Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a German football club based in

Aue-Bad Schlema Aue-Bad Schlema () is a town and a municipality in the Erzgebirgskreis, in Saxony, Germany. It was created with effect from 1 January 2019 by the merger of the former municipalities of Aue and Bad Schlema. Twin towns – sister cities Aue-Bad ...

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. Liga in 2008–09, after being relegated from the 2. Bundesliga in 2007–08. The city of Aue-Bad Schlema has a population of about 20,800, making it one of the smallest cities to ever host a club playing at the second highest level of German football. However, the team attracts supporters from a larger urban area that includes

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

and

Zwickau Zwickau (; ) is the fourth-largest city of Saxony, Germany, after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz, with around 88,000 inhabitants,. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ''Zwickauer Mulde''; progression: ), ...

, whose own football sides ( CFC and FSV) are among Aue's traditional rivals.

History

1945–1963: East Germany's dominant side

The club was founded as ''SG Aue'' in 1945, and on 1 November 1948 became ''BSG Pneumatik Aue'' under the sponsorship of the local construction tool works. Changes in sponsorship led to a change in name to ''BSG Zentra Wismut Aue '' in 1949 and then simply to ''BSG Wismut Aue'' in 1951. The club performed well, advancing through third- and second-tier play to the DDR-Oberliga in 1951. BSG Wismut Aue finished as national vice-champions in 1953 losing in a final to

SG Dynamo Dresden Sportgemeinschaft Dynamo Dresden e.V., commonly known as SG Dynamo Dresden or Dynamo Dresden, is a German association football club based in Dresden, Saxony.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon. Kasse ...

by a score of 2–3. The central sports association SV Wismut founded

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt in the nearby city of

– recently renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt – in 1954. The

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

government urged that Karl-Marx-Stadt deserved a quality football team and plans were made for the football department of BSG Wismut Aue to move to Karl-Marx-Stadt and be incorporated into the new sports club SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt. However, local miners protested and players threatened to strike, leading to a partial abandonment of the plan. The football department of BSG Wismut Aue was still delegated to ''SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt'', but the team would continue to play their matches at the Otto-Grotewohl-Stadion in Aue. It was during this time that the club became a dominant force in East German football. They won the 1955 East German Cup and followed it up with four

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 Allied-occupied G ...

titles in 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1959. They also competed in the 1959 East German Cup final, but lost 2–3 in a replay against

SC Dynamo Berlin The Sports Club Dynamo Berlin was an East German sports club that existed from 1954 to 1991. It was the largest sports club of SV Dynamo, the sports association of the security agencies. The club was reformed after German reunification and succe ...

, following the clubs' 0–0 draw in the final. Those successes led to ''Aues participation in the

European Champion Clubs' Cup The European Champion Clubs' Cup, also known as Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens, or simply the European Cup, is a trophy awarded annually by UEFA to the Association football, football club that wins the UEFA Champions League. The competiti ...

in 1958, 1959 and 1961.

1963–1991: With the DDR-Oberliga to the end

SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt merged with SC Motor Karl-Marx-Stadt to form SC Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1963. Since SC Motor Karl-Marx-Stadt had brought their own football department, the football department of SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt, once delegated from Aue, got back their independence and could be rejoined with BSG Wismut Aue. The team continued to enjoy modest success by staying up in the top-tier DDR-Oberliga, and, although it did not win another championship, it holds the record for the most games played by any team in that league. ''Aue'' sits 4th on the all-time DDR-Oberliga list and over the course of thirty-eight years played more games (1,019 matches) than any other East German side. Just behind them, 6th place Rot-Weiß Erfurt played 1,001 matches. BSG Wismut Aue also played in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

tournament in 1985–86 and 1987–88, going out in the first round against

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk Football Club Dnipro (, ) was a Ukrainian football club based in Dnipro. The club played its last season in the 2018–19 Ukrainian Amateur League. The club was owned by Ukrainian businessman Ihor Kolomoyskyi. In 2018, FC Dnipro was forced i ...

in their first appearance and in the second round against Albanian side ''

Flamurtari Vlorë Flamurtari Football Club is an Albanian professional football club based in Vlorë, Albania. The club plays in the Kategoria Superiore, which is the first tier of football in the country. Founded in 1923, the club is one of the oldest in Alba ...

