Rugby union in Germany

Rugby union in Germany is a minor but growing sport with 124 men's clubs and 5 women's clubs competing in 4 men's and 1 women's national leagues.

Governing body

The German Rugby Federation (german: Deutscher Rugby-Verband or DRV), founded in 1900, is the governing body for all formats of rugby union in Germany, overseeing 12 regional unions. The DRV is a founding member of Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur Association Européenne de Rugby (FIRA-AER) (1934), affiliated with the International Rugby Board since 1999, and a member of the German Olympic Sport Federation.

History

From early clubs to a national union

While rugby union probably reached Germany through affluent British students who attended renowned private grammar schools in the German Confederation, studied in Heidelberg, or completed military service in Hannover, there is disagreement about when the game was first played.

Heidelberg's Neuenheim College (now Heidelberg College) lays claim to its students first playing rugby around 1850. By contrast, in Stuttgart William Cail is regarded as having first introduced rugby, in 1865 at Bad Cannstatt. In Dresden rugby is seen as first emerging there in 1873, while Lüneburg and Hannover make similar claims with regards 1875 and 1876, respectively. Whatever the actual date and place that rugby first kicked off in Germany, the first German-language texts about rugby was published in 1875. Early printed efforts to explain "The Laws of Football Played at Rugby School" was followed by journals and textbooks mentioning the sport.

Rugby enthusiasts worked from within existing clubs serving different sports to establish sections catering to their sport. One of the oldest examples was established on 14 September 1878 by 14-year old schoolboy Ferdinand-Wilhelm Fricke and 24 of his peers at the German Sports Association (Deutsche Sport-Verein von 1878, or DSV 78 Hannover) — the first club in Germany dedicated exclusively to sports played on grass. Fricke's name lives on in Hannover where the German Rugby Federation presently has its offices in a street named for him. Similarly, Neuenheim students under guidance of teacher Edward Hill Ullrich founded a rugby department in 1891 within the Heidelberg Rowing Club (Heidelberger Ruderklub von 1872, or HRK 1872).Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Complete Book of Rugby'' (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ) p67

As a result of such actions taken to establish rugby around them, Heidelberg and Hannover remain centres of the sport.

The earliest attempt at constituting a national body by merging German clubs occurred when northern clubs initiated the German Rugby Football Federation (Deutschen Rugby-Fußball-Bundes) in 1886. But when that failed, DSV 78 Hannover joined the German Football and Cricket Federation (1891–1902), while clubs in Cannstatt, Frankfurt am Main, Heidelberg and Munich joined the Southern German Football Union (1893–95).

At a rugby day in Heidelberg on 13 February 1898 for players from that city, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt am Main, Ullrich argued for closer ties with northern clubs and the ultimate establishment of a national body, but found little support. Between August 1898 and September 1899 the issue continued to be discussed. At a rugby day in Hannover on 11 March 1900, 19 clubs committed to joint future action, undertaking to translate English rules into German, to organize the first North-South match in November, and to join the German Football Federation.

As no federation had been formed by October 1900 on the occasion of the second Olympic Games in Paris, SC 1880 Frankfurt club was assigned to participate in the rugby section on behalf of Germany, winning the silver medal behind France.

On 4 November 1900 the German Rugby Football Association was established as a separate division within the German football (soccer) association, with Fricke of DSV 1878 Hannover as president. Exactly a year later the rugby association ended its connection with the soccer body and continued independently as the German Rugby Federation (Deutscher Rugby-Verband, or DRV).

The first half of the 20th century

The first national competition was organised in 1900, when on 4 November a South versus North game was held, won 11–3 by northern Germany. This annual game became a fixture until 1967, when it was replaced by a state championship. In 1999 the German Rugby Federation returned to the old north-south game but its importance has not reached former levels.Die Zeit vor den Länderspielen
DRV website – History before the national team, accessed: 26 December 2008

In 1909 a national club championship was first organised. The champions of the north, FV 1897 Hannover, met southern club FV 1893 Stuttgart and won 6–3 on 14 November 1909.

Five regional rugby associations were established in the 20th century's first three decades, including northern Germany in 1900 (Hannover); southern Germany in 1909 (Baden, Württemberg, Greater Frankfurt am Main); western Germany in 1922 (Düsseldorf, Cologne, Bonn); and Brandenburg Central in 1924 (Berlin, Leipzig), which in 1930 subdivided into the Brandenburg and Central associations.

