SV Babelsberg 03 is a German association football club based in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

Babelsberg Babelsberg () is the largest quarter of Potsdam, the capital city of the German state of Brandenburg. The neighbourhood is named after a small hill on the Havel river. It is the location of Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Palaces and Park ...

, on the outskirts of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. The team was founded as ''Sport-Club Jugendkraft 1903'' and again as ''SG Karl-Marx Babelsberg'' in 1948 as successor to the pre-war side SpVgg Potsdam 03.

History

Playing as ''SV Nowawes'' the team gained promotion in 1935 to the first tier Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg, one of sixteen top flight divisions formed in the re-organization of German football under the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. The club was relegated after just three seasons at that level never finishing better than eighth in their ten team division. The club returned to the Gauliga as ''SpVgg Potsdam'' in 1943 and earned third- and fourth-place finishes in the two years before the end of World War II.

Postwar play in East Germany

Following the war, occupying Allied authorities ordered the dissolution of all organizations in the country, including sports and football associations. The former membership of ''SpVgg'' was re-organized as ''SG Karl Marx Babelsberg'' in 1948 in the Soviet-occupied eastern half of the country. On 1 August 1949, they merged with the local club ''SG Drewitz'' and the following year were renamed ''BSG Motor Babelsberg''. The side was a perennial second division team in

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

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 ...

with the exception of short spells in the third tier in 1968–71, 1972–73, and 1980–81. The club's record in league matches and in regular

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 ...

(East German Cup) tournament appearances was undistinguished. Just prior to

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 ...

the team suffered relegation from the second division.

Post-unification

On 10 December 1991 ''Motor'' adopted the name ''Sportverein Babelsberg 03''. They remained a lower division side in the united Germany until breaking through to the

NOFV-Oberliga Nord The NOFV-Oberliga Nord is the fifth tier of the German football league system in the northern states of the former East Germany and West Berlin. It covers the States of Germany, German states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania a ...

(IV) in 1996. The team's budget increased tenfold in the period from 1996 to 1999. They immediately captured the league title there and won promotion to 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). A second-place finish in 2001 in what had become the Regionalliga Nord (III) advanced the club to the 2. Bundesliga. ''SV'' also played its first

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 ...

(German Cup) matches in 2000 and 2001, but was eliminated in the early rounds. ''Babelsberg's'' time in the second division was a short one. They finished at the bottom of the table and by 2003–04 had fallen back to the Oberliga (IV). The club declared bankruptcy in 2003 but managed to continue playing through the adoption of a creditor supported bankruptcy plan. ''SV'' fielded strong sides and achieved several top three finishes until they were promoted 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 ...

(III) for the 2007–08 campaign. In 2009–10 season Babelsberg were promoted back to the

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 ...

after finishing champions of the Regionalliga Nord. After three seasons at this level the club was relegated again in 2013 and now plays in the Regionalliga Nordost again.Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv
Historical German domestic league tablesSV Babelsbergs 03 at Fussball.de
Tables and results of all German football leagues

Supporters

''Filmstadt Inferno 99'' are the clubs ultras group. The fanatics stand in the North part of the stadium. The supporters hold

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

and

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

political views. As a result, they have strong friendships with

St. Pauli St. Pauli (Sankt Pauli; ) is a quarter of the city of Hamburg belonging to the centrally located Hamburg-Mitte borough. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the nearby Landungsbrücken is a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. Pau ...

and

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

. They also had a strong friendship with

Partizan Minsk FC Partizan Minsk (also FK Partyzan Minsk, ) was a Belarusian association football, football club based in Minsk. History The club was founded as MTZ-RIPO Minsk (MTZ-RIPA, ) in 2002 as a merger of two Minsk teams from the Belarusian Second Le ...

, but this was discontinued after the club was disbanded. Babelsberg 03 have a fierce rivalry with nearby club

Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the German reunification, reunificatio ...

, a faction of whose supporters hold

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

political views.

Honours

The club's honours: * Bezirksliga Potsdam (III) ** Champions: 1973 * Bezirksliga Potsdam-Süd (III) ** Champions: 1981 *

Verbandsliga Brandenburg The Brandenburg-Liga (VI) (''formerly the Verbandsliga Brandenburg'') is the highest league for football teams exclusively in the German state of Brandenburg and at step six of the German football league system. Until the introduction of the 3. Lig ...

(V) ** Champions: 1996 *

(IV) ** Champions: 1997, 2007 *

(III-IV) ** Champions: 2010 ** Runners-up: 2001 *

Brandenburg Cup The Brandenburgischer Landespokal (), known as the ''AOK-Landespokal Brandenburg'' for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football cup competition, held by the (). It is one of the 21 regional cup competitions in Germany. The record winners of t ...

** Winners: 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011,

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 ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

** Runners-up: 2001, 2005, 2012,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

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 ...

Current squad

References

External links

Official website
*
Ultras website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Babelsberg, SV Football clubs in Germany Football clubs in East Germany Football clubs in Brandenburg Sport in Potsdam Association football clubs established in 1903 1903 establishments in Germany Works association football clubs in Germany 2. Bundesliga clubs 3. Liga clubs