SC Hakoah Vienna (; ' means "the strength" in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

) is a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

sports club in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. Prior to World War II, it produced several Olympic athletes and was notable for fielding an entirely Jewish

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

team with players drawn from across Europe. Closed by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

in 1938 following the ', it re-formed in 1945, though its football team was disbanded in 1949.

History

1909–1919

A pair of

Zionists Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the Jewish people, pursued through the colonization of Palestine, a region roughly cor ...

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

librettist (') Fritz "Beda" Löhner and dentist Ignaz Herman Körner as well as some others founded the club in 1909. Influenced by

Max Nordau Max Simon Nordau (born Simon Maximilian Südfeld; 29 July 1849 – 23 January 1923) was a Hungarian Zionism, Zionist leader, physician, author, and Social criticism, social critic. He was a co-founder of the Zionist Organization together with Theo ...

's doctrine of "

Muscular Judaism Muscular Judaism () is a term coined by Max Nordau in his speech at the Second Zionist Congress held in Basel on August 28, 1898. In his speech, he spoke about the need to design the " new Jew" and reject the " old Jew", with the mental and physi ...

" (), they named the club "Hakoah" (), meaning "the strength" or "the power" in

. In its first year, the club's athletes competed in

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

, football,

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

track & field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and ...

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

and swimming. Hakoah Vienna was one of the first football teams to market themselves globally by travelling frequently where they would attract thousands of Jewish fans to their matches against local teams in cities such as London and New York. Support for Hakoah spread around Europe rapidly as Jews as far as Russia and the United States avidly supported Hakoah Vienna who took advantage of such support by setting up very successful tours and friendlies. As the first "Jewish" team, Hakoah attracted the attention of prominent Jewish figures including author

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

. In the offseason, Hakoah traveled around the world marketing their success. However, instead of selling jerseys and other merchandise, Hakoah sold

Zionism Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

. In preparation for their visits, they sent promoters ahead of the team in order to generate buzz and attract Jewish fans. Hakoah was not new to the notion of global tours; the organization's other teams, like swimming and wrestling had already traveled around the world and won a collection of medals. However, the team did often face anti-Semitism during its world travels. The club created an unconventional form of security, having the Hakoah wrestling team accompany them and act as their personal bodyguards.

1920s

From 1922 Hakoah leased a sports ground in the Vienna Prater park. The facilities included an athletics track, a sports stadium, football and handball pitches with seating for 25,000 spectators, tennis courts, a jumping pit, hockey field, cloakrooms and showers, a dining area, and groundkeeper's accommodation. Hakoah finished second in the Austrian League in 1922.

Béla Guttmann Béla Guttmann (; 27 January 1899 – 28 August 1981) was a Hungarian footballer and coach. He was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, and was Jewish. He was deported by the Nazis to a Nazi slave labor camp where he was tortured; he survived the ...

played for the team as their

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

from 1922 to 1926 and in 1933.Joseph Siegman (2020)
''Jewish Sports Legends; The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame''
/ref> Following a tour of the United States, Guttmann, who was Hakoah's most prominent player, and several of his teammates decided to stay on in the US.Gabriel Kuhn (2011)
''Soccer Vs. the State; Tackling Football and Radical Politics''
/ref> In the 1920s footballer Max Scheuer played for and captained Hakoah Vienna. David Bolchover (2017)
''The Greatest Comeback: From Genocide To Football Glory; The Story of Béla Guttman''
/ref> With the team he won the Austrian championship in the 1924–25 Austrian First League season, the first professional Austrian football title. In 1927, he and the team came to the United States to play the Bethlehem Steel Football Club, defending U.S. champion and 1926-27 champion of the American Soccer League. During

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, Scheuer was sent to

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

in Poland, where he was killed in the early 1940s. Scheuer was one of at least seven Hakoah footballers killed in the Holocaust.Kevin E. Simpson (2016)
''Soccer Under the Swastika; Stories of Survival and Resistance During the Holocaust''
/ref> Others were Josef Kolisch, Ali Schönfeld, Oskar Grasgrün, Ernst Horowitz, and the brothers Erwin Pollak and Oskar Pollak. On the team's trip to London in 1923, they defeated

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

by a score of 5–1, admittedly against a largely reserve team. Nevertheless, Hakoah became the first continental club to defeat an English team in England. Hakoah Vienna 1925

In a dramatic game of the 1924–25 season, Hakoah's Hungarian-born goalkeeper Alexander Fabian broke his arm. The rules at the time did not allow substitutions so Fabian put his arm in a sling and switched positions with a forward. Seven minutes later Fabian scored the winning goal, clinching Hakoah's league championship. In 1926, the team conducted a highly successful tour of the United States. Their game at New York City's

Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 to 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built for the ...

attracted 46,000 spectators, a record at the time. Many of the team's players, impressed by the relative lack of

anti-Semitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

they found, decided to stay in the United States, accepting offers to play for American clubs. Several of these players formed a club called New York Hakoah which won the

National Challenge Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States. It is the country's oldest ongoing national soccer competition. The competition was first held duri ...

in 1929.

1930s

A few players emigrated to Mandate Palestine and founded Hakoah Tel Aviv football club there. The loss of so many talented players effectively put an end to the Austrian football team's competitiveness. The athletic club's success extended beyond the football pitch. Hakoah had highly successful sections in

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

, athletics and swimming with the club producing several Olympic athletes, especially in women's swimming. The club had its own orchestra and organised balls and other social events. At its pre-war peak, the club had over 8000 members. ''

Watermarks A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations i ...

