KS Gedania Danzig was an ethnically-Polish association football club that was part of German football competition in the inter-war period. It was formed in 1922 in what was at the time the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...

(present day

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

). Banned by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

in 1939, the club re-emerged following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and is active today as '' Gedania 1922 Gdańsk''. __TOC__

History

In 1920, following

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Danzig and environs were separated from Germany through the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

, becoming an autonomous city-state under a

League of Nations mandate A League of Nations mandate represented a legal status under international law for specific territories following World War I, involving the transfer of control from one nation to another. These mandates served as legal documents establishing th ...

. ''Gedania'' was founded as a sports club 15 September 1922 out of the gymnastics club ''Towarzystwo Gimnastyczne Sokół'' (Falcon Gymnastics Society). Initially the club was to be named ''Polonia'', however, local authorities opposed the idea, so the name ''Gedania'', a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

ized version of the name of the city, was used instead. In 1931, the football department of the club was founded and just two years later, in 1933, the club was competing in Germany's

Gauliga Ostpreußen The Gauliga Ostpreußen was the highest football league in the Prussian province of East Prussia (German: Ostpreußen) and the Free City of Danzig from 1933 to 1945. Shortly after the formation of the league, the Nazis reorganised the administrati ...

, one of sixteen top flight divisions formed in the re-organization of the country's football competition under the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. The team enjoyed only moderate success, finishing second in what had become the Gauliga Danzig (I), a regional division of the Gauliga Ostpreußen, in 1936–37 and 1937–38, before delivering poor performances in the playoff round of the combined Gauliga Ostpreußen in both seasons. The ethnically-Polish side was regarded as politically unpalatable to the Nazi regime and was disbanded on 31 August 1939, on the eve of

, which began with the German

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

. The club's sporting equipment was destroyed while trophies, awards and the club chronicle were all stolen or taken away. Some of the team's facilities were used by the German military sports club '' LSV Danzig'' during the war. Following the war, the club was re-established as ''Gedania Gdańsk'', and currently plays in the regional league Gdańsk I. The club also has sections for

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 ...

and

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

External links

Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv
historical German domestic league tables

(en: Football in East Prussia and Danzig)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Danzig, Gedania History of Gdańsk Football clubs in Gdańsk Association football clubs established in 1922 Association football clubs disestablished in 1939 1922 establishments in Germany 1922 establishments in Poland Defunct football clubs in Germany Defunct football clubs in Poland Polish association football clubs outside Poland Germany–Poland sports relations Free City of Danzig