Full name | Fußballsportverein Frankfurt 1899 e.V. |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | Bornheimer |
Founded | 20 August 1899 |
Ground | Frankfurter Volksbank Stadion |
Capacity | 12,542 |
Chairman | Julius Rosenthal |
Manager | Gino Lettieri |
League | 3. Liga |
2015–16 | 2. Bundesliga, 17th (relegated) |
Website | Club home page |
Fußballsportverein Frankfurt 1899 e.V., commonly known as simply FSV Frankfurt, is a German association football club based in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt am Main, Hesse and founded in 1899. The club plays in the shadow of larger and much more successful Eintracht Frankfurt. FSV Frankfurt also fielded a highly successful women's team, which was disbanded in 2006.
The club was one of the founding members of the Nordkreis-Liga in 1909, when football started to become more organised in Southern Germany. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, this league came to a halt but a championship for the region was still held, which FSV won in 1917.
After the war, the club became part of the Kreisliga Nordmain, which it managed to win in 1922–23, qualifying for the Southern German championship, where it finished last out of five teams.
The pinnacle of the team's achievement was a losing appearance in the 1925 national final, 0–1 to 1. FC Nuremberg, and the capture of a German amateur title in 1972 in a 2–1 victory over TSV Marl-Hüls. The club contested the final of the 1938 Tschammerpokal, predecessor of today's DFB-Pokal, but was beaten 1–3 by Rapid Vienna.
The club played in the Bezirksliga Main, then the Bezirksliga Main-Hessen throughout the 1920s and 1930s. After capturing the championship of the VSFV (Verband Süddeutscher Fussball Vereine or Federation of South German Football Clubs) in 1933, FSV went on to play in the Gauliga Südwest, one of sixteen top-flight divisions formed that same year in the re-organization of German football in the Third Reich. They consistently earned mid-table results there with the club's best finish being second place in 1939. In 1941 the Gauliga Hessen was split into the Gauliga Westmark and the Gauliga Hessen-Nassau with FSV playing in the latter division. The team finished a close second to Kickers Offenbach in 1943 and in 1944 merged briefly with SG Eintracht Frankfurt to play as the wartime side KSG (Kriegspielgemeinschaft) Frankfurt. The following season the Gauliga collapsed with the advance of Allied armies into Germany as World War II drew to a close.