Hamburger SV news from every source, in real time: today's stories, matches, table and fixtures, the club's official content and its history, from the 1983 European Cup triumph to six German national championships in HSV's history at the Volksparkstadion.
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Bayern MonacoV. (German: [ˈhambʊʁɡɐ ˈʃpɔʁtfɛɐ̯ˌʔaɪ̯n] ), commonly known as Hamburger SV (pronounced [ˈhambʊʁɡɐ ʔɛsˈfaʊ] ) or Hamburg (pronounced [ˈhambʊʁk] ), or HSV (pronounced [ˌhaːʔɛsˈfaʊ] ), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football department, which plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system.
Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three earlier clubs, it traces its origins to 29 September 1887 when the first of the predecessors, SC Germania, was founded.
HSV has won the German national championship six times, the DFB-Pokal three times and the former League Cup twice. The team's most successful period was from the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s when, in addition to several domestic honours, they won the 1976–77 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 1982–83 European Cup. The outstanding players of this period were Horst Hrubesch, Manfred Kaltz, and Felix Magath, all regulars in the West German national team. To date, HSV's last major trophy was the 1986–87 DFB-Pokal. Up until the 2017–18 Bundesliga season, which found the team relegated for the first time in history, HSV's football team had the distinction of being the only team that had played continuously in the top tier of the German football league system since the founding of the club at the end of World War I. It was subsequently the only team that had played in every season of the Bundesliga since its foundation in 1963.
HSV play their home games at the Volksparkstadion in Bahrenfeld, a western district of Hamburg. The club colours are officially blue, white and black but the home kit of the team is white jerseys and red shorts. The team's most common nickname is "die Rothosen" (the Red Shorts). As it is one of Germany's oldest clubs, it is also known as der Dinosaurier (the Dinosaur). HSV have rivalries with Werder Bremen, with whom they contest the Nordderby, and Hamburg-based FC St. Pauli, with whom they contest the Hamburg derby.
HSV is notable in football as a grassroots-oriented organisation which places strong emphasis on youth development. The club had a team in the Women's Bundesliga from 2003 to 2012 but it was demoted to Regionalliga level because of financial problems. Other club sections include badminton, baseball, basketball, bowling, boxing, cricket, darts, ice hockey, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, handball, and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation exercises. These sections represent about 10% of the club membership. HSV is one of the biggest sports clubs in Germany with over 84,000 members total in all its sections, and according to Forbes it is among the 20 largest football clubs in the world.
Early years
Hamburger Sport-Verein (HSV) traces its origin to the merger of Der Hohenfelder Sportclub and Wandsbek-Marienthaler Sportclub on 29 September 1887 to form Sport-Club Germania Hamburg, usually referred to as SC Germania. This was the first of three clubs that merged on 2 June 1919 to create HSV in its present form. HSV in its club statute recognises the founding of SC Germania as its own date of origin. The other two clubs in the June 1919 merger were Hamburger FC founded in 1888 and FC Falke Eppendorf dating back to 1906. The merger came about because the three clubs had been severely weakened by the impact of the First World War on manpower and finance, and they could not continue as separate entities.
SC Germania was formed originally as an athletics club, and did not begin to play football until 1891, when some Englishmen joined the club and introduced it. SC Germania had its first success in 1896, winning the Hamburg-Altona championship for the first of five times. Germania player Hans Nobiling emigrated to Brazil at the end of the 19th century, in the foundation of SC Internacional, the third oldest club of the country which became part of São Paulo FC, one of the major sports clubs of Brazil, in 1938 and SC Germânia of São Paulo, which later became EC Pinheiros.
Hamburger SC 1888 was founded by students on 1 June 1888. It later had links with a youth team called FC Viktoria 95 and, during World War I, was temporarily known as Viktoria Hamburg 88. SC Germania and Hamburger SC 1888 were among 86 clubs who founded the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB; German Football Association) in Leipzig on 28 January 1900. FC Falke was founded by students in Eppendorf on 5 March 1906, but it was never a successful team and played in lower leagues.
The newly formed Hamburger SV contested in the 1922 national final against 1. FC Nürnberg, who were playing for their third consecutive title. The game was called off on account of darkness after three hours and ten minutes of play, drawn at 2–2. The re-match also went into extra time, and in an era that did not allow for substitutions, that game was called off at 2–2 when Nuremberg were reduced to just seven players (two were injured, two had been sent off) and the referee ruled they could not continue. Considerable wrangling ensued over the decision. The DFB awarded the win to HSV, but urged them to refuse the title in the name of good sportsmanship (which they grudgingly did). Ultimately, the Viktoria trophy was not officially presented that year.
HSV's first success was achieved in the 1923 German football championship, when they won the national title against Union Oberschöneweide. They lost the title in 1924, losing the final to Nuremberg. They lifted the Viktoria again in 1928, when they defeated Hertha BSC 5–2 at the Altonaer Stadion in the final.
During the Third Reich, HSV had local success in the Gauliga Nordmark, also known as the Gauliga Hamburg, winning the league championship in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941 and 1945. At national level the club was unsuccessful, with semi-final losses in 1938 and 1939 their best performances in this period. Its main rival in the Gauliga in those years was Eimsbütteler TV.