In 1927 the German national rugby union team was set up and played its first international on 17 April in Stade de Colombes in Paris. Germany lost 5–30 to France but on 15 May won the return match in Frankfurt 17–16. In the third international between the two countries on 18 March 1928, a record 14,000 spectators attended the game, still the highest attendance number for an international rugby match in Germany.Rugby zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen
DRV website – History between the wars, accessed: 26 December 2008

German rugby peaked in the pre-World War II period, when in 1938, Germany beat France 3–0 for the second time. Long the preserve of the German middle classes, the most prominent German rugby fan/player was the controversial Albert Speer.

Like all other German sport federations, the German Rugby Federation was absorbed in the all-powerful Nazi sports organisation, the ''Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen'', as part of "Department 2", which also served association football and cricket. Hermann Meister, chairman of the German Rugby Federation, a firm believer in a united Europe and a friend of France, tried to live up to his ideals but rugby by and large offered no more resistance to the Nazis than any other sport.

The sport was decimated by World War II as most of its players were killed. Germany, at its height of performance in 1939 and second only to France in continental Europe, lost virtually its whole national team during the war, a predicament from which it has never recovered.

The subsequent post-war social upheaval largely reversed the pre-war successes in German rugby. It came to be seen as a very English game and, as a result, rugby lost the financial support and much of the popularity it had gained in the western and northern cities of Heidelberg, Hanover and Frankfurt.

The post-war period

Following the War friendly matches were played against British military teams.
Of the centres of German rugby, only Heidelberg, future headquarters of the US forces in West Germany, was spared by the bombing raids and the sport of rugby carried low priority in the first post war years. But by the early 1950s the German Rugby Federation (DRV) had re-established itself and the 6 regional associations that had existed before the war.

In 1948 the German championship was restored and the golden area of the TSV Victoria Linden begun, the team winning the title six times in a row from 1951 to 1956, an achievement matched only recently by Heidelberger RK.Wiederaufbau der Vereine und Landesverbände
DRV website – Restoration, accessed: 26 December 2008 The first British team to tour Germany after the war was the Oxford Greyhounds in 1950. In the same year, the DRV was restored in West Germany. With the country now divided into East and West following the post-war occupation, East Germany became the first German team to resume playing international rugby when it toured Romania in 1951. It was followed by the West German team a year later, which played its first international against Belgium in 1952. However, neither side was able to achieve the same successes as the pre-war German team.

Rugby showed that it was not immune to the Cold War split when Burt Weiss, an East German player, escaped to West Berlin using a snorkel. The ''DRV'' continued to offer the East German ''DTSB'' to play a rugby friendly, but this was always declined by the East. After a combined team of ''Lok'' and ''Post'' Berlin happened to play West German side Berliner SC in a tournament in Olomouc in 1985, a ban on participation in international tournaments with West German clubs was issued by the ''DTSB''.Post SV Berlin Rugby – Archiv
Chronik 30 Jahre – History of Post SV Berlin Rugby, accessed: 11 April 2010

A Rugby-Bundesliga was formed in 1971 to replace the previously existing regional championships. The hoped for increase in interest however did not materialise and rugby remains a minor sport in Germany, almost exclusively played by amateurs.

In 1989 a German women's national 15s team was founded, initially resorting under Germany's youth rugby organization.

With German reunification in 1990 a number of clubs from former East Germany joined the German league system.

The German Rugby Sports Association of the GDR was dissolved in November 1990 and the state associations of Saxony and Brandenburg with their 17 clubs registered with the DRV. This brought about a restructuring of the Rugby-Bundesliga and the introduction of a second division, 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga.

In 2000 the German Rugby Federation celebrated its centenary. Centenary celebrations included a banquet in the Heidelberg Castle and the hosting of the European leg of the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Heidelberg, in which the German team came close to upsetting Ireland, who had Gordon D'Arcy in their line-up. The tournament was won by the Welsh team, which featured Andy Marinos and Arwel Thomas.

The highlight of the Centenary season was the Centenary Match against the famous Barbarians. The Barbarians included a host of Welsh, English, Scottish, Irish and Australian internationals including Scott Hastings, Peter Stringer, Shaun Longstaff