Teutonia Ottensen 05 (Germany)

FC Teutonia Ottensen of 1905 eV, is an amateur football club that was formed in 1905 in the Ottensen district of Altona in Hamburg in northern Germany. Ten original members formed the club in a beer hall. Members of the recently dissolved FC Hammonia Hamburg also joined Tuetonia.

Interest grew as the club entered the North German Football Association, moving to their first home on Hogendeldweg in 1910. The team played 1. Klasse football between 1921 and 1924 and then between 1926 and 1928 before joining the Alsterkreisliga.

Some seasons were spent in the Elbekreisliga which was of the same level. Teutonia merged with Ottensen 07 during World War Two playing in local football prior to climbing to Verbandsliga Elbe which was one of many second tier divisions of national football at the time after promotion in 1946-47.

The league was retitled Amateurliga Hamburg with Teutonia finishing third in Elbestaffel in 1949-50 prior to the competition being streamlined into one division from which the team was relegated in 1951-52 to the Bezirklsliga.

A further relegation came in 1955-56 before dropping right down to the Unterklassigkeit, before re-emerging once again and working their way back to the sixth tier Landesliga. The club were making an appeal to have an artificial surface installed at the Gottfried Tönsfeld Sportplatz.

Interest grew as the club entered the North German Football Association, moving to their first home; Hogen in 1910. After a couple of spells in the areas top level, they joined the Alster District League in 1928. Teutonia merged with Ottensen 07 during World War Two playing in local football.

The club dropped right down to the Unterklassigkeit, before re-emerging once again and working their way back to the sixth tier Landesliga. The club were making an appeal to have an artificial surface installed at their Holy Cross Church ground, officially called the Gottfried Tönsfeld Sportplatz. 

This would enable their excellent work in developing youth sides would be rewarded and compliment the new changing rooms and clubhouse.

In Landesliga Hammonia, Teutonia finished seventh in 2004-05 before climbing to fifth the following season. Two seasons of mid table endings ensued prior to thirteenth in 2008-09. The team made amends in 2019-10 with a much improved fifth place.

A couple of seasons of mid table followed before the team ended 2012-13 a bit too close for comfort at the wrong end of the table which was repeated the following season prior to a slight improvement in 2014-15.

Teutonia finished sixth in 2015-16 before the club was crowned as Landesliga Hammonia champions in 2016-17 to climb to Oberliga Hamburg, one of many fifth tier national divisions under head coach Sören Titze.

Teutonia ended the 2017-18 campaign in third place with Aytac Erman and Veli Sulejmani supplying the goals around the same time that the cinder pitch at Gottfried Tönsfeld Sportplatz was replaced with a new artificial turf surface.

The 2018-19 season saw further improvement with a runners-up league finish, which would be where Teutonia ended up in 2019-20 when the Coronavirus outbreak finished the season early with Nick Gutmann netting regularly.

Teutonia Ottensen 05 will play in Oberliga Hamburg in the 2020-21 season.

My visit

Monday 28th October 2012

I had no intention of visiting Teutonia during my stay in Hamburg. To tell the truth I'd never even heard of them, until research in the excellent Mikrofon newspaper showed a picture of them in action in their previous days clash. 

I was on the final day of my adventures in Germany. I had enjoyed a superb time, but it appeared that I may need a return to cross off the many clubs I'd obviously overlooked.

The only reason I found the ground was because I'd mistakenly waited for a train to go to Altona 93 and then had to go by foot. I was going at quite a pace and looking all the time for a bus service that went near their home. 

Next to one stop was a poster for Teutonia match twenty four hours earlier. I was looking at my basic map of the area to see if it showed where the ground was. There was another poster at the end of the road, so I surely couldn't have been far away?

Unbelievably I turned the corner and there was the ground in front of me. The wire netting surrounding the basic venue allowed me to take my photos. The pitch was red cinder pitch, which explained the clubs desire to upgrade. 

There was a few steps of open terracing down either side of the pitch, with nothing behind the goal bordering Bleickenallee. The other end was the domain of the clubhouse and changing rooms. The entrance to the ground was on the corner of Holstentwiete and Hohenzollemring.

I continued along in search of Altona's fine Adolf-Jäger-Kampfbahn, but happy I'd found another venue on my way.