1. FC Bamberg

The 1. FC Bamberg was a German association football club from the town of Bamberg, Bavaria.

1. FC Bamberg
Full name1. Fußball-Club Bamberg 1901 e.V.
Founded3 March 1901
GroundHauptkampfbahn
LeagueMerged
Current nameFC Eintracht Bamberg

In 2006, the club merged with TSV Eintracht Bamberg to form 1. FC Eintracht Bamberg. 1. FC Eintracht went bankrupt in 2010 and a new club was formed, FC Eintracht Bamberg 2010.[1]

1. FC had spent a number of seasons at top level in German football but, by the time of the merger, had fallen to an existence in the fifth and sixth division of German football. The new club briefly rose to tier-four Regionalliga Süd, dropped back to the Bayernliga before rising to the new Regionalliga Bayern again.

History

1901–45

1. FC Bamberg, formed in 1901, made its first division debut in 1910, when it earned promotion to the Ostkreisliga, a statewide football league in Bavaria, where it played against the strongest Bavarian clubs at the time, 1. FC Nürnberg, FC Bayern Munich and SpVgg Fürth. 1. FC lasted for two seasons at this level, coming ninth in the league on both occasions and being relegated in 1912.[2]

The club returned to the Bavarian first division, now renamed the Kreisliga Bayern and divided into a northern and a southern division, after the First World War, in 1919.[3] After struggling for the first two seasons, it profited after 1921 from a further split of the league, now into four regional divisions, and came fourth in 1922 and 1923.[4] Nevertheless, in 1923, when the league was renamed to Bezirksliga Bayern and reorganised into a single division once more, 1. FC did not qualify and was unable to return to top level football for almost 20 years.[5]

It was not until the Second World War that the club made a return to top-flight football, when it earned promotion to the northern division of the Gauliga Bayern, which had replaced the Bezirksliga in 1933.[6] Bamberg had its greatest season in 1943–44, when it finished runners-up in its division, three points behind 1. FC Nuremberg.[7] The following season was never completed because of the effects of the war.

1945–63

Post-war football saw the club being grouped in the second division Landesliga Bayern in 1945, a league the club won, earning promotion to the Oberliga Süd.[8] The following season marked the team's last-ever in top-flight, coming 18th out of 20 clubs and being relegated once more in 1947.[9] In the Landesliga, now sub-divided into two regional divisions, 1. FC won another championship but missed out on promotion when it lost to southern champions BC Augsburg, drawing at home and losing 1–4 in Augsburg.[10] Bamberg won another title in the Landesliga in 1950, now in a single division again, but failed to gain promotion, missing out to Hesse champions SV Darmstadt 98.[11] Instead, the side, along with four other Bavarian clubs, gained entry to the newly formed second division, the 2nd Oberliga Süd.[12]

In the new league, Bamberg never performed particularly well, with the exception of 1952–53, when the side came third, four points behind a promotion rank.[13] While it narrowly avoided relegation in 1955, the season after the side went down after coming last in the league.[14] The club took out two division titles in the northern group of the Amateurliga Bayern in 1957 and 1958, followed up by Bavarian championship wins over southern division winners FC Penzberg[15] and FC Wacker München.[16] It remained winless in the promotion round to the 2nd Oberliga in 1957, when Amicitia Viernheim and Borussia Fulda were promoted instead,[17] but was luckier the following year and earned promotion alongside VfB Friedberg from Hesse.[18] The team lasted for two seasons in the second division and made a permanent farewell from the league in 1960, when it once more came last.[19]

Bamberg remained a strong side in the Amateurliga, coming second and fifth in the years after relegation, with a final league title in 1963. It was unable however to crown the season with the Bavarian championship, missing out to TSV Straubing in three games. Additionally, because of the reorganisation of the German league system with the introduction of the Bundesliga, no promotion was available.[20] For the club, it was the end of an era, it was never again able to repeat past performances.

