VfL Herzlake is a German association football club from the village of

Herzlake Herzlake is a municipality in the Emsland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and t ...

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 ...

. In addition to a football department the club has sections for

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

, gymnastics, and volleyball. __TOC__

History

The club was established in 1921 as Fußball-Club Herzlake and in 1927 was renamed Deutsche Jugendkraft Grün-Weiß Hertzlake as part of the DJK-Sportverband, a nationwide sports organization sponsored by the Catholic Church. With the rise to power of the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

, faith-based and left-leaning worker's sports organizations were disbanded as politically unpalatable to the regime and the Herzlake club disappeared in 1934.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Vereinslexikon. Kassel: AGON Sportverlag The end of World War II and the collapse of the Third Reich saw many previously banned clubs re-established, including Herzlake, which was reformed as Verein für Leibesübungen Herzlake in 1946. The team enjoyed its first successes in local level play in the early 70s, advancing to the Landesliga Niedersachsen (V) in 1975, and from there in 1982 into the

Verbandsliga Niedersachsen 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 ...

(IV), where they won titles in 1985, 1987, and 1988. A successful promotion round playoff in 1988 advanced VfL to the

Oberliga Nord The Oberliga Nord was the fourth tier of the German football league system in the north of Germany. It covered the states of Lower Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. With the introduction of the 3. Liga, the league ceased to exist f ...

(III) where they were an unremarkable lower-tier side through their first four seasons of play. In 1993, they claimed the division title and took part in the promotion round for the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

but fared poorly. The team remained competitive through the mid-90s in what was now the Regionalliga Nord (III), before being renamed VfL Hasetal Herzlake in 1997. They spent two more seasons in the Regionalliga before finishing in the relegation zone at the end of the 1998–99 season. The poor financial condition of the club drove them all the way down to the Kreisliga Emsland (VIII) and they resumed the name VfL Herzlake. They slipped further still, to the Kreisklasse Weser/Ems (IX) in 2000, and recovered briefly to play in the Kreisliga and Bezirksliga before being relegated to the Kreisliga again in 2013, where they play today.

Honours

The club's honours: *

(IV) ** Champions: 1985, 1987, 1988 *

(III) ** Champions: 1993

References

External links

Official team siteDas deutsche Fußball-Archiv
historical German domestic league tables {{DEFAULTSORT:Herzlake, VfL Football clubs in Germany Football clubs in Lower Saxony Association football clubs established in 1921 1921 establishments in Germany