SC Red Star Penzing (Austria)

Sports Club Red Star Penzing is a football club from the Ottakring district in the Austrian capital of Vienna who have undergone many mergers and name changes since their formation as Red Star Wien in 1903.

The idea of forming a club by local metalworkers in the district had been mooted in 1902 when at Christmas enthusiasts were walking on Ringstrasse when they saw a display window of an American shipping company named Red Star Line. A club name was sorted!

Playing in the Vienna championship the team won the 2. Klasse title in 1907-08 while sharing a ground at Libertas Platz. A lack of a proper facility prevented the side from taking promotion prior to joining the first capital centrist Austrian championship in 1911-12.

Red Star competed in Zweite Klasse A, moving into a new ground near to Ottakringer Friedhof before having to give it up a year later to become tenants at various other clubs. Their league title was won in 1915-16 but again promotion was denied, this time because of the outbreak of World War One.

The club was forced to give up their Anglicised title on orders from the authorities during the conflict as they became SC Rot Stern Wien as they ended as runners-up of the second tier in 1917-18 prior to returning to their original name in the summer of 1919.

At the same time Red Star moved into a new ground on Herbertstraße to share with another local club, FC Libertas Wien. The team was placed in Zweite Klasse Nord where finishes towards the top of the table were collated.

The club departed to play in the alternative VAFÖ competition for workers clubs where they became a leading side when they merged with SC Sturm 1914 Wien in 1928, shortly after winning the championship against SC E-Werk Wien.

Red Star moved into the new 9,000 capacity Karl-Volkert-Platz at Vogelweidplatz just north of Wien Westbahnhof in 1930. The VAFÖ championship was forcibly shut in 1934 as fascism took a hold in the country. Red Star were accepted back into the national set up.

A merger with a club of the same name took place in 1935 prior to joining forces with SC Neubau Wien twelve months later in an arrangement that lasted just one year. 1937 saw a merger take place with Wiener Sportvereinigung.

Back in II Liga Nord, Red Star ended as runners-up in 1936-37 before the national championship became one of sixteen top flight German divisions during Austria’s Anschluss with the divisions below feeding into it.

Red Star finished as runners-up of Bezirksklasse Wien A in 1938-39 prior to being forced to change their title to SC Rot-Stern 03 Wien under orders of the authorities. Two further successive runners-up places were sealed as the club merged with FC Libertas Wien in 1941.

Back as SC Red Star the team finished fourth in the Wiener 2. Klasse A 1945-46 season after the German forces had departed. The second tier became the Wiener Liga before being joined by three other area competitions as the Austrian league became more of a country wide affair.

From 1950-51 it became one of several third tier sections after league reorganisation, with Red Star remaining members at the new level. The league title was promptly won meaning a promotion to Staatsliga B where the team played a couple of seasons before dropping back down.

The Wiener Liga was won once again in 1953-54, with the second level Staatsliga spell again lasting two seasons. The side ended as runners-up in 1960-61 which was followed up by a couple of thirds before the title was secured in 1966-67.

Red Star’s spell in the second level Regionalliga Ost lasted just one season before a return to the Wiener Liga where they remained until being relegated in 1972-73. Another merger, this time with Ober-Sankt Veit took place in 1974.

Further league re-organisation took place at the same time as Red Star found themselves among the fifth tier divisions. Their Vogelweidplatz had been requisitioned for an underground car park with the club moving to a new ground at Kendlerstraße back in Ottakring.

By 1977 it was time for another merger with RAC-AO-Heimlich being the next club to join the fold. In 1980 SC Auto-Gerngroß merged as the club became SC Red Star/Auto. In 1981-82 the now fifth tier Wiener Liga was won to win promotion to 1. Landesliga, which in turn was renamed the Wiener Liga.

A runners-up place in 1984-85 secured promotion to the third level in Regionalliga Ost but the jump proved too steep with Red Star finishing bottom of the table and being relegated at the end of just one campaign.

In 1989-90 another Wiener Liga title was won prior to a change of title to SC Red Star-Heimlich. Again, the spell in Regionalliga lasted just twelve months. The 1997-98 campaign was played as SK Rapid Wien Amateure/Red Star in an arrangement with the Bundesliga club.

The alliance lasted just one season with Red Star having to consequently drop down the divisions. A salvation was found by merging with tenants SC Penzing-Janecka to become SC Red Star Penzing and taking their place in 1. Klasse, going on to win that title in 2001-02.

By 2007-08 the club were placed in the fifth tier Oberliga A in which they finished in third place in 2009-10 under coach Karl Seidl as Markus Stefansky and Ilkay Zorlu led the scoring charts.

Fourth place was achieved in 2011-12 before third again in 2012-13 with DI Tassilo Niederkofler and Patrick Ratschka ending as joint top scorers as the finish was matched the following season.

The competition had been renamed as 2. Landesliga by the time the second of two consecutive fourth places were completed in 2015-16. The same position was achieved in 2016-17 under the coaching of Michael Sonvilla with Matthias Schatz adding the goals.

The team ended in third in 2018-19 as the pairing of Mahdi Aouas and Ben Balnik found the back of the net regularly. Red Star were in seventh place when the 2019-20 season was aborted owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

SC Red Star Penzing will play in Wien 2. Landesliga in the 2020-21 season.

My visit

Sunday 8^th March 2020

It was a most pleasant if chilly morning on the third day of my trip to the beautiful Austrian capital and I’d been to have a look at the venue of Dynamo Helfort ahead of the 10.30 kick off around the corner at Slovan HAC.

Walking up Kendlerstraße I noticed the entrance to another club. Little did I realise until later research what an interesting history Red Star possessed. I went to the match and then retraced my footsteps to go inside the open Parkplatz ground.

The venue consisted of two pitches with spectator accommodation on a raised area along with the clubhouse dividing the two. The main grass pitch had a few rows of bench seating and a shelter to protect patrons from adverse weather.

It was a deeper bank towards the smaller artificial pitch on the other side where a match was in progress watched by a small posse. I left them to it and headed back to the tram stop on Huttengasse to take a look at the stunning Schloß Schönbrunn and its park.