Founded 1896, although the current name was started in 1911, through a merger of Mannheimer FG 1896, Mannheimer FG Union and FC Viktoria Mannheim. The highpoint of the club was undoubtedly winning the German Championship of 1949, when they defeated Borussia Dortmund 3-2 in front of 90,000 fans in Stuttgart's Neckarstadion.
The 1948-49 season will forever resound as the highpoint of VfR history, even if they ever do recover from the current problems. The previous season, they had finshed 7th in the Oberliga Süd, and weren't expected to be much of a threat. They surprised by finishing 2nd, despite being thrashed 0-7 at 3rd place Bayern München and even suffering a 0-5 pounding at nobodies VfB Mühlburg. They were also 11 points (on the 0-1-2 scale) behind winners Kickers Offenbach. So not much was expected in the playoffs. But things started out with a bang as they stunned Hamburger SV 5-0 in the quarterfinals, and then upset Offenbach 2-1 in the semis. The finals against Borussia Dortmund also started off badly, as VfR fell behind after only 5 minutes. Trailing 2-1, a rocket shot by Ernst Langlotz tied the match with 5 minutes, forcing overtime. Ernst Löttke got the winner, and VfR was the sensational champion. The next season, VfR could only finish 4th in the Oberliga, but as defending champion, still got a bid to playoffs. They again defeated Borussia Dortmund in the first round, but were then knocked out by worthless Preußen Dellbrück. The next season they finished only 12th in the league, and the decline had set in.
As a founding member of the Regionalliga, VfR had some decent results, but by the end of the 1960s, things were getting bad, and they pretty much remained at the amateur levels until the mid 1990s. (There was an unsuccessful 2.Liga sojourn in the mid 70s).
In 1998, membership spurned an offer from city rivals Waldhof for a merger. According to VfR, it basically meant being swallowed whole, and to their credit, they said "no thanks."
The 1998-99 season was hardly a success, although they were able to reverse the drastic collapse from the previous year. Then they surprised everybody by easily qualifying for the new combined Regionalliga. Despite average results on the field, the financial conditions continued to worsen, leading to a denial of license in 2002, followed by relegation in 2003 down to the 5th division. That season once again there was an attempted merger with Waldhof, which had also collapsed financially. However it also fell through. The club recovered back to the Oberliga on it's own for 2004.
Fullname | Verein für Rasenspiele e.V. Mannheim | ||||||||||||||||
City | Mannheim (Baden-Württemberg). Pop: 308,000 (2002). | ||||||||||||||||
Address |
Theodor-Heuss-Anlage 19, 68165 Mannheim Phone: (0621) 415430 e-mail: info@vfr-mannheim.de | ||||||||||||||||
Colors | Red jersey with white lettering. Black shorts, black socks. Also red-white-blue. | ||||||||||||||||
Nickname |
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Stadium |
Rhein-Neckar-Stadion. Capacity: 12,000 (3,000 seats) The stadium was built in 1971. | ||||||||||||||||
Tickets |
Easy to get. In the 1998-99 season, seemed like an average of 500 fans
showed up, although the derby against Waldhof drew 8,000.
Supporters |
| Friends |
|
Foes |
How could they not be enemies with city rivals Waldhof Mannheim?
| Heroes |
Josef "Sepp" Herberger was capped twice 1921-25, although he also
played for enemy Waldhof. Of course, he was more famous as long time DFB
coach. 5 other German internationals, but all pre-WWII. Obviously,
the team from 1949, especially Ernst
Löttke, who scored twice in the 1949 final.
| Zeroes |
Club management, which constantly seeks to merge with hated Waldhof.
| Beer |
|
Pub Grub |
| The Net |
An official page at
www.vfr-mannheim.de Sven Wolf runs a fanpage, www.vfr-fans.de , which
provides the "official" game reports and is more up-to-date.
| |
Recent History:
--------------
1963-64 (II) Regionalliga Süd 6th
1964-65 (II) Regionalliga Süd 6th
1965-66 (II) Regionalliga Süd 12th
1966-67 (II) Regionalliga Süd 5th
1967-68 (II) Regionalliga Süd 6th
1968-69 (II) Regionalliga Süd 14th
1969-70 (II) Regionalliga Süd 15th
1970-71 (II) Regionalliga Süd 16th
1971-72 (III) Amateurliga Nordbaden 5th
1972-73 (III) Amateurliga Nordbaden 1st
1973-74 (II) Regionalliga Süd 13th
1974-75 (II) 2.Bundesliga Süd 20th
1975-76 (III) Amateurliga Nordbaden 1st
1976-77 (III) Amateurliga Nordbaden 3rd
1977-78 (III) Amateurliga Nordbaden 4th
1978-79 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 6th
1979-80 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 7th
1980-81 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 9th
1981-82 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 4th
1982-83 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 5th
1983-84 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 5th
1984-85 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 2nd
1985-86 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 12th
1986-87 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 3rd
1987-88 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 5th
1988-89 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 13th
1989-90 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 11th
1990-91 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 9th
1991-92 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 10th
1992-93 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 4th
1993-94 (III) Am.Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 3rd
1994-95 (III) Regionalliga Süd 8th
1995-96 (III) Regionalliga Süd 2nd
1996-97 (III) Regionalliga Süd 7th
1997-98 (III) Regionalliga Süd 14th
1998-99 (III) Regionalliga Süd 10th
1999-00 (III) Regionalliga Süd 3rd
2000-01 (III) Regionalliga Süd 8th
2001-02 (III) Regionalliga Süd 9th
2002-03 (?) no first team fielded (?)
2003-04 (V) Verbandsliga Nordbaden 1st
2004-05 (IV) Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 12th
2005-06 (IV) Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 10th
2006-07 (IV) Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 15th
2007-08 (IV) Oberliga Baden-Württemberg
(c) Abseits Guide to Germany