FC Concordia Wilhelmsruh is a German football club based in Berlin. The club was founded on 29 June 1895 as Concordia Berlin and was one of the founding members of the

German Football Association The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of t ...

in Leipzig in 1900. It is named after Concordia, the Roman goddess of unity.

History

In its early years the club moved between first and second division level play on the local city circuit and captured its first honors with a second division title in 1901. That advanced the club to the Oberliga Berlin where they played a single season before becoming part of the Berliner Meisterschaft, a competing first tier circuit. They returned to Oberliga play in 1911. The team twice appeared in Berliner-Pokal (Berlin Cup) play, being put out by

Weißenseer FC Weißenseer FC is a German football club from district of Weißensee in the city of Berlin. The club's roots go back its founding on 8 September 1900, while more recently it has been linked with ''Sportverein Prussia Berlin'' and '' Pankower F ...

in a 1910 semifinal match, and in 1929, being thrashed 11–0 by

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charl ...

in a quarterfinal contest. Concordia fell to amateur level play at the end of the 1911–12 campaign. They merged with an unnamed local side in 1924 to become ''Ballspiel-Club Concordia vom Jahre 1895''.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon. Kassel: Agon-Sportverlag. . The team remained a lower-tier side until after World War II in 1945. In the aftermath of the war Allied occupation authorities banned all existing organizations in Germany, including sports and football clubs. Concordia was re-established as ''SG Wilhelmsruh'' and resumed play in the

Amateurliga Berlin The Amateur-Oberliga Berlin was the second tier of the German football league system in the city of West Berlin in Germany from 1947 until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, operating under the name of Amateurliga Berlin. After 1963, it was ...

(II) in the 1947–48 season. The next year the club was renamed ''FC Concordia Wilhelmsruh'' and played two more seasons in the Amateurliga as a mid-table side. The burgeoning

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

that would divide the country into East and West Germany led to the formation of separate football leagues in the Soviet-occupied areas. Being based in what would become

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

, Concordia was ousted from the Amateurliga Berlin to play in the DDR-Liga (II) as SG Concordia Wilhelmsruh. They were immediately relegated to the Landesliga Berlin (III) after only a single season and a last place finish. The club then played third tier football until the mid-1950s when it slipped deeper into the amateur ranks, making only occasional and fleeting appearances in the Bezirksliga Berlin through the 1970s and 1980s. The club collapsed after

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

and was re-established in May 1992. Today the team fields a total of eighteen teams and emphasizes its youth sides. The men's team (I) played in the Bezirksliga Berlin (VIII) until 2015 when a league championship took it up to the Landesliga. It came last in its Landesliga division in 2015–16 and was relegated once more. Concordia was relegated even lower next season to the Kreisliga (IX).

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilhelmsruh, Fc Concordia Football clubs in Germany Football clubs in Berlin Football clubs in East Germany Association football clubs established in 1895 1895 establishments in Germany