SV Sillenbuch (Germany)

SV Sillenbuch is a sports club with an amateur football club from the German city of Stuttgart, a few hundred kilometres from the headquarters of Stuttgarter Kickers. The club were formed in 1892, with the football section beginning in 1920.

Emil Kraemer made a pasture available to the club, who took on their green and white colours from 1926. The club struggled financially in the years up to and around World War Two, until it was re-structured in 1947 with Willi Senn as head of the football department.

In 1950 SV Sillenbuch moved into their new Spitalwald home, with improvement work to the pitch being carried out in subsequent years as the team prospered on the pitch. The turning point came in 1956 following the appointment of new coach Siegfried Boll who arrived from PSV Stuttgart.

Boll took the team to the championship of the B-Class as well as lifting the cup competition with victory over SV Heslach. Unfortunately Sillenbuch’s second season in the A Class ended in relegation under new coach Eberhardt.

Coaches came and went in the early 60’s as the city council installed a 400m running track around the pitch at Spitalwald. Further works were carried out under the guidance of general manager Dieter Benk. The 1964-65 season saw the team end as league runners up along with victory in the District Cup Final over Weil im Schönbuch.

In 1970-71 SVS just missed out on promotion to the top amateur league. Sadly as the decade progressed Sillenbuch hit a slump and found themselves back in the Kreisliga in 1980. Under Edgar Short the team returned to the Bezirksliga following the lifting of the Kreisliga B title as the club’s youth development came to the fore.

Despite a further relegation the club climbed back once more in 1989-90. As ever, the success was celebrated wildly with a trip away for the squad. Membership increased as teams were added as the club embarked on much community work.

On the 18^th June 1995 VfB Stuttgart visited Spitwald and attracted a crowd of 1,000 for a friendly game. The following season Sillenbuch reached the District Cup Final but went down 3-2 to ASV Botnang. This performance gave the club entry into the Württemberg Cup.

A new artificial pitch was installed at Spitwald in 1998 along with a brand new turf surface.

The club has sections for judo, boxing, handball, dancing, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, gymnastics as well as the football section. Sillenbuch promote fun for all their members.

The men’s first team were relegated from the Bezirksliga down to the Kreisliga in 2011, but they returned to the higher status within two years. The side looked for honours under the tuition of head coach Tim Schwab from 2014.

A fourteenth place finish in 2016-17 put Sillenbuch in the relegation play-offs where defeat to SV Vaihingen sent the club down to the ninth tier Kreisliga A 2. The goals of Luca Krieglstein helped Zvonimir Topalusic’s side win the title at the first attempt.

Back in the Bezirksliga, Sillenbuch finished sixth in 2018-19 before sitting in second place when the 2019-20 campaign was halted owing to the outbreak of Coronavirus. Louis Schmidt led the scoring but he and his team would have to wait and see if it was enough to secure a play-off game. 

SV Sillenbuch will play in the Bezirksliga Württemberg in the 2019-20 season.

My visit

Sunday 16^th August 2015

Although I had marked down a visit to Spitwald on my itinerary when I first left my hotel on a very wet Sunday morning, it was still in the balance. I’d gone back to get changed into dry clothes and was setting out for my afternoons entertainment in the Oberliga between Stuttgarter Kickers II and FC 08 Villingen.

As it turned out I arrived at Waldau station on the U7 tramline early so I stayed on for a couple of stops to Silberwald. Within a few minutes I’d walked up the footpath past some allotments to the gates of the ground.

A huge sports hall building was behind the near goal. The remnants of the old running track were down the near side touchline with a step of hard standing for spectators. A couple of attractively painted portable buildings in the club colours were just inside the gate. In all, it was a basic but neat venue with trees giving an enclosed feel around two sides.

I walked back to the tram and with ten minutes I was walking through the gates of my first game of the day.