Empor Lauter
| Full name | Fußballclub Hansa Rostock e. V. |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Hansa, Hanseaten, Kogge, Hansa-Kogge, Ostseestädter |
| Founded | 28 December 1965 |
| Ground | Ostseestadion, Rostock |
| Capacity | 29,000 |
| Chairman | Robert Marien |
| Manager | Pavel Dotchev |
| League | 3. Liga |
| 2016–17 | 15th |
F.C. Hansa Rostock [ʔɛf ˈt͡seː ˈhanza ˈʁɔstɔk] is a German association football club based in the city of , Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the former East Germany and have made several appearances in the top-flight Bundesliga.
After being in the Bundesliga for ten years, from 1995 to 2005, Rostock faces a steady decline. In 2012, the club was relegated to the 3. Liga for the second time and is now playing there for the fifth consecutive season.
The club was established on 1 November 1954 as the multi-sport Sportclub Empor Rostock. The football squad, however, could not be recruited from local Betriebssportgemeinschaften like the squad of the handball section, so a transfer of BSG Empor Lauter's squad from Lauter to Rostock was considered. The area around Lauter, near the Czech border, was well represented in East German football by competitive sides including Wismut Aue, Fortschritt Meerane and Motor Zwickau, so politician Karl Mewis ordered the reassignment of the footballers of Empor Lauter, over the futile protests of the team's local supporters, to Rostock. This was not an uncommon occurrence in East German football, as clubs were regularly renamed, re-structured, dismantled or shuffled from city to city at the direction of well-placed communist officials.
The wholesale transfer of the Lauterers to Rostock part way through the 1954–55 season led to the disappearance of that association from play. A new club was formed in 1956 as BSG Motor Lauter and on 1 August 1990, it took up the tradition of the original side to play as Lauterer Sportverein Viktoria 1913.
Hansa Rostock drew an average home attendance of 11,433 in the 2016-17 3. Liga, the third-highest in the league.
Newly formed SC Empor Rostock took the place of the former Lauter-based club in first division play in November 1954. They finished second the next season, but in 1956 plunged to 14th place and were relegated. They quickly bounced back, rejoining the DDR-Oberliga in 1958, before going on to become a very competitive side with a series of three vice-championships to their credit from 1962–1964, as well as several appearances in the final of the FDGB Pokal. The re-organization of East German sports in 1965 led to the association's football department becoming independent as Fußball Club Hansa Rostock, which was designated as one of the country's 11 focus clubs intended to groom talent for the development of a strong East Germany national team. The new club's name acknowledged Rostock's history as one of the major trading centres of northern Europe's Hanseatic League.
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