Ballsportverein Altenessen 06 is a football club formed on May 6th 1906 in the Altenessen district of the German city of Essen. The club was formed by a group who played street football under the name of Regilia.
Once organised into a proper club, they were accepted by the local football authority, the Rheinisch-Westfälischen Spielverband in 1910 as a ground was found in the corner of Kaiser Wilhelm Park in Essen-Altenessen.
The team quickly found success winning the local B-Klasse to gain promotion to A-Klasse, and then becoming Ruhrbezirksmeisterschaft, champions of the Ruhr district, after defeating Preußen Duisburg.
Following World War One the club invested in setting a youth team, which was rare at the time. It would pay dividends in later years as BVA 06, as the club are commonly known, were placed in Liga-Klasse because of their strength.
In 1925-26 the team became Ruhrgaumeister, champions of the Ruhr, and West German runners-up which led to Altenessen playing in the German championship with crowds of 30,000 watching them in action at Radrennbahn in Essen.
BVA’s form continued, leading to them reaching Bezirksklasse in 1931-32, where they would play one season before as BV Preußen Altenessen becoming members of Gauliga Niederrhein in 1933-34, which was one of sixteen top tier leagues under the rule of the Third Reich.
The team dropped back down to the Bezirksliga after just one season, winning the title in 1936-37 to return to the Gauliga, where they finished bottom of the table twelve months later to drop straight back down.
The club merged with Rot-Weiss Essen to become KSG RWE/BV 06 Essen for the 1943-44 campaign, with the side finishing the final Gauliga campaign of 1944-45 in sixth position. Both clubs went their separate ways once again at the end of the War.
BVA 06 partook in Gruppe 1 of Landesliga Niederrhein in 1947-48 as German football gradually organised itself following the conflict. This competition became one of many third level leagues from 1949-50 as the club stabilised their position with safe finishes until the side was relegated in 1953-54.
The Bezirksliga then dropped down a further tier, to step 5 following the introduction of Verbandsliga Niederrhein in 1956-57. However, BVA 06 won a couple of promotions to rise to the third tier Verbandsliga in 1959-60, finishing ninth on their return.
The 1961-62 campaign saw Altenessen climb to fifth place prior to narrowly escaping relegation in 1963-64 before finally succumbing at the end of the 1965-66 season. The team bounded back to win the Gruppe 3 Landesliga title in 1966-67 to reclaim their previous status.
Mid-table finishes were the order of the day for several seasons with sixth in 1972-73 the stand out performance prior to relegation the following season. Once again Altenessen regrouped to win Gruppe 1 Landesliga in 1974-75.
BVA’s return to third level football lasted just one season as they dropped back down before again winning their Landesliga group in 1977-78. Verbandsliga Niederrhein had become a fourth tier league by the time Altenessen returned following promotion in 1986-87.
The team was relegated in bottom place in 1988-89 before the club would spend the following decade in Gruppe 1 and 3 of the Landesliga. The highlights were third place in 1990-91 before a further relegation occurred in 1999-00.
Finding themselves in the seventh tier Bezirksliga, playing in Gruppe 4, from where they were relegated further in 2002-03 down to Kreisliga A. The rot had set in as BVA were demoted in 2004-05 to Kreisliga B.
Three Gruppe 2 runners-up spots in 2006-07, 2008-09 and 2009-10 finally paid off on the final occasion with promotion back to Kreisliga A. However, the step up in standard proved too much with BVA relegated after just one season.
Ibrahim Filinte took charge of the team but was unable to put together a side looking to challenge for honours before the side sealed a return to Kreisliga A in 2014-15 with Otto Prell taking over as head coach.
He led his team to fifth and then third place in 2016-17 before he was replaced in 2017-18 by Marco Brinkmann who was unable to save the side from relegation. The crazy 2018-19 Gruppe 2 Kreisliga campaign saw the club go through seven different coaches.
Dennis Bruhnke restored some stability with his appointment. BVA was sat in third place in 2019-20 when the season was halted early owing to the outbreak of COVID-19 as Bah Muhamed led the scoring.
Altenessen led the division in 2020-21 when play was suspended.
BV Altenessen will play in Kreisliga B Gruppe 2 Essen in the 2020-21 season.
Friday 28th August 2020
I awoke in the West German city of Essen after another fantastic day exploring new places and generally broadening the mind. With a few hours to kill before meeting up with my pals Marius and Thorsten for evening football I wanted to drain every last drop out of the city.
Leaving my more extravagant than usual choice of accommodation at GHOTEL hotel & living I headed for the U Bahn at Essen Hbf to head to the north of the city and the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Park stop.
I’d managed to pick out a couple of clubs in close proximity that looked to have stands according to Google Maps and were of enough prominence to have a page on the English version of Wikipedia, which was usually an indication of having a history of relative note.
Of course, one downfall of the App is it doesn’t always send you the right way for the best chance of entry or at least to get photos. That is where my resolution and stubbornness come to the fore as I’m not beaten in my quest too often.
On this occasion I walked round the top end of the park before finding the gates to Sportplatz am Kaiserpark locked on Waisenstraße. I thought there might be a way in through a gap on Stankeitstraße but that turned out to be a school.
Not to be outdone I decided to have a look to see if there were any vantage points from inside Kaiser-Wilhelm-Park. Hey presto I won again after finding a gap against the wall by the footpath on the west side of the ground.
I’m glad I made the effort. It was a pretty little venue with a small grass bank on three sides interspersed with shrubbery and trees and a smart low stand down the other touchline. The pitch was of the artificial 3G variety.
The beautiful park got a proper look as I crossed through it before leaving along Palmbuschweg back to the main Altenessener Straße from where I took the short walk to the Stadion Bäuminghausstraße home of local rivals TuS Helene Essen.
No comments:
Post a Comment