TSC Eintracht Dortmund (Germany)

TSC Eintracht 1848/1895 Dortmund, to give them their full name, is a sports club from the city of Dortmund in Germany. It was formed in 1969 through the merger of Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht 1848 Dortmund and the football club, Dortmunder Sports Club 1895.

Dortmunder SC 95

The football club had a rich history after originally being formed on May 10th, 1895, as Dortmunder FC 95 by Benno Elkan, before it folded after a couple of years, then being continued on October 27th, 1899. The club became the first in Dortmund to have its own sports ground when it moved into a site on Oberen Hohen Straße, today's Ardeystraße, in 1908.

FC Union Dortmund joined forces in 1910 before a further merger took place in 1913, as BV Dortmund 04 amalgamated to form Sportvereinigung 95 Dortmund, which changed its title to Dortmunder SC 95 in 1919.

The club competed in the Westdeutschen Fußballmeister, West German championship from 1903, winning Kreisliga Hellweg and then the Ruhr divisional title in 1921, before the side entered into a few years of struggle, before the club moved into the vacant Stadion Rote Erde.

A further change of name came in 1933 to Sportfreunde 95 Dortmund as the club was forced to merge with BC Sportfreunde Dortmund under the rule of the Third Reich. German football was divided into sixteen regional top-flight divisions, as the team was placed in the Gauliga Westfalen.

The club was relegated after just one season before the merger was dissolved. DSC were placed in the second level Bezirksliga, not playing any higher throughout the War. The club was reformed in 1945 as Südliche SG Dortmund, again through a merger with Sportfreunde.

The team enjoyed a promotion and then a relegation before reclaiming their Landesliga Westfalen place after winning their Bezirksliga in 1952-53, finishing third and winning the Gruppe 5 title in 1954-55 without gaining promotion in the play-offs in their new DSC Stadion in Flora to the south of the city.

The title was retained in 1955-56 before Dortmunder went on to win the play-offs to secure promotion to II. Division West. The team stabilised before struggling at the wrong end of the table, with crowds just about reaching 1,000. The introduction of the national Bundesliga for the 1963-64 campaign saw a reorganisation of the leagues. 

DSC failed to finish high enough up the league to merit a second-tier place, so they were placed in Verbandsliga, where the Gruppe 2 title was won at the first attempt. Eintracht Gelsenkirchen were too strong in the play-offs to deny the team promotion, but a play-off defeat to SG Wattenscheid 09 at the other end of the table saw DSC relegated to Landesliga Westfalen.

In 1969, the club merged with TuS Eintracht Dortmund, which had been formed on June 15th, 1848, to form TSC Eintracht Dortmund This would create a club of over 5,500 members and as well as the football club, it has twenty seven other sports sections, with those of gymnastics, fitness, hockey and children's and youth sports being the most prominent.

Eintracht moved into their sports facility at Eintrachtstrasse in 1921 thanks to a donation from local businessman Victor Toyka. Many facilities were lost in the War and then later rebuilt. Eintracht Dortmund started their football life in Landesliga Westfalen, one of many fourth-tier leagues in the national system, in 1969-70 before being relegated in their first season to the Bezirksliga, from where they won promotion twelve months later.

Eintracht finished Landesliga Staffel 5 runners-up to SV Holzwickede in 1972-73 before dropping down again in 1976-77. A further relegation to the Kreisliga came in 1979-80 before climbing back to the Bezirksliga in 1982-83. Continentale took over the Eintrachtstrasse with the club relocating to TSC-Stadion an der Flora in 1983, where the road outside was named Victor-Toyka-Straße. 

Eintracht dropped back down to the Kreisliga, where they remained for many seasons. The team competed in the ninth-tier Kreisliga A Gruppe 2 in 2003-04, where they ended in eighth place before progressing to fifth in 2005-06. The position was improved by one place twelve months later.

Eintracht came third in 2010-11 before the league title was secured in 2012-13 to secure promotion to Bezirksliga Staffel 08, where the team consolidated in ninth place before putting in consecutive lower division finishes before improving to sixth in 2016-17. The goals of Maximilian Venhuis couldn’t save the team coached by Boris Decker from relegation in 2017-18. 

Back in Kreisliga A1, Eintracht finished 2018-19 in third place for Dennis Empting’s side with Robin Kopperschläger top scoring. Eintracht were in fifth place when the COVID-19 pandemic called time on the 2019-20 season for the team containing the goals of Deniz Dogan, which was backed up by fourth place when things returned to normal.

The team continued finishing in the lower third of the table without any fear of being relegated, with Ümitcan Aksu being appointed as trainer ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.

TSC Eintracht Dortmund 48/95 will play in Kreisliga A1 Dortmund in the 2025-26 season.

My visit

Friday 18th February 2011

I was on my second visit to the city of Dortmund with Carl and Colm, and we were in a jubilant mood after purchasing some match tickets for the following day's clash at the nearby Westfalenstadion between Borussia Dortmund and St Pauli.

My research on Google Maps had spotted another venue near the home of Borussia, so I suggested we take an extra ten-minute walk so I could take a few snaps. There was a tram station across the car park, and everyone was in good spirits, so it was met with little resistance. We walked over a major road and were soon outside the DSC-Stadion an der Flora.

There was a red shale practice pitch behind one of the ends with an open gate by it. The pitch was surrounded by a running track. There was banking behind the ends with a few steps of terracing. This continued down the far side.

The Main Stand, which banked onto Victor-Toyka-Strasse, was a large building with a few rows of steps with bench seating in front of large indoor sports facilities and leisure facilities. A covered box protruded from the centre section. We walked along the back of the stand and were tempted to enter the bar and restaurant, but resisted, walking across the park to Remydamm tram stop and going back into the city for lunchtime libation.

In recent times, it would appear that the main arena has been fitted with a blue artificial pitch for hockey, with the football team moving to a new artificial surface where the shale pitch was behind the west curve.