BFC Preussen is a German football club from

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 team is part of a sports club which also has departments for handball, volleyball, athletics, gymnastics, and ice hockey. ''Preussen'' was one of the founding clubs of the

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 ...

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.

History

The club was formed as ''BFC Friedrich Wilhelm'' on 1 May 1894 by a number of players who had left ''Hevellia Berlin''. It was named in honour of

Crown Prince Wilhelm Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, Crown Prince of Prussia (Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst; 6 May 1882 – 20 July 1951) was the eldest child of the last ''Kaiser'', the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, and his consort Augusta Victoria of Schles ...

, an early and enthusiastic supporter of the new game of football who donated the Kronprinzenpokal (en: Crown Prince's Cup), the German game's earliest prize. In 1895, the club was renamed ''Preußen'' for the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

, and went on to success playing in the Verband Deutscher Ballspiel Vereine (Federation of German Ballgame Teams). The team lost the league final in 1898 before going on to win three consecutive titles in 1899–1901, and then repeating as champions in 1910 and 1912. While ''Preußen'' remained a prominent side playing in the Verbandsliga Berlin-Brandenburg and Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg through to the early 1930s, they earned just mid-table results. In 1933, German football was re-organized 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 ...

into sixteen regional first division Gauligen. However, an uncharacteristically poor finish to the 1932–33 season that saw ''Preußen'' finish in last place put the club out of top-flight football. In the aftermath of World War II occupying Allied authorities banned organizations throughout Germany, 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 club was dissolved, then re-established in 1949. By the 1970s, ''Preussen'' had settled into third-tier competition in the Amateurliga Berlin (III). A short-lived breakthrough to the Regionalliga Berlin (II) lasted two seasons from 1972 to 1974 before the team briefly crashed to the Landesliga Berlin (IV) in 1974–75. The team's quick return to the third tier Amateur Oberliga Berlin was marked by five exceptional seasons in which they earned three first and two second-place finishes. They narrowly missed promotion to the 2. Bundesliga in 1980 when they lost the playoff to '' SC Göttingen 05'' (0–1 and 1–1). ''Preußen'' played out the balance of the 1970s and on into the early 1990s in the third division. The team soon found itself in the fifth tier Verbandsliga Berlin and slipped as low as the Landesliga Berlin-1 (VI) in 1999–2000. In 2011–12, they were demoted from the Berlin-Liga (VI) after an 18th-place result. After three seasons in the Landesliga they were promoted back to the Berlin-Liga by winning the 2014–15 Landesliga Berlin 1.

International players

* Rudolf Droz, German international *

Edwin Dutton Edwin Dutton (8 April 1890 – 24 May 1972) was an Anglo-German footballer and coach. Dutton played as a forward for Britannia Berlin 92, BFC Preussen, Newcastle United and Germany. During the First World War he was interned at Ruhleben, a civ ...

, former German international * Erich Massini, German international * Oliver Pötschke, Filipino international *

Otto Thiel Otto Thiel (23 November 1891 – 10 July 1913) was a German amateur footballer who played as a forward and competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics The 1912 Summer Olympics ( sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1912), officially known as the Games of the V ...

, German international *

Gustav Unfried Gustav Unfried (24 March 1889 – 13 September 1917) was a German international footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association foot ...

, German international *

Otto Völker Otto Völker (2 March 1893 – 6 August 1945) was a German international footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, A ...

, German international

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 ...

** Champions: 1899, 1900, 1901, 1910, 1912 * Oberliga Berlin (III) ** Champions: 1972, 1977, 1980, 1981 *

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 ...

(V) ** Champions: 2005 *

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 ...

** Winners 1979, 1980, 1981,

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

** Runners-up 1988

Recent seasons

References

External links

Official website (club)

Official team site (football)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berlin Preussen Association football clubs established in 1894 Football clubs in Germany Football clubs in Berlin 1894 establishments in Germany