Freie Turnerschaft Braunschweig, commonly known as Freie Turner, FT Braunschweig or simply FTB, is a German association football and

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

based in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...

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 as a worker's sports club on 2 September 1903. In 1913, the club was declared a leftist political organization by the authorities of the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

and dissolved. A new club, ''Neue Freie Turnerschaft Braunschweig'', was formed shortly after. The Neue Freie Turnerschaft had to disband again in 1933 because of financial problems, caused by the construction of a new stadium for the club. Its successor ''Freier Sportverein Braunschweig'' was formed in January 1933, but shortly after, in March 1933, banned as a socialist club by the new

Nazi government The government of Nazi Germany was totalitarian, run by the Nazi Party in Germany according to the Führerprinzip through the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. Nazi Germany began with the fact that the Enabling Act was enacted to give Hitler's gover ...

. The club was refounded after

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 ...

under its original name. In 1952 the club was promoted into the second tier Amateuroberliga Niedersachsen-Ost. The stint proved short and FTB were relegated again after two seasons in 1954, spending the next 20 years at the 3rd or 4th level of German football, before slipping down as far as the 7th division during the 1980s and 90s. The club finally returned to 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 ...

in 2000, now the 5th tier. Here the club usually finished in the upper half of the table, but narrowly missed the qualification for the new single-division ''Niedersachsenliga'' in 2010. After three seasons in the 6th tier

Landesliga Braunschweig The Landesliga Braunschweig, called the ''Bezirksoberliga Braunschweig'' from 1979 to 1994 and 2006 to 2010,Lower Saxony Cup The Lower Saxony Cup (german: Niedersächsischer Pokal) is an annual football cup competition, held by the ( en, Lower Saxony Football Association) since 1956. For sponsorship reasons, the official name of the competition is Krombacher-Pokal.

, which also secured FT Braunschweig's qualification for the

2014–15 DFB-Pokal The 2014–15 DFB-Pokal was the 72nd season of the annual German football cup competition. It began on 15 August 2014 with the first of six rounds and ended on 30 May 2015 with the final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. Bayern Munich were the two ...

– the club's first ever participation in the main rounds of Germany's national cup competition. The semi-final, played in front of 6,350 spectators at

Eintracht Braunschweig Braunschweiger Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht von 1895 e.V., commonly known as Eintracht Braunschweig () or BTSV (), is a German association football, football and sports club based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. The club was one of the founding ...

Eintracht-Stadion Eintracht-Stadion () is a multi-purpose stadium in Braunschweig, Germany. It is currently used for football and American football matches and is the home stadium of Eintracht Braunschweig and the New Yorker Lions. The stadium is able to hold 2 ...

, was won 1–0 against

VfB Oldenburg VfB Oldenburg is a German association football club based in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony. In the 2022–23 season, they play in the 3. Liga, the third level of football in Germany. History Founded by a group of high school boys as ''FC 1897 Ol ...

. The final, which had no bearing on DFB-Pokal qualification, was lost 1–2 against

BSV Schwarz-Weiß Rehden BSV Schwarz-Weiß Rehden is a German sports club based in the municipality of Rehden, Lower Saxony. The club's association football, football division currently plays in the fourth-tier Fußball-Regionalliga Nord, Regionalliga Nord. History The ...

. In the first round of the 2014–15 DFB-Pokal, FT Braunschweig then lost 0–4 against

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

side 1. FC Köln. In the 2013–14 Oberliga season, the newly promoted side finished second, qualifying for the promotion play-offs into the

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 ...

. In the play-off round, FT Braunschweig finished second behind

VfB Lübeck VfB Lübeck is a German association football club playing in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein in the country's north. In addition to its football side the 1,000 member sports club also has departments for badminton, women's gymnastics, handball, and ...

, thus gaining their first promotion into the Regionalliga. It finished last in the league in 2014–15 and was relegated again.

Honours

* Amateurliga Niedersachsen, Staffel 4 (III): **Champions (1): 1952 **Runners-up (1): 1951 *

(V): **Runners-up (2): 2003 (East), 2014 *

: **Runners-up (1):

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Notable former players

The list includes former players of FT Braunschweig who made appearances in professional football before or after playing for the club: *

Justin Eilers Justin Mark Eilers (June 28, 1978 – December 25, 2008)Eilers Shot Dead
– Sherdog.com ...

* Marc Pfitzner * Werner Thamm

Other sports

As a multi sports club FT Braunschweig also has departments for

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

nordic walking Nordic walking is a Finnish-origin total-body version of walking that can be done both by non-athletes as a health-promoting physical activity and by athletes as a sport. The activity is performed with specially designed walking poles similar to s ...

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

, and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

. In 1978 the club's basketball section entered into a cooperation with

MTV Braunschweig Braunschweiger MTV von 1847, commonly known as MTV Braunschweig, is a German sports club based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. History MTV Braunschweig was founded as a gymnastics club in 1847 and is the second oldest sports club in Lower Saxony ...

to form

SG Braunschweig SG Braunschweig is a basketball club based in Braunschweig, Germany. History The team was formed in 1978 as a cooperation between the basketball sections of the clubs FT Braunschweig and MTV Braunschweig. In 2000–01 the club passed its Bask ...

, the predecessor of

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...

team

Basketball Löwen Braunschweig Basketball Löwen Braunschweig ( en, Basketball Lions Braunschweig) is a basketball club based in Braunschweig, Germany. The club currently plays in the Basketball Bundesliga, the top tier of German basketball. The club's home arena is Volkswage ...

.Der Verein (in German) at sg-braunschweig.de
, accessed: 9 November 2012.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braunschweig, FT Football clubs in Germany Football clubs in Lower Saxony Multi-sport clubs in Germany German workers' football clubs Association football clubs established in 1903 FT 1903 establishments in Germany Organisations based in Braunschweig