In the era from 1961 to 1967, Bamberg's Dieter Zettelmaier was capped twenty times for the German amateur team, scoring 13 goals for the team.[21] Zettelmaier, an outstanding goal scorer, was also top scorer of the Bayernliga from 1961 to 1963 and once more in 1966.[22][23]

1963–2006

1. FC qualified to play in the new single division third tier Bayernliga, which was established in 1963, but results from now on were poor. In 1967, the club suffered relegation to the fourth division the Landesliga Bayern-Nord,[24] and it took until 1975 to make a return to Bavaria's highest league. The club became a predominantly mid-table side in the Landesliga from then on.[25] A brief stint in the Bayernliga in 1975–76 was followed by another five Landesliga seasons. Another title in this league, in 1981, however returned the side to the Bayernliga.[25] It spent five seasons at this level, with a seventh place in the first one as its best result, but another relegation followed in 1986. The club was not to return to this level either after that.[20]

Bambergs return to the Landesliga was an unlucky one, the club finished 15th and was relegated even further down, now to the Bezirksliga.[25] Difficult years followed for the club, playing for a season in the Bezirksliga, gaining entry to the new Bezirksoberliga Oberfranken in 1988,[26] and making a brief return for two seasons to the Landesliga from 1992 to 1994.[25]

In 1997, the side finally made a permanent return to the Landesliga, which it would play in for the next nine seasons, until the merger. In this era, two second places, in 2004 and 2006, were its best result, the later allowing the club to earn promotion back to the Bayernliga through the promotion round, but then under a new name.[25] The club's promotion-clinching 2–0 victory against Freier TuS Regensburg in Schwabach on 13 June was to become the side's last competitive game under the old name and identity.[27]

The new club retained most of the old club's logo which depicts the Bamberg Horseman.

Honours

The club's honours:

Youth

Final seasons

The final seasons' performances of the club since 1999:[28][29]

Year Division Tier Position
1999–2000 Landesliga Bayern-Nord V 4th
2000–01 Landesliga Bayern-Nord 6th
2001–02 Landesliga Bayern-Nord 6th
2002–03 Landesliga Bayern-Nord 4th
2003–04 Landesliga Bayern-Nord 2nd
2004–05 Landesliga Bayern-Nord 4th
2005–06 Landesliga Bayern-Nord 2nd ↑

Key
↑ Promoted ↓ Relegated

Basketball

The club operated a successful basketball department for many years before it became independent as what is now the Brose Baskets Bamberg. The team shared the football departments rivalry to local neighbour Bayreuth, in the form of SpVgg Bayreuth in football and BBC Bayreuth in basketball.[30]

References
  1. Historie der FC Eintracht Bamberg 2010 e.V. (in German) FC Eintracht Bamberg 2010 website – Club history, accessed: 18 July 2011
  2. Hyll, p. 40
  3. Hyll, p. 62
  4. Hyll, p. 68
  5. Hyll, p. 72
  6. Hyll, p. 132
  7. Hyll, p. 135
  8. Hyll, p. 142
  9. Hyll, p. 144
  10. Die Bayernliga 1945–97, p. 14
  11. Die Deutsche Liga-Chronik 1945–2005, p. I 39
  12. Die Bayernliga 1945–97, p. 19
  13. Hyll, p. 170
  14. Hyll, p. 184
  15. Die Bayernliga 1945–97, p. 36
  16. Die Bayernliga 1945–97, p. 39
  17. Die Deutsche Liga-Chronik 1945–2005, p. I 40
  18. Die Deutsche Liga-Chronik 1945–2005, p. I 41
  19. Hyll, p. 201
  20. Die Bayernliga 1945–97, p. 54
  21. kicker Almanach 1990, p. 132
  22. 50 Jahre Bayerischer Fussball-Verband, p. 206
  23. 50 Jahre Bayerischer Fussball-Verband, p. 211
  24. Die Bayernliga 1945–97, p. 148
  25. Landesliga Bayern-Nord tables and results Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Manfreds Fussball Archiv, accessed: 18 July 2011
  26. Bezirksoberliga Oberfranken tables and results Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Manfreds Fussball Archiv, accessed: 18 July 2011
  27. Die Deutsche Liga Chronik seit 1945, p. I 147
  28. Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv (in German) Historical German domestic league tables
  29. Fussball.de – Ergebnisse (in German) Tables and results of all German football leagues
  30. Spitzen-Basketball in Bayern: Bayreuth gehörte zum Establishment (in German) Bayerischer Rundfunk, published: 7 July 2011, accessed: 18 July 2011

Sources
  • Die Bayernliga 1945–97 (in German) DSFS, published: 1998
  • Süddeutschlands Fussball in Tabellenform 1897 – 1988, by Ludolf Hyll
  • Die Deutsche Liga-Chronik 1945–2005 (in German) History of German football from 1945 to 2005 in tables, publisher: DSFS, published: 2006
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