SV Ratibor was a German association football club from the city of Ratibor,

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located ...

(today

Racibórz Racibórz (german: Ratibor, cz, Ratiboř, szl, Racibōrz) is a city in Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland. It is the administrative seat of Racibórz County. With Opole, Racibórz is one of the historic capitals of Upper Silesia, being t ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

). It was the first football club established in Upper Silesia and remained active until 1945. The club was established in 1903 by Fritz Seidl as ''Fußball Club Ratibor'' and in 1906 became part of the Upper Silesian division (Bezirk Oberschlesien) of the Southeast German Football Association. In 1911, the team took on the name ''Sportvereinigung Ratibor''.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Vereinslexikon. Kassel: AGON Sportverlag During the interwar period, ''Ratibor'' was in and out of regional first class competition with their best result coming as a second-place finish in 1931. In 1933, German football was reorganized 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 top-flight divisions and ''Ratibor'' became part of the

Gauliga Schlesien The Gauliga Schlesien was the highest football league in the region of Silesia (German:''Schlesien''), which consisted of the Prussian provinces of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia from 1933 to 1945. Shortly after the formation of the league, the ...

. ''SVs best finish (4th) came in the 1933–34 season, and just three campaigns later the team was relegated. They made a single appearance in the Tschammerpokal tournament, predecessor to today's

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

(German Cup), in 1937. ''Ratibor'' returned to first division play in 1938 and later withdrew after playing just four matches of the 1939–40 Gauliga Oberschlesien (I) season when they could not field a team due to lack of players. The team disappeared with the end of World War II.

References

Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv
historical German domestic league tables Football clubs in Germany Defunct football clubs in Germany Association football clubs established in 1903 Defunct football clubs in former German territories 1903 establishments in Germany Association football clubs disestablished in 1945 1945 disestablishments in Germany 1945 disestablishments in Poland {{Germany-footyclub-stub