Rot-Weiss Essen (Germany)

Rot-Weiss Essen is a football club from the industrial city of Essen in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia state who whose origins date back to February 1st 1907 as SV Vogelheim following the merger of SC Preussen and Deutsche Eiche.

The footballers left the new club to set up one of their own; Spiel- und Sportverein Emscher-Vogelheim in 1913. After World War One the club changed their name to Spiel und Sport 1912 before they merged with Turnerbund Bergeborbeck to form Rot-Weiss Essen in 1923.

Spiel und Sport 1912 had bought some land on Phönixstraße; which was later named Hafenstraße with the aim of building a stadium. Stadion Phönixstraße opened at the time Rot-Weiss Essen came into being.

During the rule of the Third Reich, German football had sixteen top flight Gauliga divisions. RWE advanced to Gauliga Niederrhein in 1938, before finishing as runners-up in 1941. The club combined with BV Altenessen to compete as KSG SC Rot-Weiss Essen/BV 06 Altenessen for a solitary season.

In 1948 RWE won promotion to the Oberliga West; which was one of five top tier leagues at the time at Stadion an der Hafenstraße as their home ground had been renamed. The team went on to win the league in 1951-52.

However, RWE finished second behind VfB Stuttgart in the play-off group, thus missing out on a shot at becoming German champions. However, consolation was to follow soon after through a national cup win.

Rot-Weiß Essen lifted the DFB-Pokal in 1953 as they defeated Alemannia Aachen in front of 40,000 spectators in Düsseldorf thanks to goals from Franz Islacker and Helmut Rahn, who would also score Germany’s winner in the 1954 World Cup Final.

The 1954-55 season saw RWE win another Oberliga West title before going on to be crowned as champions of Germany after they defeated 1. FC Kaiserslautern 4-3 with 76,000 fans attending the final at Hanover’s Niedersachsenstadion.

Islacker scored a hat trick in the championship decider, with Johannes Röhrig scoring the other goal for Fritz Szepan’s team. Club chairman and one of the founders, Georg Melches had revolutionised the stadium and the way the club was run.

Rot-Weiss became the first German side to play in the European Cup. However, they were defeated by Hibernian in the first round. Following the golden period Essen returned to be a mid table side.

The team were relegated to 2. Oberliga West at the end of the 1960-61 season. German football was re-organised following the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963. Essen put in a top half finish to qualify for the second tier Regionalliga West.

RWE renamed their stadium to Georg-Melches-Stadion in honour of a man who did so much for the club over many years in 1964. After a couple of mid table finishes RWE won promotion to the Bundesliga in 1965-66 as runners-up to Fortuna Düsseldorf.

Both sides won through their play-off group to reach the top flight, but both were relegated just twelve months later. Essen fought back and finished as Regionalliga West runners-up in 1967-68. They repeated the feat the season after, but this time the play-offs were won and RWE returned to the Bundesliga.

Rot-Weiss were relegated at the end of the 1970-71 season to Regionaliga West; where RWE again ended up as runners-up. On this occasion the team missed out on promotion through the play-offs.

The team won their league in 1972-73 and advanced to the Bundesliga. The goals of Manfred Burgsmüller and then Horst Hrubesch kept RWE at the top level until the side finished bottom of the table in 1976-77. RWE were relegated to 2. Bundesliga Nord.

A runners-up spot led to a play-off game against 1. FC Nürnberg; which the team from the south won, to secure top flight football. The 1979-80 season also ended in play-off disappointment as Karlsruher SC pipped Rot-Weiss to promotion.

The 2. Bundesliga was cut to just one division from 1981-82 as Gregor Grillemeier became the fans latest goalscoring hero. Relegation came in 1983-84 as RWE dropped down to Oberliga Nordrhein.

Once again RWE fought back and won their league and returned to the second level for the  1985-86 season. The club retained their status until they were relegated after financial issues meant the withdrawal of their license in May 1991.

RWE won promotion as Oberliga Nordrhein champions and play-off winners in 1992-93. However, their rise was annulled as the DFB once again refused the club a professional license.

Despite the setback RWE went all the way to the 1994 DFB-Pokal final where they were defeated 3-1 by Werder Bremen in Berlin’s Olympiastadion in front of 76,391 spectators while a third tier Regionalliga West/Südwest club.

