AKS Chorzów is a sports club based in

Chorzów Chorzów ( ; ; german: link=no, Königshütte ; szl, Chorzōw) is a city in the Silesia region of southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central cities of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. It is one of the earliest sports organizations in

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located ...

and is still well-known nationally for its

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

teams. The club also made its mark on the international stage: Halina Richter-Górecka was part of the gold-medal winning women's 100m relay team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games;

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player Danuta Wieczorek appeared at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

as a junior.

History

The origins of the club go back to the founding of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

football club A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all- ...

VfR Königshütte on 22 August 1910 in what was at the time the coal mining city of Königshütte in Germany. In the early 20s, the region became part of Poland and the city was renamed, with the football club becoming ''Amatorski Klub Sportowy Chorzów'' In 1927 ''AKS'' was the proud owner of one of the most modern stadium facilities in Poland at Chorzów's Wyzwolenia Hill. The stadium was sometimes shared with another well-known local team — ''

Ruch Chorzów Ruch Chorzów () is a Polish association football club based in Chorzów, Upper Silesia. It is one of the most successful football teams in Poland: fourteen-time national champions, and three-time winners of the Polish Cup. Currently the team play ...

''. The club won the championship of Polish Upper Silesia (''Silesian A-Class'') in 1924, 1930 and 1936, and in 1937 advanced to the Polish first division where they became an immediate success. They finished as vice-champions and the team's Jerzy Wostal was the top scorer in the league with 12 goals. Wostal and teammate

Leonard Piątek Leonard Franciszek Piątek (born Leonard Franz Piontek, 3 October 1913 – 1 July 1967) was a Polish footballer who played as a forward in the interwar period. In the spring of 1937 he changed his name to Leonard Franciszek Piątek (a Poloniz ...

were among several players who played for the Polish national side in the 1930s. In 1939, AKS had as many as 10 football teams, including various youth teams, which was more than any other football organization of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

. After the outbreak 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 ...

in 1939, Germany occupied the western half of Poland. ''AKS'' became Fussball Verein Germania Königshütte and in 1940 joined Germany's first division

Gauliga Schlesien The Gauliga Schlesien was the highest football league in the region of Silesia (German:''Schlesien''), which consisted of the Prussian provinces of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia from 1933 to 1945. Shortly after the formation of the league, the ...

where they finished atop the table. Piatek Germanized his name to Piontek and was a key player as ''FV Königshütte'' became the dominant side in the division, far outperforming state-supported rival ''

1. FC Kattowitz 1. FC Kattowitz ( pl, 1. FC Katowice) was an ethnically German football club playing in what was Kattowitz, Silesia Province in Germany (now Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland) and was active during the inter-war period and World War II when ...

''. The club earned division titles in the

Gauliga Oberschlesien A Gauliga () was the highest level of play in German football from 1933 to 1945. The leagues were introduced in 1933, after the Nazi takeover of power by the National Socialist League of the Reich for Physical Exercise. Name The German word '' ...

in 1942, 1943, and 1944, advancing to play in the regional qualifying rounds of the German national championships, where they were put out in the early going each year. ''Germania'' also made first round appearances in play for the Tschammerpokal, predecessor of today's

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

(German Cup), in 1941 and 1942. After the war and the restoration of the area to Poland, the club re-assumed its Polish name and continued to be a power in the country's football, earning third-place results in 1946 and 1947. In 1948 ''AKS'' joined the newly re-established Polish first division as ''Budowlani Chorzów'' and played there for seven years until being relegated after the 1954 season. The club played second division football until 1958 then faded into obscurity, with some supporters claiming that team's German origins and history of success in the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

-sponsored Gauliga put it into disfavour with

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

Poland's sporting authorities, contributing to the team's decline. In the 60s the ''Chorzóws once beautiful stadium burned to the ground to be replaced by a supermarket. In the early 1990s the club merged with ''Chorzowianka Chorzów'' and plays today as the sixth division side ''AKS Wyzwolenie Chorzów''.

Naming timeline

*1910: Verein für Rasenspiele (VfR) Königshütte *1924: Amatorski Klub Sportowy (AKS) Królewska Huta *1934: AKS Chorzów ''(change in name of city)'' *1939-1945: ''defunct: club temporarily replaced by newly established club FV Germania Königshütte O/S *1949: Budowlani Chorzów *1955: AKS Chorzów *1995: AKS Chorzowianka Chorzów ''(merger with Chorzowianka Chorzów)'' *2000: AKS Wyzwolenie Chorzów ''(merger with Wyzwolenie Chorzów)''

Achievements

* Polish vice-champions: 1937 * 3rd place in Polish

Ekstraklasa Poland Ekstraklasa (), meaning "Extra Class" in Polish, named PKO Ekstraklasa since the 2019–20 season due to its sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is the top Polish professional league for men's association football teams. Contested by 18 cl ...

(Main League): 1946, 1947, 1951 *

Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...

(Poland) champions: 1924, 1930, 1936 *

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

champions (Germany): 1941 *

champions (Germany): 1942, 1943, 1944

Handball

Formed before the World War II, the club's handball department came to prominence after 1945. The team drew crowds of 5,000 at the height of its popularity and in the 1980s won several national titles.

Honours (handball)

*Polish champions: 1981, 1982, 1988 *Polish vice-champions: 1960

Nickname

* The team was nicknamed the "Green Clovers".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chorzow Football clubs in Germany Association football clubs established in 1910 AKS Chorzow Football clubs in Silesian Voivodeship Football clubs from former German territories