Arminia Bielefeld (Germany)

Deutscher Sportclub Arminia Bielefeld is a football club from the town of Bielefeld located in the Westfalia area of Germany. They were formed on the 3rd May 1905 as 1. Bielefelder FC Arminia prior to being admitted into the DFB, Deutscher Fußball-Bund - German FA, that same year.

The club also has sections for field hockey, ice skating and cue sports as well as football.

The team started out life playing on various grounds before finding a permanent site at the Pottenau in 1910. In 1913 the club lifted their first title with a 3-1 victory over BV 04 Dortmund to become Westphalian champions before losing in the final of the West German championship to Duisburger SV.

The club merged with Bielefelder Turngemeinde 1848 to form TG Arminia Bielefeld in 1919, but within three years they parted and took up their original names. 'Die Blauen' won the West German Championship in 1922 and the following year with a victory over Kölner BC 01.

The title was retained the following year with TuRu Düsseldorf beaten in the final. Further Westphalian titles were added between 1924 and 1927. In 1926 the club took its present title and went on to win the Westphalian Cup in 1932.

In 1933 the ruling Third Reich introduced sixteen regional Gauligen top flight divisions. Arminia were placed in Gauliga Westfalen from where they were relegated in the first season of 1933-34 before returning in 1937-38.

On 25 July 1943 Arminia engaged in another merger, this time with local rivals, VfB 03 Bielefeld. After World War Two, Arminia found themselves in the third tier for the first time. They dominated the Bezirksklasse, but Arminia were docked 14 points because they fielded an ineligible player, leading to a further demotion to the Landesliga.

Within a year the club were promoted to Oberliga West. In 1953-54, Arminia were relegated back to the third division. It took eight years for their return as they then secured a place in the newly formed second tier Regionalliga West for the 1963-64 campaign.

The team finished third in 1966-67 before claiming the runners-up spot in 1969-70 before winning promotion to the Bundesliga after a 2–0 win at Tennis Borussia Berlin in the play-offs, aided by the goals of forward Ernst Kuster.

The 1970-71 season saw Arminia embroiled in a match fixing sensation. Three of ten games proven to have had outside interference involved the club. They were allowed to keep their top flight place for the 1971-72 campaign before being automatically demoted to the Regionalliga as a penalty. Players Waldemar Slomiany and Jürgen Neumann were banned for life.

Thanks to good performances Arminia were awarded a place in the newly introduced 2.Bundesliga in 1974. The 1976-77 season ended in heartache as Arminia lost a deciding play-off match against TSV 1860 München for a place in the top division.

The team gathered itself and won promotion the next season, but straight back down. Undaunted Arminia bounced straight back at the first attempt to secure Bundesliga football for the 1980-81 campaign.

In 1984-85 a drop in attendances and struggling finances led to relegation following a play-off defeat to FC Saarbrücken. Two years later Arminia dropped another level with mounting debts. Manager Ernst Middendorp was appointed with the task of building a young side.

Several seasons of near misses for promotion followed, including a Oberliga Westfalen title in 1990 before Arminia lifted the Westphalian Cup in 1991. Several experienced Bundesliga veterans such as Thomas von Heesen, Armin Eck and Fritz Walter joined the club and helped the side to the Regionalliga West/Südwest title in 1995.

Promotion to the Bundesliga was achieved at the first attempt, aided by the goals of Stefan Kuntz. Iranian’s Ali Daei and Karim Bagheri joined the side but they couldn’t prevent the team going down. Arminia returned immediately to the top tier with Bruno Labbadia ending the campaign as the league top scorer.

The new millennium didn’t bring in a change in Arminia’s bouncing between the top two divisions as they were once again relegated. By 2002 they once again dined at the top table, but yet again their spell lasted just one season.

Unbelievably in 2004 another promotion was achieved. This time Arminia consolidated and gained lots of new members through the Aktion 5000 + campaign. Patrick Owomoyela was a prominent figure on the pitch, while the Bielefelder Alm stadium was modernised. The club’s stay in the Bundesliga lasted five seasons before they went down at the end of the 2008–09 campaign.

The 2010-11 season saw managerial sackings and poor performances, culminating in relegation to 3.Liga. The Westphalia Cup was lifted in 2012 after a final against arch rival SC Preußen Münster. On 11 May 2013, Bielefeld beat VfL Osnabrück 1–0 to guarantee a top two finish and promotion back to the 2. Bundesliga for the 2013–14 season.

In 2014-15 Arminia lifted the 3. Liga title as well as embarking on an amazing DFB-Pokal run. SV Sandhausen, Hertha BSC, Werder Bremen and Borussia Mönchengladbach were defeated, before eventual winners VfL Wolfsburg won the semi-final clash 4-0 at Bielefelder Alm in front of a sell out crowd of 26,137.

Star men in the successful season were Manuel Junglas, Florian Dick and Fabian Klos under head coach Norbert Meier. before the team consolidated in 2. Bundesliga before a turbulent 2016-17 campaign which saw four head coaches; Rüdiger Rehm, Carsten Rump, Jürgen Kramny and Jeff Saibene come and go.