The goals of Wolfram Klein led Essen to a runners-up spot in 1995-96 and promotion to 2. Bundesliga. However, their spell this time lasted just one season. Consecutive relegations saw RWE in the fourth tier Oberliga Nordrhein in the 1998-98 season.

The Oberliga Nordrhein title was secured at the first attempt to promote the side back to the third level Regionalliga Nord with the help of the goals of Sascha Wolf. The forward partnership of Erwin Koen and Benjamin Köhler fired RWE back to 2. Bundesliga in 2003-04.

Unfortunately, the latest attempt at securing upper status once again lasted just one season. In true Essen fashion the team were promoted as Regionalliga Nord champions in 2005-06. Within a year, the club were back at the third level.

From 2008-89 the Regionalliga became the fourth tier, with the introduction of the national 3. Liga. A lower half finish placed Rot-Weiss in Regionalliga West, where Sascha Mölders ended the season as divisional top scorer.

In May 2010 the clubs license was once again taken away, with the team being relegated to NRW-Liga; from where they were promoted after clinching the title at the first attempt.

In 2012 the Georg-Melches-Stadion was demolished to make way for the larger and modern Stadion Essen; which opened in August of that year. Finally the club seemed to find stability as the team returned a series of mid table finishes, including fifth place in 2016-17 under head coach Sven Demandt.

Argirios Giannikis was appointed as the new coach in October 2017, lasting just a few months before being replaced by Karsten Neitzel as Marcel Platzek scored the goals in an eighth place finish which was replicated in 2018-19.

Rot Weiss, led by new coach Christian Titz, ended third in 2019-20 when the Coronavirus ended the season early as fans flocked back to Stadion Essen. The team missed out on a great chance of promotion in 2020-21 under new team boss Christian Neidhart.

RWE led the league for most of the first half of the season before succumbing to the challenge of Borussia Dortmund II, despite a late rally.

Rot-Weiss Essen will play in Regionalliga West in the 2021-22 season.

My visits

Saturday 22^nd October 2016

My initial look at Stadion Essen was completely unplanned; which was quite unusual for me. I was staying in nearby Oberhausen before heading to the game featuring the Rot-Weiß of that city against Viktoria Köln.

It was fair to say that Oberhausen didn’t have an awful lot to keep anyone entertained, so I looked at my Google Map App and German Rail App on my phone to see if there was anything that could fill in a bit of time. Lo and behold, I struck lucky.

There was a train heading a couple of stops to Essen-Bergeborbeck, from where Stadion Essen was just a five minutes walk away. Within ten minutes I was outside the modern arena which was surrounded by lots of open space for parking.

Although the stadium was locked, the design of having open corners enabled me to take some pretty decent photos. I was especially impressed with the large end terrace. If only the authorities in the UK would open their minds.

Once completed I headed back by the same route despite looking for bus and tram options. While the stadium was impressive, the surrounding areas had absolutely nothing to attract anyone. 

What was surprising was that the Essen-Bergeborbeck station didn't serve the city centre. I got back to Oberhausen in time for a bus to the afternoon’s entertainment.

Rot-Weiss Essen 4 SC Verl 4 (Saturday 7^th August 2021) Friendly (att: 1,750)

I’d decided to take advantage of the loosening of travel restrictions between Germany and the UK which was hopefully nearing the end of the C-19 pandemic. One of two games at the top of my list was this friendly at Stadion Essen.

With the Victoria Köln v TSG Hoffenheim Pokal tie being allocated a Monday evening slot, I was delighted and managed to fit plenty of other football around my ‘main’ games. In the end I’d see eight full games with another half.

My Saturday morning had been most enjoyable, watching the youth game between FC Kray and FSV Duisburg. The 11am start and thirty-five minutes each way, it knitted perfectly with the 2pm start across the city.

The 170 bus from Kray Mitte did the job, even if it was a long and slow route. It dropped match goers off on Sulterkamp, just round the corner from Hafenstraße from where it was around five minutes to the security cordon of the stadium where it was necessary to show evidence of both vaccinations.

Ticket stubs were taken at the gates which led straight onto the concourses behind the stands and of course the food and drink concessions. My Beer Battered Seadogs cricket top was getting some attention from the friendly inquisitive locals.

I got into a couple of conversations as I bought a local Stauder beer along with a lovely spicy bratwurst and schnitzel in bread. There was time for another beer and a further chat with one of the previous fellas and his missus who told me he worked in Buxton for a while.

