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 its
formation as Red Star Wien in 1903. The idea of forming
a club by local metalworkers in the district had been mooted at Christmas in 1902.
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 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 before joining the first capital centrist Austrian championship
in 1911-12.
Red Star
competed in Zweite Klasse A, moving into a new ground near 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 I.
The club was
forced to give up their Anglicised title on orders from the authorities during
the conflict, as it became SC Rot Stern Wien, ending as runners-up of
the second tier in 1917-18 before 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 down in 1934 as fascism
took 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, before 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.
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 before 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 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.
They remained there 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 the 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 before 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 a few divisions.
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 training 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. The side finished third in 2021-22 once things had returned to normal following the pandemic.
This was under chief trainer Klemens Messner, as Luca Kreuzer scored the goals. Mag. Lukas Hintersteiner was appointed as trainer in January 2023, helping Red Star to the runner-up position, which was enough to win promotion to the Wiener Stadtliga. Third place was achieved in 2023-24 as Messner returned as trainer.
SC Red Star
Penzing will play in the Wiener Stadtliga in the 2025-26 season.
My visit
Sunday 8th March 2020
It was a
most pleasant, if chill,y 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.