Capacity: 1,000
Club Founded: 1906
League: Kreisliga A - 8th tier (current level)
A year after being formed, the club moved to a ground at Großenbaum and became Viktoria Großenbaum Buchholz 06. Other sports were added to their portfolio in 1914, before a move to a new site at Sternkampfbahn, a few minutes away from Buchholz railway station.
Once play recommenced following World War II, a merger with another local club, DJK, took place. In 1956, Sternkampfbahn was renamed Karl-Dölzig Platz in honour of one of the club's founding fathers.
Further sports were added as membership continued to grow. The Bezirkssportanlage indoor facility was opened in 1977. The 1984-85 season saw Viktoria’s football team promoted to the Landesliga for the first time. After being relegated, the side returned to that level six years later, finishing runners-up in 1992-93.
This time their Landesliga spell lasted three seasons. A new roof and a speaker's booth over the terracing were added, with the work being rewarded with a return to the higher level of football for a season. Moritz Stoppelkamp, a future MSV Duisburg star, cut his teeth at Buchholz around the turn of the millennium.
The 2005-06 campaign ended in relegation to Gruppe 1 of Kreisliga A, the eighth national level. Heiko Heinlein was appointed as chief trainer, leading Buchholz to the league title a couple of seasons later. Michael Roß was in charge when Viktoria won the Bezirksliga Gruppe 8 title, with sixth-tier Landesliga Gruppe 3 football the reward.
After dropping back down a level, Roß's team, with Tim Ramroth leading the scoring, won their divisional title, returning to the Landesliga. Maik Sauer took over in the dugout after Buchholz were relegated once more.
Göksan Arslan came in as chief trainer, with Roß having a brief second spell in charge of the team before Arslan returned. Stephan Bork was the man in the hot seat when Buchholz were relegated to the eighth-tier Krieisliga A at the end of the 2025-26 campaign.
Thursday 27th August 2020
I was completing my annual leave from work, on the second day of a brief adventure to North Rhine-Westphalia. I decided to go exploring and visit clubs I would in all likelihood never have the chance of seeing play a home game.
I’d spent the night in Düsseldorf and after a pleasant walk, food and a visit to the decent set up at BV 04, I took the U79 from Kennedydamm north to alight at Sittardsberg before a mile or so walk along Sittardsberger Allee towards Buchholz.
I found the turning into Sternstraße just further up past the railway bridge, which then took me to the open gates of Karl-Dölzig-Platz. I walked past the club buildings, which led to two football pitches.
The first had an artificial surface, while the second had grass. The covered terracing separated the two, with accommodation on both sides for spectators, which I guess covered the club for all eventualities weather weather-wise.
On my way out, a trio of gents were sitting outside the clubhouse. While my German is pretty basic, I went for the basic “Hallo. Ist fussball tourist.” Which I hope meant hello, I’m a football tourist, while I imitated that I had taken some photos.
It seemed to
work as I got encouraging noises and smiles in return. Football really is an
international language! I wandered off to Duisburg-Buchholz to take the train
to Essen, where I was to stay for the evening and to enjoy further fun
broadening my mind.
Whenever I visit a club and only obtain photos, I’m keen to return at some point to finish the job off and watch a match. I was back in North Rhine-Westphalia on a long weekend of football, which offered me the opportunity at Karl-Dölzig-Platz.
Nearby MSV Duisburg had already been knocked out of the DFB Pokal and had arranged a 1pm 3. Liga kick off against TSV Havelse. Scouring options, I fell upon this 10.30am start just down the road. Perfect.
I’d seen a game at C Junioren under-15 level at FC Kray the previous morning. It had been a higher-quality match than my adult encounter at Grün-Weiß Wuppertal on Friday evening, so I had no qualms in taking in the next age group up.
I’d enjoyed
a good Saturday night in Düsseldorf’s Aldstadt. It
was as busy as I’d ever seen it, and that included festival time. It helped my
sleep at the central Monopol Hotel before I headed to the station to catch the S1
service, which had transported me twenty-four hours earlier.
The normally excellent Fussball.de website still hadn’t confirmed the venue for the match. Therefore, it was good news as I took a shortcut to the ground, to see parking was at a premium and hear the sound of a referee’s whistle.
My demeanour was already good after I had managed to take up the offer from my hotel down the road in Cologne of an early check-in the next day. This would allow me a slightly later night out downtown with the chance to rest before Monday’s 6.30pm Pokal clash between Viktoria Köln and TSG Hoffenheim.
Karl-Dölzig-Platz was busy, but not with everyone in attendance to watch this particular encounter, as Viktoria were holding a club day for players and sponsors. The first team of the under-17s, under-19s, and senior side was having their team group photos taken.
I headed to
the far side of the artificial pitch, making use of one of the
wooden benches at the rear of the covered enclosure to view proceedings.
Fischeln, of Krefeld, immediately looked the better side. All their side looked like young footballers. Two or three of Viktoria’s second string were on the bulky side. Both line-ups were of mixed demographics.
The visitors'
strong start included forcing the Viktoria keeper Leandro Lennig into a good
stop from the opposing number 3. Up the other end, Finn Alimpic came close to
converting a cross for Viktoria.
It was no surprise when the away side took the lead after thirteen minutes. The Buchholz big number 14 brought down his opponent. Filschen’s 11 scored, on the immaculate 3G surface, which now seemed to be Viktoria’s main pitch.
There was plenty of noise accompanying the action, as music from the clubhouse was superseded by continual chat on the mic as presentations were made and several had their say. Added to which was the sound of passing fast trains on the embankment and the nearby autobahn.
It was 2-0 after twenty-three minutes. A cross was flapped at my Lennig as the ball looped up for the visitors' 3 to tuck away. The keeper made amends with a top save before the sitter of a rebound was missed by 17.
Filschen’s
17 made up for the miss with a beautiful curling shot to further extend the
lead eight minutes before the break, with the match consisting of 40 minutes
each way. Plenty of substitutions were made by the respective coaches at the
interval.
17 added a second goal nine minutes into the second half when Lennig took his eye off another cross, before his teammate 15 capitalised on another defensive nightmare to make it 5-0 three minutes later.
With just over ten minutes remaining, it was time for me to make my move towards the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena for my main match of the day. Google Maps told me that the best option was the bus 934 from the stop around the corner from the station.
It was wrong! You can read about that bit on the MSV page. Later in the day, I checked the website to find out that Fischeln had added two late goals to make the final score 0-7.
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