from Berlin. It was established as ''Berliner Fußball Club des Nordens'' on 16 October 1898 and in 1906 merged with ''Berliner Fußball Club Norden-West'', also established in 1898, to play as ''FC ...
, and then losing their defence of their title to Hertha BSC
Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charl ...
the following year. The club advanced to the German championship rounds in both seasons, only to be put out in the early going. By 1929 their performance had slipped, and they were relegated.
In 1933, ''Allemannia'' became ''Alemannia''. They did not qualify to play in the new first division Gauligen formed that year in the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and remained out of top-flight competition for the duration of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. After the war, Allied occupation of Germany
Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and France ...
ordered most organizations in the country disbanded, including sports and football clubs, as part of the process of denazification
Denazification (german: link=yes, Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by remov ...
. The formation of new clubs was permitted late in 1945, and the membership of ''Alemannia'' was re-organized as ''Spoergemeinde Prenzlauer Berg West''. This team appeared in the new Oberliga Berlin (I) and by 1947–48 was once again playing as ''Alemannia 90 Berlin''. They played out their turn in the first division as a mid-table side until relegated in 1956, followed by a single season re-appearance that ended in a last-place finish in 1957–58. The club slipped briefly to fourth division play before playing in the Regionalliga Berlin
The Regionalliga Berlin was the second-highest level of the German football league system in the city of West-Berlin in Germany from 1963 until the formation of the 2. Bundesliga in 1974. It was by far the smallest of the five Regionalligas.
Ove ...
(II) and Amateurliga Berlin
The Amateur-Oberliga Berlin was the second tier of the German football league system in the city of West Berlin in Germany from 1947 until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, operating under the name of Amateurliga Berlin. After 1963, it was ...
(III) from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. By the time of the demise of Wacker in 1994, Alemannia had fallen to the fifth tier Landesliga Berlin.
''Wackers financial collapse saw many of the club's members join ''Alemannia'', leading to renaming as ''BFC Alemannia 90 Wacker''. The newly combined side played in the Landesliga Berlin (V) and enjoyed a brief surge of success, moving from the lower half of the table to two consecutive second-place finishes. ''Alemannia Wacker'' has since faded but continued to play in the Verbandsliga Berlin
The Berlin-Liga (VI), formerly the Verbandsliga Berlin, is the highest league for football teams exclusively in the German capital. Since German reunification in 1990, it has been the highest level of domestic football in the city, replacing the A ...
as a mid-table side until its relegation in 2008. In 2013 they took back their original name. They played in the Bezirksliga Berlin (VIII) after their relegation from Landesliga
The Landesliga ( en, Football State League) is a tier of football in some states of the German football league system.
In Bavaria, Saxony, Thuringia, Bremen, Lower Saxony and Hamburg, the Landesligas are set right below the Oberliga and therefore ...
Berlin (VII) in 2014, and slipped again in 2015 to the Kreisliga A (IX).
Honours
The club's honours:
* Brandenburg football championship
The Brandenburg football championship (German: ''Brandenburgische Fußball-Meisterschaft'') was the name of highest association football competition in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg, including Berlin, established in 1898. The competition was ...
(I)
** Champions: 1924
** Runners-up: 1925
* Amateur-Oberliga Berlin
The Amateur-Oberliga Berlin was the second tier of the German football league system in the city of West Berlin in Germany from 1947 until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, operating under the name of Amateurliga Berlin. After 1963, it was ...
** Champions: 1957, 1970
* Berliner Landespokal
The Berliner Landespokal ( en, Berlin Cup) is an annual football cup competition held by the Berlin Football Association (German: Berliner Fußballverband, BFV). The cup winner qualifies for the national DFB-Pokal. Cup finals are usually held in t ...
** Runners-up: 1949, 2005
Thorball
* Thorball or Torball was a German word in use in the 1890s and early 1900s for the sport of cricket. Several early clubs playing the new "English" games of football, rugby, and cricket incorporated it into their name. The term never caught on and did not enter into common usage, soon being abandoned by sports clubs. Today torball may refer to a form of football played by the blind or vision-impaired.
References
External links
*
The Abseits Guide to German Soccer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berlin Alemannia
Football clubs in Germany
Alemannia
Association football clubs established in 1890
1890 establishments in Germany