The Dresden English Football Club was a

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 ...

club founded in 1874 in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, the first in Germany and likely the first outside

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

History

Initial foundation

The Dresden English Football Club was founded in 1874 and was the first football club in Germany, probably the first in continental Europe. That year, over 70 members participated, primarily Englishmen working in Dresden, watched by hundreds of spectators. They played on a meadow at the Güntzwiesen, near the Blüherpark and the site of today's

Glücksgas Stadium Rudolf-Harbig-Stadion is a football stadium in Dresden, Saxony. It is named after German athlete Rudolf Harbig, and is the current home of Dynamo Dresden. Sports facilities have existed on the site of the stadium, the Güntzwiesen, since 1874. On ...

. In April 1874, the ''

Illustrirte Zeitung ''Illustrirte Zeitung'' was Germany's first illustrated magazine that existed between 1843 and 1944. It was also known as ''Leipziger illustrirte Zeitung''. The magazine described itself as the Germany's illustrated magazine with the internationa ...

'' 'sic''of

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 ...

reported on the establishment of an association "calling itself Dresden Football Club (D.F.C.)" to play a game "in which the ball is propelled forward with the foot", and described: "some twenty young men in a costume, namely in different colours to distinguish them. A kind of woollen or silk underjacket, with or without sleeves, short-fitting leg coverings that show the bare knee, long stockings, ndvery comfortable shoes or lace-up boots make up the ensemble." Between 1891 and 1894, seven matches are documented, the first six of which the Dresden team won; as a

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

sports paper reported, they had not even allowed a

goal A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ai ...

to be scored against them. Their goal ratio was 34:0. In a match played on New Year's Day 1891, they defeated the English F.C. of

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 ...

7:0; according to an account published in 1898 by the founding vice-president 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 ...

, Philipp Heineken, the Berliners described their play as ''nonplusultra''. On 18 April 1892 at Berlin, in the presence of representatives of the Ministry of Culture and of the British ambassador, they won 3:0 against a representative city team; this was presumably the Deutscher Fußball- und Cricketbund, which had the status of an early national German team. Their first defeat, on 10 March 1894, was a 2:0 loss to another Berlin team, Tor und Fußball Club Victoria 89, with both goals scored in the first ten minutes. Players in 1894 were: Beb (Captain), Burchard, Crossley, Graham, Atkins, Spencer, Ravenscraft, Johnson, le Maistre, Luxmoore, Young. The president of the club was Rev. Bowden.

Refoundation

On 30 April 1898, former members of the Dresden English Football Club and of the Neue Dresdner FC (founded in 1893 by former DEFC members and now SpVgg Dresden-Löbtau 1893) founded the Dresdner Sport-Club.According to ''Die Welt'', the Neue Dresdner FC was not founded until after the 1894 loss. Until sports historian Andreas Wittner uncovered the earlier history of the DFC, it was thought to have been founded only in 1890.

References

External links

{{Coord, 51, 02, 25, N, 13, 44, 52, E, region:DE-SN_type:landmark, display=title Defunct football clubs in Germany Defunct football clubs in Saxony Sport in Dresden Association football clubs established in 1874 1874 establishments in Germany Football clubs in Germany

History

Initial foundation

Refoundation

See also

References

Further reading

External links