THE
BLUMENTHALER SV

HONOUR. STRENGTH. COURAGE.

The Blumenthal SV is a football club from the northernmost part of Bremen, founded in 1919.
Its first men’s football team has been playing in the fifth-class Bremen-Liga since its promotion in 2005.
With eleven Bremen national championship titles, the club was for a long time the record champion of Bremen’s highest division.
Moreover, the club won eight times the Bremen Cup.

History

From the foundation to its ban (1912 to 1933).
Although 1919 is seen as the year of its foundation, the roots of the Blumenthal SV reach back to the year 1912.
At that time, some pupils founded the Blumenthal Spiel und Sport Club, which became the Blumenthaler FV a few weeks later.
They used the sports field at the Forsthaus.
After the First World War, the club split up. At the general meeting on 30 May 1919,
a dispute arose between the proletarian-minded and bourgeois members of the association.
The proletarians wanted to join the SPD-affiliated Arbeiter-Turn- und Sportbund (ATSB), while the other side wanted to remain in the DFB.
On June 6th, 1919, the workers founded the Blumenthal SV which joined the ATSB.
The remaining members of the Blumenthal SV merged with Vegesacker SV to form SpVgg Vegesack-Blumenthal, which became SG Aumund-Vegesack after the Second World War.

During the 1920s, Blumenthaler SV earned the name of “Forsthaus-Elf” because of its home strength.
The supporters were mainly recruited from among the workers of the Bremen Vulkan shipyard and the Bremen wool combing works.
In sporting terms, the team quickly caught up with the leading teams in the region.
The sporting highlight was the 1931/32 season, when Blumenthal first won the district championship against a team from Hildesheim.
Thus qualified for the German Workers’ Championship, the “Forsthaus-Elf” advanced to the semi-finals via FTSV Kiel-Ost and Spielverein Oberkaufungen.
There, the Blumenthalers lost 1:4 to the eventual champions TSV Nürnberg-Ost.

One year later, the National Socialists took the power in the German Reich and banned the Workers’ Sports Movement
Since there was no bourgeois club in the north of Bremen that could have taken over the sporting position, BSV was spontaneously saved.
The saving was, however, linked to three conditions.
The club had to switch to the DFB, change its name and start again in the Kreisklasse.
As a result of a similar process, the ATV Bremerhaven became the Bremerhaven 93 club a few kilometres down the Weser.

The ASV Blumenthal (1933 to 1947)

Despite the demotion, the “Forsthaus-Elf” stayed together and reached the Bezirksklasse in 1936 after two promotions in a row.
There, the team secured the league title, but failed to win against VfL Osnabrück in the promotion round to the Lower Saxony Gau League.
Shortly afterwards, Borussia Harburg and Wilhelmsburg 09 were transferred to the Gauliga Nordmark and an additional qualifying round was scheduled.
After winning 5:0 over the 1.
SC Göttingen, the ASV made the Gauliga promotion perfect. Despite a 0:12 defeat at Hannover 96, the Blumenthalers easily managed to stay in the league.

A year later, the team seemed to have already been relegated when they picked up seven points from the last four games of the season and managed to stay in the relegation zone.
In 1940, the “Forsthaus-Elf” caused a sensation in the Tschammerpokal, the predecessor of today’s DFB Cup, when they defeated Hamburger SV 3:1 in the first round.
The end came one round later after a clear 0:5 at the Dresden SC.
Two years later, the ASV only remained in the first class thanks to the dissolution of the Lower Saxony Gau League.

During the season, there was a 0:14 at Wilhelmshaven 05.
In the 1942/43 season, there was even a 0:25 defeat at the same opponent in the now so-called Gauliga Weser-Ems.
One year later, the Blumenthalers won the vice championship.
After the end of the war, ASV became Bremen’s runner-up in 1946 behind SV Werder, who were defeated 3:0 during the season.
After the season of 1946/47, the club took up its traditional name Blumenthaler SV again.

Championships without promotion (1947 to 1974)

From 1947 on, the BSV played in Bremen’s highest amateur league.
Although the team was one of the top clubs in the league, it regularly failed getting the promotion round to the upper divisions
as well to the Regionalliga Nord.
In 1950, the “Forsthaus-Elf” secured the first Bremen championship, but failed in the promotion round after defeats at TSV Goslar 08 and Altona 93.
A year later, the team was already out of the promotion race after two initial defeats.