'' in their second. After

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

in 1990, the club was renamed ''FC Wismut Aue'' before taking on its current name, ''FC Erzgebirge Aue'' in 1993. The name "Erzgebirge",

Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: ''Keilberg'') at ab ...

in English, recognizes that the club's home is located in the western part of these mountains. Aue was relegated to the

DDR-Liga The DDR-Liga (English: GDR League or ''East German League'') was, prior to German reunification in 1990, the second level of football competition in the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or German Democratic Republic, commonly East Germany), bei ...

Staffel B in the 1989–90 season, so it was admitted to 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 Ob ...

, which was the fourth tier of the German League between 1991 and 2008, in the 1991–92 season.

1991–2003: Playing in united Germany

In the combined football leagues of the newly united Germany, ''Aue'' began playing in the NOFV-Oberliga Süd (IV). They competed in the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

for the first time in 1992. With the establishment of the

Regionalliga Nordost The Regionalliga Nordost is the fourth tier of German football league system, German football in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. These comprise the states of former East Germany ...

(III) in 1994, Aue qualified for the new league. The club was moved to the

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord () is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regionalliga Bayern, Regionalliga N ...

in 2000, and after a surprising league title there in 2003, they were promoted to the 2. Bundesliga.

2003–present: 2. Bundesliga

Following a Regionalliga Nord title, Erzgebirge Aue were promoted to the 2. Bundesliga where they delivered mid-table performances in their first three seasons, but suffered relegation back to the third tier in 2008. Aue became part of the new

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

in the 2008 season. They finished runner-up in the league in their second season there, earning promotion back to the 2. Bundesliga. After a fifth-place finish in their first season back, the club struggled against relegation, finishing in the lower third of the table for the following few seasons. On 6 February 2015, in a 2–0 home victory against

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig or informally as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company ...

, Aue fans displayed two banners comparing RB Leipzig to

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 ...

. Aue were fined £25,000 for it and it was ruled that two blocks in their stadium be closed for 12 months. In the 2014–15 season, they were relegated back to the 3. Liga, only to be promoted back to the 2. Bundesliga the following season. The 2016–17 season saw Aue finish 14th, whilst they finished 16th in the 2017–18 season. They finished 14th in the 2018–19 season.

Reserve team

The second team side of ''Wismut Aue'' played in the DDR-Liga (II) through the first half of the 1970s and had a single season turn there in 1985–86. They also made more than a half dozen appearances in the early rounds of FDGB Pokal (East German Cup) play between 1968 and 1991. Since 2008 the club's reserve team, now the FC Erzgebirge Aue II, played in the tier five NOFV-Oberliga Süd with a fifth-place finish in 2014 as its best result. At the end of the 2014–15 season the team was withdrawn from competitive football despite finishing eighth in the league.NOFV-Oberliga Süd tables and results 1994–present

Fussballdaten.de fussballdaten.de is a German-language website that predominantly collects comprehensive statistics on the top five tiers of German football. The website offers statistics on every Bundesliga, 2. Bundesliga and 3. Liga The 3. Liga is a p ...

. Retrieved 24 February 2014 The team also made a losing appearance in the 1991 and 2007

Saxony Cup The Saxony Cup (''Sachsenpokal'') is a regional German association football, football competition established in 1991 for clubs from Saxony who play in the 3. Liga, Regionalliga Nordost, the NOFV-Oberliga, the Landesliga Sachsen (the Saxon League ...

final.

Recent seasons

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv
Historical German domestic league tablesFC Erzgebirge Aue at Fussball.de
Tables and results of all German football leagues ;Key

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Honours

League

: (as SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt) ** Winners:

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

1957 Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

** Winners of the transition championship:

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

: ** Runners-up: 2010, 2016 *

(III): ** Winners: 2003 *

(III): ** Runners-up: 1997

Cup

FDGB-Pokal The FDGB-Pokal (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund Pokal or Free German Trade Union Federation Cup) was an elimination football tournament held annually in East Germany. It was the second most important national title in East German football af ...

: (as SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt) ** Winners: 1954–55 ** Finalists: 1959 *

(Tiers III–VII): ** Winners: 2000, 2001, 2002,

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

** Runners-up: 1991^‡, 1998, 1999, 2007^‡, 2010,

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

* ^‡ Denotes achieved by reserve team.

Notable players

Internationals

Current staff

Coaching history

European record

as SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt

as BSG Wismut Aue

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aue, Fc Erzgebirge Football clubs in Germany Football clubs in East Germany Football clubs in Saxony Association football clubs established in 1946 Erzgebirge Aue, Fc 1946 establishments in Germany Works association football clubs in Germany Frauen-Bundesliga clubs 2. Bundesliga clubs 3. Liga clubs