SV Arminia Hannover is a
German association football club based in
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
,
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
.
History
The club was founded in 1910 as ''FC Arminia Hannover'' and merged with ''Rugby-Verein Merkur'' in 1918, becoming ''SV Arminia-Merkur''. Two years later they renamed themselves ''SV Arminia Hannover'' and captured the North German title. Through the 1920s and 1930s the club grew to include a number of other sports, but the football side did not earn any significant result, apart from the 1932–33 season when the club, under the English coach
William Townley
William James Townley (14 February 1866 – 30 May 1950) was an English football player and coach.
He scored the first hat-trick in the history of the FA Cup final, but his lasting legacy is defined as an important pioneer of the game in Ger ...
, advanced as far as the quarterfinals of the German Championship, where they were ousted by the eventual winners
Fortuna Düsseldorf
Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga.
Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...
. During 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 ...
, the club played in the
Gauliga Niedersachsen
The Gauliga Niedersachsen was the highest football league in the Prussian Province of Hanover and the German states of Bremen, Brunswick, Schaumburg-Lippe and Oldenburg from 1933 to 1945. Shortly after the formation of the league, the Nazis reor ...
, later the
Gauliga Südhannover-Braunschweig
The Gauliga Niedersachsen was the highest football league in the Prussian Province of Hanover and the German states of Bremen, Brunswick, Schaumburg-Lippe and Oldenburg from 1933 to 1945. Shortly after the formation of the league, the Nazis ...
, generally as a top of the table side without winning another local championship.
For the most part, the club played second tier ball through the 1950s and 1960s with their best performances a pair of first-place finishes in the Regionalliga Nord in 1966 and 1967. An amateur championship in 1975 led ''Arminia'' to four seasons in the
2. Bundesliga Nord. They barely managed to hang on each year until finally slipping to the
Amateur Oberliga Nord
The Oberliga Nord was the fourth tier of the German football league system in the north of Germany. It covered the states of Lower Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. With the introduction of the 3. Liga, the league ceased to exist fr ...
(III) in 1980. The side faded away over the next two decades, playing a roughly even number of seasons in tiers III and IV, until they were relegated from the now-defunct Oberliga Nord (IV) in 2007. In 2008–09 they played in the
Niedersachsenliga
The Oberliga Niedersachsen ( en, Upper League Lower Saxony), sometimes referred to as ''Niedersachsenliga'' (Lower Saxony league), is the fifth tier of the German football league system and the highest league in the German state of Lower Saxony (ge ...
(West, V) but were relegated again.
In June 2010, though, they managed to come back by winning the
Bezirksoberliga
The Bezirksoberliga ( en, Football County Premier League) was the seventh tier of the German football league system in the state of Bavaria from 1988 to 2012. The Bezirksoberligas have also existed in other states of Germany, like Hesse and Lower S ...
''(District Premier League)'' title and successfully competing in the relegation/promotion play-offs. So Arminia played in the new Niedersachsenliga (V) in 2010–11, where they were sent back after a 15th-place finish to the
Landesliga Hannover
The Landesliga Hannover, called the ''Bezirksoberliga Hannover'' from 1979 to 1994 and 2006 to 2010, (VI) for three seasons until they won the 2013–14 title to return to the Niedersachsenliga.
Honours
The club's honours:
*
Northern German champions
** Champions: 1920
*
Regionalliga Nord
The Regionalliga Nord ( en, Regional League North) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regional ...
** Champions:
1967
Events
January
* January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair.
* January 5
** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...
,
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Janu ...
*
Landesliga Hannover
The Landesliga Hannover, called the ''Bezirksoberliga Hannover'' from 1979 to 1994 and 2006 to 2010,
** Champions: 2010, 2014
Notable former players
The list includes players with at least one cap for their country's senior national team.
*
Bruno Akrapović
Bruno Akrapović (born 26 September 1967) is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder.
Club career
Starting his career in his native Bosnia, at the time part of Yugoslavia, Akrapović spent the ma ...
*
Willi Fricke
*
Edmund Malecki
*
Werner Olk
Werner Olk (born 18 January 1938) is a German former professional football player and manager.
Club career
Olk started his football career as a youth player with SG Letter 05 (Hanover region) in 1948 and eventually switched into the youth te ...
*
Josef Posipal
Josef "Jupp" Posipal (20 June 1927 – 21 February 1997) was a German association football, footballer. Born in Romania, he was part of the Germany national football team, German national team that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup. During his club car ...
*
Werner Schulz
Werner Gustav Schulz (22 January 1950 – 9 November 2022) was a German politician of Alliance '90/The Greens. Trained in food technology at the Humboldt University of Berlin, he worked as a research assistant. He was an activist for peace ec ...
*
Lothar Ulsaß
Lothar Ulsaß (9 September 1940 – 18 June 1999) was a German professional footballer who played as a midfielder or striker.
Club career
Early in his career Ulsaß was a prolific goalscorer at Arminia Hannover in the second tier Amateurobe ...
*
Eduard Wolpers
*
Klaus Wunder
References
* Horst Voigt: ''SV Arminia Hannover''. Sutton Verlag, March 2003,
External links
*
Abseits Guide to German Soccer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hannover, Sv Arminia
Football clubs in Germany
Football clubs in Lower Saxony
Sport in Hanover
Association football clubs established in 1910
1910 establishments in Germany
2. Bundesliga clubs