FSV Zwickau is a
German association football club located in
Zwickau
Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ...
, Saxony. Today's club claims as part of its complex heritage sides that were
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
's first champions: 1948 Ostzone winners SG Planitz and 1950
DDR-Oberliga
The DDR-Oberliga (English: ''East German Premier League'' or ''GDR Premier League'') was the top-level association football league in East Germany.
Overview
Following World War II, separate sports competitions emerged in the occupied eastern ...
champions ZSG Horch Zwickau.
History
In addition to the earliest East German championship sides, current day club FSV Zwickau can name a long list of other local associations among its predecessors.
Planitzer Sportclub
Fußball-Club Planitz was established 27 April 1912 in a village of that name located south of Zwickau. On 28 August that year the team adopted the name Planitzer Sportclub and in 1918 was briefly known as Sportvereinigung Planitz, before again becoming SC on 2 February 1919. The club's first notable appearance was in the playoffs of the regional Mitteldeutschland (Central German) league in 1931 that saw them advance as far as the semi-finals.
Under the Nazis, German football was reorganized in 1933 into sixteen top-flight divisions known as Gauligen. Planitz played in the
Gauliga Sachsen where they struggled early on, but improved steadily until in the early 1940s they regularly duelled rivals
Dresdner SC
Dresdner Sportclub 1898 e.V., known simply as Dresdner SC, is a German multisport club playing in Dresden, Saxony. Founded on 30 April 1898, the club was a founding member of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fussball Bund) in 1900. The ...
for the division title, taking the prize in 1942. They advanced to the national level quarter finals where they were put out 2–3 by eventual vice-champions
Vienna Wien. Through the late 1930s and early 1940s, Dresdner made several early round appearances in play for the Tschammerpokal, predecessor of today's
DFB-Pokal
The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...
(German Cup).
Ostzone winners in divided Germany

In the aftermath of World War II most German organizations, including sports and football clubs, were dissolved by the occupying Allied authorities. In 1945, the club became part of Sportgruppe Planitz, an association made up of several area clubs. Football competition quickly resumed throughout the country and ''SG'' emerged as champions of the
Soviet-controlled Ostzone (East Zone) through a 1:0 victory over
SG Freiimfelde Halle on 4 July 1948 in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
. The club was scheduled to represent the eastern region of the country in the national playoffs in a preliminary round match versus
1. FC Nürnberg, but were denied permission to travel to Stuttgart to play the match as a result of early
Cold War tensions between the Soviets and the
Western Allies. Nürnberg went on to claim the national title in a playoff staged under the authority of the
German Football Association
The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of Association football, football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system ...
(Deutscher Fußball Bund) and made up entirely of Westzonen (Western Zones) teams. The following year Planitz had a poor season and failed to qualify for the playoffs.
In 1950 the club became part of BSG Aktivist Steinkohle Zwickau another postwar side which had been formed 14 June 1949. Sometime in 1951 part of this club broke away to become BSG Fortschritt Planitz which would in 1990 re-adopt the name SV Planitz. The remainder of Aktivist Steinkohle Zwickau was re-christened BSG Aktivist Karl-Marx Zwickau.
BSG Aktivist Karl-Marx Zwickau
This club also claimed the 1948 Ostzone champions as part of its lineage. They slipped to lower level local competition until re-appearing in the third tier 2. DDR-Liga, Staffel 4 in 1958. They captured that division in 1962 were promoted to the DDR-Liga, Staffel Süd (II). After a string of undistinguished campaigns, they became part of BSG Motor Zwickau in 1968 which was renamed BSG Sachsenring Zwickau on 1 May that year.
East Germany's first champions
Like many other teams in Soviet-occupied East Germany, Planitz would undergo a number of name changes associating the club with the "socialist work force" in various sectors of the economy in a commonly used propaganda device. They were renamed ZSG Horch Zwickau in 1949 and became part of East Germany's new top-flight circuit, the
DDR-Oberliga
The DDR-Oberliga (English: ''East German Premier League'' or ''GDR Premier League'') was the top-level association football league in East Germany.
Overview
Following World War II, separate sports competitions emerged in the occupied eastern ...
, for the inaugural 1949–50 season. They emerged as the league's first champions with a disputed victory over
Dresden Friedrichstadt on the last day of the season.
The unfortunate Dresdners had run afoul of communist authorities which regarded the club as being too
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. Th ...
. Zwickau played a viciously physical game and, abetted by the referee who refused the homeside substitutions and eventually reduced Friedrichstadt to an 8-man squad, "won" the match 5–1. Unhappy Dresden Friedrichstadt fans invaded the field several times, and at game's end, badly beat a Zwickau player. Mounted police were called in to restore order. Within weeks the Dresden side was dismantled and the players scattered to other teams: most eventually fled to the west, many to play for
Hertha Berlin
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 Charlo ...
. What occurred in this match foreshadowed what would become commonplace in East German football as highly placed politicians or bureaucrats manipulated clubs and matches for various purposes.
ZSG merged with BSG Aktivist Steinkohle Zwickau (established 14 June 1949) in 1950 becoming Betriebbsportgemeinschaft Horch Zwickau. In 1951 the club was re-christened BSG Aktivist Karl-Marx Zwickau. They remained competitive through the early 1950s but were unable to claim another national championship as in the following decades they settled into the role of a mid- or lower-table side. Zwickau enjoyed a measure of success in play for the
FDGB-Pokal, or East German Cup. After a losing cup final appearance in 1954 they enjoyed victories in 1963, 1967, and 1975.