'', a 2004 documentary film, tells the story of the Hakoah women's swim team with historical footage from the 1930s and contemporary interviews with surviving team members. President of the club from 1928 to 1938 was David (known as Dezsö) Herbst, who was the husband of Austria's tennis champion

Liesl Herbst Liesl Herbst (8 November 1903 – 25 February 1990) was an Austrian tennis player. Biography Liesl Herbst (née Westreich) was born on 8 November 1903 in the town of Jägerndorf (now called Krnov) in Silesia where her family owned the Gessler di ...

. He wrote in the celebratory Festschrift (brochure) on the 25th anniversary of the club in 1934: "In the days of our forefathers, we Jews have completely forgotten the old and true words in the education of our children: Mens sana in corpore sano! We only thought that the new generation should be educated, we neglected what today the whole world recognises as the only proper educational principle: to make our bodies strong." By the 1930s Hakoah Vienna was on the receiving end of hatred stirred up by Hitler, and had to travel to matches with their wrestlers as bodyguards. Three days after the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

, the shared club base of Hakoah Sports Club, Hakoah Tourism and Ski Club and the Hakoah Swimming Club at the Viennese Cafe Atlashof, was shut down, with the club assets and stadium seized. The official dissolution of the sports club was administered in the political department IV Ac by the Liquidation Commissioner of the Nazi party. Dezsö Herbst did most of the official work with the Liquidation Commissioner. On 31 March 1938 the liquidator ordered the club to declare and transfer its assets. After the transfer, the final phase of the 'development' of Hakoah began. On 16 November 1938, the Liquidation Commissioner sent an application to the Board of the Vienna Police Directorate for a raid on Hakoah Sports Club. After the ' of 1938, the

German Football Association The German Football Association ( ; DFB ) is the governing body of Association football, football, futsal, and beach soccer in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and ...

banned the club and nullified their games. Their stadium was appropriated and given to the

Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

Since 1945

In 1945 the club was founded again and exists today. The football team, which played in the second division of the Austrian championship after World War II, became defunct in 1949. In 2000, the Jewish community of Vienna purchased the club's old fields within Prater park for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

10 million with the intention of building a new community center. As of 2006, the club had about 400 members and its football team plays in Austria's minor leagues under the name SC Maccabi Wien. The club opened its new home on 11 March 2008.Jewish club reopens in Vienna 70 years after Nazis seized it
Haaretz, 11 March 2008

Former players

:''Source'' * Walter Beer *

Karl Duldig Karl (Karol) Duldig (29 December 1902 – 11 August 1986) was a Jewish sculptor. Born in Poland, he and his family fled Vienna in 1938 following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, eventually settling in Australia. As a sculptor, he was i ...

(1902–1986) *

József Eisenhoffer József Eisenhoffer (8 November 1900 – 13 February 1945), also known as József Aczél, was a Hungarian footballer. He could play equally well as an inside or outside left as well as left half. Eisenhoffer played professionally in Hungary, ...

(1900–1945) * Sandor Fabian * Otto Fischer (1901–1941) * Richard Fried *

Max Gold Max Gold (born Vienna, Austria; died Tehran, Iran) was an early twentieth century Austrian football (soccer) defender (football), right full back who played professionally in Austria and the United States. He also earned two cap (sports), caps wi ...

(1900–1961) * Jozsef Grunfeld *

Max Grünwald Max Grünwald (born in Austria) was an early twentieth century Austrian football (soccer) inside forward who played professionally in Austria and the United States. Club career Grünwald joined Hakoah Vienna in 1920. In 1926, Hakoah toured the U ...

(1899–1981) * Moritz Häusler (1901–1951) * "Fuss" Heinrich * Alois Hess (1903–1956) * Norbert Katz (1900–1979) * Alexander Nemes-Neufeld (1899–1977) * Egon Pollak (1898–1981) * Samuel Posaner * Benno Posaner * Max Scheuer (1895–1941) * Yochanan Schey * Alfred Schönfeld *

Heinrich Schönfeld Heinrich Schönfeld (3 August 1900 – 3 September 1976) was an Austrian footballer who played as a forward, and football manager. Club career Nicknamed "Beppo", Schönfeld was born in Kolozsvár, Austria-Hungary, and was Jewish. He made his ...

(1900–1976) *

Ernő Schwarz Ernő Schwarz or Schwarcz (7 March 1902 – 19 June 1977) was a Hungarian American soccer player, coach and promoter who served as head coach of the United States men's national soccer team. He played professionally in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, ...

(1902–1977) * Joseph Stross * Jacob Wagner * Max Wortmann * Siegfried Wortmann (1907–1951)

Selected former managers

:1932–33

Honours

* Austrian Championship titles: 1 ** 1924–25 * 2. Klasse A/II. Liga titles: 2 **1919–20, 1928–29

References

*
"Hakoah-Vienna"
in the

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (IJSHOF) () is the international hall of fame for Jewish athletes and special contributors to the world of sport. The purpose of the IJSHOF is to honor Jewish individuals, worldwide, who have accompli ...

* ''

Encyclopaedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a multi-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Israel. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, Jewish holida ...

External links

Official
in German and English. * {{Authority control Sports clubs and teams established in 1909 Association football clubs established in 1909 Jewish football clubs Defunct football clubs in Austria Sports clubs and teams disestablished in 1938 Association football clubs disestablished in 1938 Hakoah sport clubs Football clubs in Vienna Leopoldstadt Sports clubs banned by the Nazis Jews and Judaism in Vienna 1909 establishments in Austria 1938 disestablishments in Austria