SAMSTAG 15:30

Founded: Jul 23, 1921
Club Members: 700
Nickname: Die OldSchdod
Coach: TBC
Captain: Edwin Schwarz

Regionalliga Bavaria: 1

Website: www.spvgg-bayreuth.de

Every July, the elite of German society turn out for the gala opening of the Bayreuth Festival - Europe’s most exclusive arts ticket. Founded in 1876, the festival is limited to the operas of just one composer – Richard Wagner – and attendance is seen by legions of fans as a pilgrimage as much as a musical experience. So devoted are the Wagnerites that they will not only wait years for tickets, but also sit in seats without armrests, in a hot, badly ventilated auditorium, in rows without aisles and with no means of escape once the performance has started. And note that, with intervals, ‘Gotterdammerung’ lasts nearly seven hours.

The event has certainly put the small Bavarian city of Bayreuth (pronounced 'By-Royt') on the map; but away from the pomp, glamour and glory of Wagner's semi-religious music festival, the stage also looked set for SpVgg Bayreuth after the club finally ended a 40-year exile from professional football in 2022.

A virtual recluse of an entity having spent most of their history in the complicated lower league system of German football, they were formed in July 1921 when 20 members of a gymnastics association (TuSpo Bayreuth) gathered at the Bamberger Hof restaurant in Bayreuth to discuss forming their own club - FSVgg Bayreuth Altstadt - the precursor of today's SpVgg Bayreuth. The footballing gymnasts were joined by players from local club FC Stern in 1925 and after leasing a potato field on Jakobshöhe as a ground for 150 Reichsmarks  a year, they played in local championships - becoming Bayreuth-Hof district champions in 1931 and 1933 before the club was brought to a shuddering halt following the National Socialists' rise to power.

During the 19th-century, Germany was dominated by the ideals of discipline and order; and fervent patriots like Friedrich Ludwig Jahn organised gymnastic events across the country to counter 'the physical decline of humanity' following Prussia's defeat in the Napoleonic War. Sport became a highly politicised issue with strong nationalist overtones and football in particular was viewed by many as unpatriotic with players branded 'Traitors to the Fatherland'. As interest in the new English sport gained traction, a class division developed in German society and gymnasts began using their clout to persuade the authorities to drive away anyone who wanted to kick a leather ball about instead. In response, the 'Arbeiter Turn und Sportbund' (ATSB) was formed in 1893 as a workers' sports association that actively promoted interest in sports other than just gymnastics as well as leftist political views based around class struggle and nationalism. Weeks after coming to power, the Nazis ordered the ATSB and any other sports associations with left-leaning or faith-based affiliations, to be banned, dissolved and deleted from official records. And, having joined the ATSB in 1925, FSVgg Bayreuth Altstadt were forced to disband and form part of a new 'ideologically palatable' club called FSV Bayreuth made up of locally stationed soldiers which resulted in a constant change of lineup as they were transferred in and out of the area. 

The Allies brought Hitler's 'Thousand Year Reich' to an end in 1945 and introduced a policy of de-Nazification in occupied Germany which forced all sports clubs to disband. As football and dictatorship began to untangle themselves after the conflict, the club duly reformed on 4th November 1945 as 'SpVgg Bayreuth' and returned to action in the fifth-tier Bezirksklasse Bayreuth before winning promotion to the Bayernliga by lifting the Gruppenliga Oberfranken East championship in 1954. After becoming Bayernliga champions in 1959, Bayreuth then edged past VfR Pforzheim in a play-off to secure a berth in the second tier Oberliga Süd and, for good measure, also threw in a run to the final of the Bavarian Amateur championships that year where they beat Schwaben Augsburg to claim that title for the first time. Bayreuth spent the next three seasons in the second tier of German football and although they were never likely to have their name etched onto the Oberliga trophy; the goals of Fritz Semmelmann, Hans Zeus and Jumbo Zeitler helped the side achieve a very creditable fifth place finish in its first year before progress eventually tailed off and the club were relegated in 1962.

Having missed the cut when the German FA were deciding which sixteen clubs should form the new Bundesliga in 1963, Die OldSchdod  ('The Old Town' -as they’re referred to by locals) settled down to life in the third tier Amateurliga Bayern and after building up some momentum, a title win in 1969 saw them promoted to the Regionalliga Süd. Life back in the second tier of German football was a brief one however and after struggling to keep their heads above water for much of the season, it wasn't a surprise when they lost a relegation play-off match to ESV Ingolstadt to finally end any lingering notions they might have harboured of staying up.

In 1971, after a tour-de-force campaign during which they lost just twice and finished 15 points clear of second place SpVgg Weiden, Bayreuth were back and managed fourth (1973) and fifth (1974) place finishes before this small club nearly made the big time when they came within three matches of playing Bundesliga football. Top of the Regionalliga Süd table going into the penultimate match of the 1978-79 season, a ruinous home defeat by mid-table FSV Frankfurt opened the door for title rivals TSV 1860 München to claim the glory, and promotion, to the top-flight. As a grim addendum, Bayreuth then missed out on the Bundesliga for the second time in as many weeks when they went down 3-2 on aggregate to Bayer 05 Uerdingen in that season’s promotion/relegation play-off.

Despite the disappointment however, the club’s high-water mark was achieved the following season when Uwe Sommerer’s solitary strike sent a Bayern München team featuring the likes of Karl Heinz Rummenigge, Paul Breitner and Klaus Augenthaler tumbling out of the DFB-Pokal. Giants slain, Bayreuth progressed to the quarter-finals before Bundesliga heavyweights FC Schalke 04 were thrown in their path and beat the underdogs 3-1.

For Bayreuth, the win over Bayern was the final flourish of a golden period in their history and by the time the 70s had given way to the 80s, things were beginning to unravel. After relegation from Bundesliga.2 in 1982, the club bounced back under coach Erich Beer by winning the Oberliga title in 1985 but weakened by departures and without the appeal or funds to attract quality replacements, the first team soon became a mix of overpromoted hopefuls and underpowered journeymen. They would have been relegated in 1988 and 1989, but for the fact that Rot Weiß Oberhausen and then Kickers Offenbach were on the brink of financial ruin and had been demoted by the DFB instead. In the end, there are only so many times you can cheat fate if you repeatedly court disaster and there was no reprieve in 1990 as Bayreuth were relegated and went into a tailspin that saw them end up in the fifth tier Landesliga by 1997 and narrowly avoid bankruptcy themselves in 2008.

Recent years saw a return to form however and Die OldSchdod  finally returned to professional football in 2022 after outpacing Bayern München II to the Regionalliga Bayern title. Unfortunately, the adventure ended 12 months on with a last place finish and the Hans Walter Wild Stadion will again play host to fourth-tier football this season.