In 1968 the club merged with BSG Aktivist Karl Marx Zwickau to become BSG Sachsenring Zwickau. They finally took on their current name in 1990.
Internationally, the club had a good
European Cup Winners Cup run in season 1975–76, advancing to the semi-finals with wins over
Panathinaikos,
AC Fiorentina, and
Celtic F.C. before going out against eventual cup winner
RSC Anderlecht
; french: Les Mauves et Blancs)
, short name = R.S.C.A.
, founded =
, ground = Constant Vanden Stock Stadium
, capacity = 22,500
, owntitle = Chairman
, owner = Wouter Vandenhaute
, manager = Brian Riemer
, ...
. By the early 1980s they had descended to play in the second tier DDR-Liga, making just intermittent re-appearances in the DDR-Oberliga.
German re-unification
After
German re-unification in 1990 the club found itself in the
NOFV-Oberliga Süd
The NOFV-Oberliga Süd is the fifth tier of the German football league system in the southern states of the former East Germany. It covers the German states of Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Saxony and southern Brandenburg. It is one of fourteen Oberl ...
(III) and in 1994 won promotion to the
2. Bundesliga where they would play four seasons. The team then descended through the third division to play in the fourth tier NOFV-Oberliga Süd. Financial problems in 2005 saw ''Zwickau'' sent down to the
Landesliga Sachsen (V), but a successful campaign in 2005–06 earned them promotion yet again to the Oberliga. After six NOFV-Oberliga seasons the club won the league in 2012 and earned promotion to the reformed tier four
Regionalliga Nordost
The Regionalliga Nordost is the fourth tier of German football in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. These comprise the states of former East Germany as well as West Berlin.
It ...
where it was playing as an upper table side till 2015–16 season.
[Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv]
Historical German domestic league tables[FSV Zwickau at Fussball.de]
Tables and results of all German football leagues Zwickau crowned as champion of Regionalliga Nordost and faced with
SV Elversberg
SpVgg 07 Elversberg is a Football in Germany, German association football club, located in Spiesen-Elversberg, Saarland.
History
The club was founded in 1907 as ''FC Germania Elversberg''. It was dissolved in 1914, but then re-constituted in 19 ...
, 2nd of Regionalliga Südwest at promotion play-offs. Zwickau won playoffs with 2–1 aggregate and returned third level after 16 years in 2015–16 season.
Honours
*Championship of the Eastern Zone
**Winners:
1948
Events January
* January 1
** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect.
** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...
*
DDR-Oberliga
The DDR-Oberliga (English: ''East German Premier League'' or ''GDR Premier League'') was the top-level association football league in East Germany.
Overview
Following World War II, separate sports competitions emerged in the occupied eastern ...
:
**Winners:
1949–50
*
FDGB-Pokal:
**Winners:
1962–63,
1966–67,
1974–75
*
Gauliga Sachsen:
**Winners: 1942
*
Regionalliga Nordost
The Regionalliga Nordost is the fourth tier of German football in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. These comprise the states of former East Germany as well as West Berlin.
It ...
(IV):
**Winners:
2015–16
*
NOFV-Oberliga Süd
The NOFV-Oberliga Süd is the fifth tier of the German football league system in the southern states of the former East Germany. It covers the German states of Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Saxony and southern Brandenburg. It is one of fourteen Oberl ...
(V):
**Winners: 1991–92, 1993–94, 2011–12
*
Landesliga Sachsen (VI):
**Winners: 2005–06
Players
Current squad
Notable players
*
Jürgen Croy
Jürgen Croy (born 19 October 1946) is a former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He made 86 appearances for the German Democratic Republic national team.
Club career
Born in Zwickau, Germany, Croy spent his entire footballing career at ...
, one of the greatest
East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
goalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...
s of all time, spent 17 seasons at Zwickau until retiring in 1981, and then went on to coach the club from 1984 to 1988
*
Heinz Satrapa
The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six contin ...
won the DDR-Oberliga scoring title as part of the 1950 championship side before going on to enjoy a long career as a player and coach with various clubs
*
Dwayne De Rosario was a successful player in
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...
and is
Canada's leading goal scorer internationally.
*
Olegs Karavajevs
Managers
FSV Zwickau in Europa
Recent seasons
The recent season-by-season performance of the club:
* With the introduction of the
Regionalliga
The Regionalliga () is the fourth tier in the German football league system. Until 1974, it was the second tier in Germany. In 1994, it was introduced as the third tier. Upon the creation of the new nationwide 3. Liga in 2008, it became the fourt ...
s in 1994 and the
3. Liga in 2008 as the new third tier, below the
2. Bundesliga, all leagues below dropped one tier.
;Key
Stadium

Since
2016, the club plays in the newly constructed GGZ-Arena in Zwickau's Eckersbach quarter. The stadium's current maximum capacity is 10,000 spectators, though this number could be increased to 15,000 in the event of a promotion to the
2. Bundesliga.
References
External links
*
The Abseits Guide to German Soccer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zwickau, Fsv
Football clubs in Germany
Football clubs in East Germany
Football clubs in Saxony
Association football clubs established in 1912
Zwickau
1912 establishments in Germany
2. Bundesliga clubs
3. Liga clubs