SV Eintracht Stuttgart 1896 eV is a sports club from the Degerloch area of Stuttgart, which has sections for gymnastics, table tennis, and walking, but the most prominent part of the club is football. The club was formed in 1896 as FV Schwaben. After a series of mergers, the club found a place in the highest-ranked local league, the Gauliga, in 1920.
1. FV Stuttgart merged
with the club in 1921 as it became Eintracht. Around the same time, the hockey section of the club was highly successful, while the football side was just outside the top regional level. By 1924, they had progressed to the Verbandsliga.
The period
under the Third Reich during wartime led to much turmoil in several local
clubs. The plan was to dissolve many and to merge into one big club at Waldau.
The idea disbanded in 1945, which saw the continuation of SV Eintracht 1896
Stuttgart.
Eintracht re-grouped and developed players through their youth system. Promotion to A Class, which was the highest local level of football at the time, was achieved at the end of the 1953-54 season. Unfortunately, the spell lasted only two years before they returned to Class B.
Worse was to
come, as in 1959, Eintracht found themselves in Class C. The club once again took
stock of its situation and won a couple of promotions to celebrate its 75th
anniversary in 1971 in the A Class. The club's Articles of Association were
rewritten to allow members of 16 years old and above a vote.
After years of planning, the club was afforded new facilities under the grandstand of Stuttgarter Kickers Waldau Stadion. In 1982, Waldau undertook a re-arrangement, which meant the demolition of Eintracht’s clubhouse.
A convivial arrangement was made to share some of Kickers facilities. Unfortunately, the team were relegated around the same time. However the women’s team won their league. The old wooden grandstand at Eintracht Stadion was demolished to make room for a new structure as the team slipped down to Kreisliga B.
In the summer of 1989 a new clubhouse with spectator balcony was erected at a cost of DM 1.4 million. It obviously brought luck as the first team won promotion to Kreisliga A.
Sadly, relegation
soon followed as Eintracht put an emphasis on developing their youth system. By
1995, they’d returned to the top Kreisliga division, with the club being
advanced by landscaped car parking and a beer garden. The club
continued to run along well on and off the pitch, with the women’s side also
prospering.
By 2010-11, the team was competing in the tenth-tier Kreisliga B5, where they finished in third position. The league
title was won the following season, but Eintracht lasted just one season in
Kreisliga A 3 before being relegated. Back in Kreisliga B4, the team continued
to finish in the top six without really mounting a serious challenge for the
league title.
Back in B5, the side were in second place when the 2019-20 season halted owing to the COVID-19
pandemic, with the goals of Robin
Wagner having propelled the team, led by coach Mehmet Mehmet, up the table. The side was moved to B4 of the tenth-tier division with Daniele La Piertra taking over as trainer in the summer of 2022.
Back in B1, Eintracht finished sixth in 2023-24 before the division was retitled Kreisliga B1 Stuttgart/Böblingen, as Swen Conradt took over team affairs.
SV Eintracht
Stuttgart 1896 e.V. will play in Kreisliga B1 Stuttgart/Böblingen in the 2025-26 season.
My visit
Sunday 16th August 2015
I had
enjoyed a very competitive first half in the Oberliga clash between Stuttgarter
Kickers II and FC 08 Villingen at the nearby Bezirkssportanlage Waldau. With
fifteen minutes to kill, I decided to have a wander over the road to have a look
around the vast Waldau complex. It was there that I came across Eintracht Stadion.
It was quite
a basic but very neat venue, in common with the other district standard grounds
I’d come across. The playing surface was artificial with a rail around it. The
only structure was along the far side in the shadow of the new Main Stand of
Waldau Stadion, with the two-storey clubhouse with changing rooms downstairs and
club rooms and a balcony above it.
The far end
of the ground had a car park behind the trees. It looked like I’d either missed
a friendly game or a training session as players were drifting away as I
wandered round. I then headed back to the second half of the home game of Stuttgarter Kickers II, across the road.