Wuppertaler SV Borussia
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| Full name | Wuppertaler Sport-Verein e.V. |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | WSV, Die Löwen (The Lions) |
| Founded | 8 July 1954 |
| Ground | Stadion am Zoo |
| Capacity | 23,067 |
| Chairman | Alexander Eichner |
| Manager | Stefan Vollmerhausen |
| League | Regionalliga West (IV) |
| 2015–16 | Oberliga Niederrhein (V), 1st (promoted) |
Wuppertaler SV is a German association football club located in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. The city was founded in 1929 out of the union of a number of smaller towns including Elberfeld, Barmen, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg and Ronsdorf – each with its own football club. Wuppertal Sport Verein was formed in 1954 out of the merger TSG Vohwinkel and SSV Wuppertal and was later joined by Borussia Wuppertal to form the present day club. In addition to the football side, today's sports club includes departments for boxing, gymnastics, handball, and track and field.
TSG was active as a gymnastics club as early as 1880 while the roots of SSV go back to the 1904 establishment of the winter sports club Bergischer Wintersport-und SV 04 Elberfeld, which was known simply as SSV Elberfeld by 1905. This club took part in the early rounds of the national finals in 1930–31 and went on to play in the Gauliga Niederrhein, one of sixteen top-flight divisions formed in the 1933 re-organization of German football under the Third Reich, for two seasons in 1936–37 and 1937–38. The side was re-christened SSV 04 Wuppertal the following year and remained in the Gauliga another two seasons until relegated in 1940. They returned to first tier football in 1941 and earned a strong third-place finish, but left the division part way through the 1942–43 season because they were unable to continue to field a full side as a result of wartime manpower shortages.
After World War II, TSG Vohwinkel emerged as the stronger side and took up play in the first division Oberliga West in 1947 where they would compete until being relegated after a 14th-place finish in 1950.
Both clubs were part of the 2nd Oberliga West (II) through the early 1950s, SSV under the guidance of coach Fritz Szepan, one-time star of Schalke 04 which had dominated German football from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s. The union of the two associations that created "Wuppertaler SV" in 1954 paid almost immediate dividends as the combined side vaulted to the top and captured the division title in 1954–55. Wuppertals return to the Oberliga was less successful despite the presence of players such as rising star Horst Szymaniak and Austrian international Erich Probst. The club could not escape the lower half of the table and was relegated following a next-to-last place finish in 1958.
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