1. FC Pforzheim
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| Full name | 1. Fußball Club Pforzheim 1896 e.V. |
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| Nickname(s) | der Club |
| Founded | 5 May 1896 |
| Dissolved | 30 June 2010 |
| Ground | Stadion im Brötzinger Tal |
| Capacity | 10,000 |
1. FC Pforzheim was a German association football club playing in Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg. The club was established on 5 May 1896 and was a founding member of the German Football Association in Leipzig in 1900. In 2010 it merged with VfR Pforzheim to 1. CfR Pforzheim.
The club enjoyed most of its success in its early years. In 1906 they captured the championship of the Süddeutschland Verband (South German League) by beating Karlsruher FV, one of the era's most prominent sides. This put Pforzheim into the national playoff rounds where they defeated favoured side Cologne FC 99 4–2 in a quarter final match, before eliminating defending champions Berlin TuFC Union 4–0 in the semi-finals. With the win the club advanced to the final in Nuremberg where they lost a 1–2 decision to VfB Leipzig.
Pforzheim slipped to become a mid-table side until narrowly missing a chance to play in the playoff rounds of the Süddeutschland Verband in both 1913 and 1914: tied for first place, they finished second in both seasons on goal differential. World War I disrupted play in the country for several years and Pforzheim fell out of top-flight competition. They returned to, at first, the Kreisliga Südwest and then the Bezirksliga Württemberg-Baden in the early 20s before being relegated in 1926, and then earning their re-promotion in 1929.
In 1933 German football was reorganized under the Third Reich into sixteen first division Gauligen. 1. FC Pforzheim played in the Gauliga Baden through to 1944 with their best results coming as second place finishes in 1936, 1938, and 1939. The club narrowly missed relegation in 1941 escaping only through the collapse of FC Birkenfeld. Play in the Gauliga Baden was disrupted and then ended in the 1944–45 season by the advance of Allied armies into Germany towards the end of World War II.
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