In the meantime, BSV had moved to the Burgwall Stadium and, after winning their third championship in 1952, they were able to score their only promotion round points in the meaningless last match against VfB Oldenburg.
After a few modest years in the midfield of the table, the team won its fourth Bremen championship in 1959.
Once again, the team missed out on the promotion to the top division.
Three years later, a renowned coach was hired in Erich Hänel, who led his team to its fifth championship in 1964.
In the promotion round, BSV remained without winning points.
In the following season, the club made numerous high-profile and expensive additions, but at the end of the season, the Blumenthalers were only runners-up.
Further years of mediocrity followed before, from 1969 onwards, under coach Wolfgang Bolz, more emphasis was placed on the club’s own young talent.

Three years later, BSV clinched championship number six and missed out on the class leap with a 3-3 draw against Schleswig 06 on the last matchday of the promotion round.
One year later, the Blumenthalers lost out to VfL Pinneberg in the promotion round.
In 1974, the third-class Oberliga Nord was introduced, for which the Bremen champion would automatically qualify.
The final matchday saw a showdown between league leaders Bremer SV and second-placed Blumenthaler SV, who finished one point behind.
The latter won 3-0 in front of 8,000 spectators and moved into the top division.

Between top and club league (1974 to 1993)

The Blumenthalers started successfully in the Northern top division.
In the 1974/75 season, the team finished seventh, and a year later it was good enough for eighth place.
At the same time, BSV made several appearances in the DFB Cup.
1974, the team lost in the first round in front of 6,000 spectators to the MSV Duisburg with 1-3.
A year later, Blumenthal first defeated Hertha Zehlendorf 1-0 and then lost 1-5 to 1.
FC Kaiserslautern. In 1977, the first round saw a derby against Werder Bremen, who won 5-1 in front of 5,500 spectators.
In the 1976/77 Oberliga season, however, BSV finished third last.
Since two northern clubs, VfL Wolfsburg and Göttingen 05, were relegated from the 2. Bundesliga and only one North German club, Bremerhaven 93, was promoted, the Blumenthalers had to drop down to the Bremen Verbandsliga.

In the following season, BSV first lost in the first DFB Cup round with 1-2 after extra time to the amateurs of Fortuna Düsseldorf and missed out on the championship after a 2-3 defeat at VfB Lehe. This was achieved a year later with a much-rejuvenated team, before a 1-1 draw with direct rivals VfR Neumünster even led to promotion back to the top division.
However, the team was overtaxed there in the 1979/80 season and finished
last in the table from the 13th matchday.
Both sportingly and financially, difficult times dawned in Blumenthal. In 1983, a fundraising campaign saved the club from bankruptcy.
Five years later, coach Horst Blankenburg led BSV’s A-youth team into the Junior-Oberliga (upper league) Nord.
One year later, various talents switched to the first team.
It secured, in the year 1989, the tenth Bremen championship.
In the promotion round, however, the team lost the final two matches and remained in the fourth division.
One year later, it was only enough for the vice-championship behind OT Bremen.
A sporting slump followed, which led to relegation from the Bremen Verbandsliga (club league) in 1993.

Elevator era (since 1993)

In the 1993/94 season, the team was even relegated to the district league.
There, the club rallied once again.
After three promotions in a row, BSV reached the fourth-class Oberliga Niedersachsen/Bremen in 1997.
However, this league was too big for BSV, who were immediately relegated to last place in the table with 104 goals conceded.
After two relegations in a row, the Blumenthalers were back in the Bezirksliga (district league) in 2002.
Since 2005, BSV has again belonged to Bremen’s highest league after two promotions in a row.

In 2010, the B-youth team was promoted to the Regionalliga Nord under long-time coach Torsten Hennecke.
However, under the coaching team of Klaus Rose and Michele Lapenna, the succeeding younger players were relegated straight back to the Bremen Verbandsliga
In 2011, Hennecke’s team was promoted to the A-Junioren Regionalliga Nord and, on the last match day, managed to stay in the second highest German youth division.
In 2012, the Ü-32 Old Men’s Team won the 7. German Old Men’s Super-Cup and thus the unofficial German championship.
The Blumenthaler SV has been playing its matches in the Burgwall Stadium, which is designed for a maximum of 10,000 spectators, since 1951.

Literatur

Hardy Grüne: Legendäre Fußballvereine – Norddeutschland. AGON-Sportverlag, Kassel 2004, ISBN 3-89784-223-8, S. 18.

(Quelle: wikipedia.de)