Arminia finished in fourth place in 2017-18 prior to the appointment Uwe Neuhaus to run the side in December 2018 which ended the season in seventh spot. His team won the 2. Bundesliga title in 2019-20, suspended late in the season by the COVID-19 pandemic as Klos and Andreas Voglsammer scored regularly.

DCS Arminia Bielefeld will compete in the Bundesliga in the 2020-21 season.

My visit

DSC Arminia Bielefeld 4 TuS Koblenz 2 (Sunday 24 January 2010) 2 Bundesliga (att: 10,600)

I was with Carl, Crusher and Colm on a footballing and cultural weekend in Western Germany and this game was the second of our weekend after going to Borussia Dortmund v Hamburg SV the previous evening as well as enjoying two excellent late evenings out in Dortmund.

We met up to check out and catch a tram to the railway station on a very cold Sunday morning with each of us feeling slightly under par for some reason? Breakfast was snatched at McDonalds (a sure sign of tiredness) before we boarded our train to the former army town of Bielefeld. A fussy female inspector moved everyone from what was supposedly a first class compartment once the journey had begun, even though there was no-one else in there. 

We got on the top deck when we stopped at the junction of Hamm when all hell broke loose. The train filled up with very loud and unruly Koblenz fans between the ages of around 12 and 25 (boys and girls). They were smoking and drinking and were already well imbibed, even though it was only 11.30. 

I was getting some real looks from my pals. All the games in Germany and it appeared I found us a grudge match! Their behaviour was a pain and it was a matter of time before one of us would snap under the pressure of having them staggering about and nudging us. I think we could have been in the vicinity if anyone had stood on a tired Crusher's foot!

We pulled into Bielefeld station to be met by riot police with dogs, which went berserk as the visiting junior hooligans let off fire crackers. We quickly went downstairs to make a quick exit, only for the waiting cops to stop us from going out of the exit into the town. 

Carl used his local knowledge with the police at the other end and they let us through. We eventually found a taxi rank and instructed the driver to find us the Schuco Arena. With the assistance of stewards I’d soon picked up our 17 Euro tickets for seats behind the goal. 

The bratwursts did the job as did a beer. Crusher quickly worked out that we were in the family block so we were unlikely to be able to take a beer to our seats, only to look up the stairs to see a fan entering with a crate of local produce on his shoulder. 

We were unable to buy tickets for the home standing area on line to prevent away fans infiltrating, but our seats were excellent. Unfortunately the gate was only 10,600 in a stadium holding 27,000 for this second division encounter, probably because of the weather, the opposition and it was the live lunchtime game. 

Koblenz are not a very big club and have only recently progressed up the divisions, hence our shock at their travelling support.

Bielefelder Alm, roughly translated to The Meadow, as it was originally known, was opened in 1926. It was all terracing in 1971 after concrete had slowly covered the earth banks. Times had certainly changed by our visit. The stadium was a continuous roof around three sides with a seperate East Stand (Haupttribune Ost). 

This was all seated and consists of two tiers with VIP facilities at the rear. We were seated in the Nordtribune behind the goal. The Koblenz fans were further along near to the East Stand. The seats continued round the Westtribune to the Sudtribune which was terracing and home to the most vocal Arminia fans.

The away fans were along from us, but the majority didn’t appear until 25 minutes into the game, when their side were one down. The police obviously gave them a rough time and it's fair to say sightseeing was not on the agenda of the local constabulary. Their side, especially at the back were about as classy as their followers, as Arminia ran them ragged.

At half time we went downstairs for further refreshment to see the snow laying. It was too cold for beer for some of us, so Carl told me to order two gluhwein’s. What a discovery this proved to be. It was hot mulled wine! I can't see that catching on over in the UK. 

The clubs in Germany have a clever idea when selling their beer and hot drinks. It is in hard plastic cups with club memorabilia on it. If you return your cup, you get a deposit back. Otherwise you can keep the cup as a souvenir. Smart youngsters went on the prowl collecting empties and earning some pocket money. 

A vendor wandered around the seats selling more of our new favourite drink, so he was summoned to give us a refill. Poor Carl got a very strong version as the dregs were poured out. it was suggested we tipped the bloke up so he got a full cup!

Meanwhile on the pitch, Koblenz somehow got back into the game and scored a couple of late goals before the donkey like home forward, Pavel Fort amazingly bagged his second to give the final score a slightly more balanced 4-2 ending.

The snow was really thick on our departure and premature solutions were being discussed as to what to do if our plane was cancelled, while we had a magnificent meal in a pub that brewed it’s own beer. It was quite simple in my book. Re-book into our hotel and go to the pub!

All was well as we made a decent getaway back to Dortmund to conclude what had been an excellent weekend. The Bundesliga Second Division was probably comparable to the lower half of The Championship in the UK, although it was not easy to judge as Koblenz hardly tested the high flying Arminia side.