I think I was saying all the right things. Commiserations on last season and how good it was to see Schalke relegated from the Bundesliga. I’d discovered from locals at Eintracht Gelsenkirchen the previous year that it’s like West Ham v Millwall on the rare occasions RWE and Schalke meet and makes Schalke v Dortmund seem calm in comparison.

They same gents told me that Rot-Weiss should be at least a second level club but had been badly run over the years. Essen was certainly a big enough city, but like back in England’s M62 corridor, many football fans had adopted successful clubs elsewhere.

The Ruhr valley and surrounding areas was most like that part of my homeland, with lots of fierce city and football rivalries, where textiles, steel and coal were once king, but were now more or less done for. All built on hard honest graft.

My ticket had cost €15 plus postage, which in some ways was quite expensive for a friendly, but it included my morning travel from Wuppertal via Düsseldorf and Kray and then would get me to my teatime match. That would have amounted to more than €15 alone.

I had a splendid view in the north Rahn-Tribüne, named after their most famous player. Either end was closed. Just my stand and the opposite main Sparkassen-Tribüne were open, with every other seat out of commission and covered with a black binbag.

The fans were obviously glad to be back after so many games being played behind closed doors. They got stuck into the club song with great gusto and made a proper noise throughout the game. You can have a brief listen below.

I’m not sure whether it’s the story of a once great club now doing their best while fans remain passionate and proud, the stadium, the similarities with Yorkshire or the friendly welcome, but there was something I was really enjoying.

Rot-Weiss got stuck in straight from the start against their visitors from a division higher in the hosts last friendly before the Regionalliga started the following weekend. Verl had a week break after being already knocked out of the Pokal.

Home defender Daniel Heber made a fantastic block tackle to avert early danger. After some lovely football, RWE took the lead on seventeen minutes when a neat low cross from Cedric Harenbrock was cleverly finished at the near post by young American striker Isaiah Young.

A slide rule pass from Kevin Holzweiler put in Zlatko Janjic who was denied by the feet of Verl keeper Robin Brüseke. However, the lead was doubled on twenty four minutes as the bleach blonde Holzweiler sent through Holzweiler who dinked over a diving Brüseke.

The home fans were in jovial mood. A not unattractive fräulein wearing a Stauder t-shirt was heading downstairs with an empty beer tray. Whether it was in jest or not I’m not sure, but she received many requests to bring drinks back as if she was a waitress, which I’ve seen happen at some German stadia.

She laughed along and played with it on her return. I stood up with everyone else when a chant rang out, which could have been something derogatory towards Schalke. Who knows? I was having fun.

A proper defensive howler from a short free kick in their own third from the home defence saw Leandro Putaro slot past Essen custodian Daniel Davari on the half hour mark after been set up by Oliver Schmidt.

Full back Dennis Grote and Janjic played an excellent couple of exchanges of passes which saw the former Verl man denied once again by Brüseke. It was 3-1 before the break when a chip from Grote and a pass from Luca Dürholtz allowed Sandro Plechaty to finish.

At half time I was back downstairs for another beer and a reunion with the Buxton man and one of his pals. Lots more smiles ensued. Two minutes after the restart Verl got one back. A cross was deflected into the path of sub, Ron Berlinski who fired home with the aid of a deflection.

The visiting side had obviously had a good talking to in the dressing room from their trainer Guerino Capretti as they looked a different outfit. Another substitute, Kasim Rabihic chased the ball into the corner and crossed low for Lukos Petkov to score and restore parity as the hour passed.

The locals were now getting a tad frustrated. Even more so when the Rot Weiss players were caught dithering in their own half and Rabihic was sent in for Verl to take a 4-3 lead on seventy four minutes.

With ten minutes left RWE grabbed a leveller when Sören Eismann won the ball with a hard sliding challenge and then rifled into the far corner from outside the box. There was time for Davari to make a save for the hosts when Mahir Saglic was sent clean through.

The match was a microcosm of Rot Weiss’s 2020-21 campaign. A flying start, then being pegged back and falling behind, before drawing level which wasn’t quite enough to win. The fans were giving the team a fine reception as I headed across the car park, on the site where the Georg-Melches-Stadion formerly stood.

I needed to get back to Essen Hauptbahnhof station to get a local train to the evening match between SC Werden-Heidhausen v SC Velbert. It looked like there would be some wait from the nearby Bottroper Straße, but to my delight an SB16 service was along within a few minutes.

It had been that kind of couple of hours or so. Wonderful.