SpVgg ASCO Königsberg was a German association football club from the city of

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was na ...

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label= Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1 ...

(now

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

). The club was formed in 1919 out of the merger of ''Sportclub Ostpreußen 1902 Königsberg'' and ''Akademischer Sportclub Königsberg''.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Vereinslexikon. Kassel: AGON Sportverlag It played at the Hammerteich-Sportplatz in

Ratshof Ratshof and the Pregel River from the south. View of the Pregel from the west. Ratshof is in the lower left, Contienen in the lower right, and the 1920s-era docks are the upper right Ratshof or Rathshof was a suburban quarter of western Königs ...

. __TOC__

History

Sportclub Ostpreußen 1902 Königsberg

Predecessor ''Ostpreußen'' was formed 1 August 1902, by former '' Königsberg FC'' player Alfred Hirsch and seven of his teammates. The club selected colors and a crest based on symbols of the province: a black eagle on a white background. They were based in the district of Maraunenhof and played their earliest matches against their former parent side, but always came out as losers in those contests. By 1904, several members of the new club had in turn moved on to form '' Sportzirkel Samland''. On 3 September 1904, ''SCO'' was a founding member of the city-based Verbandes Königsberger Ballspiel-Vereine and Hirsch served as the new league's first secretary. The following year the club formed an ice hockey department. Future partner ''Akademischer Sportclub Königsberg'' was established in April and the two clubs quickly struck up a friendly relationship, agreeing to share training facilities. ''SCO'' shared similarly friendly relations with other clubs, including ''

SV 05 Elbing SV, Sv, sv, etc. may refer to: Places and language * El Salvador, ISO 3166-1 country code SV * South Vietnam, an extinct state * Svalbard, Norway, FIPS country code SV * Swedish language, ISO 639-1 language code sv * Silicon Valley, a region in n ...

'', organized by former ''Ostpreußen'' member Paul Unruh, while ''SC Prussia Insterburg'' was regarded as a sister club. ''SCO'' marked its first ever win over longtime rival ''FC'', now playing as ''VfB Königsberg'', in 1913 (3–1). During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, the club's sporting activities were suspended and its sports field requisitioned by the military as a training area. ''SCO'' had considerable debt at the end of the war and the club's existence was in question. It was decided to merge with ''ASC'' at a meeting held 20 June 1919.

Akademischer Sportclub Königsberg

''ASC'' was established on 15 April 1905 by students of Albertina University and grew quickly with departments for athletics, gymnastics, swimming, rowing, and several other sports. By 1906, the club was sharing sports facilities with ''SCO'' and later developed a similar relationship with ''

SV Prussia-Samland Königsberg SV Prussia-Samland Königsberg was a German association football club from the city of Königsberg, East Prussia (today Kaliningrad, Russia). The club was founded in early 1904 as ''Fußball-Club Prussia Königsberg'' and in 1908 merged wit ...

''. In the following years, ''ASC'' was very active in organizing sporting events in the city.

Spielvereinigung Akademischer Sportclub Ostpreußen Königsberg

Following the merger, the combined side remained active in several sports. The footballers of ''ASCO'' played three seasons (1936–38) in the Bezirk Königsberg, a division of the

Gauliga Ostpreußen The Gauliga Ostpreußen was the highest football league in the Prussian province of East Prussia (German: Ostpreußen) and the Free City of Danzig from 1933 to 1945. Shortly after the formation of the league, the Nazis reorganised the administrat ...

, one of Germany's top-flight regional leagues. ''SpVgg'' earned successively poorer results in each campaign and was finally relegated in 1938 with the reorganization of the Gauliga the next season. The club's sporting activities were again suspended due to war when Königsberg was subject to bombing beginning in August 1944. ''ASCO'' disappeared in 1945 following the end of World War II when the city was annexed by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and renamed

. However, the tradition of the club was carried on in West Germany with ''Traditionsgemeinschaft der Leichtathleten aus den deutschen Ostgebieten'', an organization established by refugees from the country's former German territories in Central and Eastern Europe.

References

Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv
historical German domestic league tables

(en:Football in East Prussia and Danzig) {{DEFAULTSORT:Konigsberg, ASCO Football clubs in Germany Defunct football clubs in former German territories Sport in Königsberg Association football clubs established in 1919 Association football clubs disestablished in 1945