Capacity: 1,000
Club Founded: 1905
League: Oberliga Hamburg - 5th Tier (current level)
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| The new pitch at Gottfried-Tönsfeldt-Sportplatz |
Teutonia Ottensen 05 History
Early Years
The club was formed in 1905 in the Ottensen suburb of Hamburg's Altona when ten original members met in a beer hall. Members of the recently dissolved FC Hammonia Hamburg also joined Tuetonia. Interest grew as the club entered the North German Football Association, moving to their first home on Hogendeldweg within five years.
The team played at the highest level of local football, merging with Ottensen 07 during World War II, and climbing to Verbandsliga Elbe, one of many second-tier divisions of national football at the time after promotion in 1946-47.
The league was retitled Amateurliga Hamburg. Teutonia were relegated in 1951-52 to the Bezirksliga, with further demotions following before the team worked their way back to the sixth-tier Landesliga.
The club appealed for assistance to have an artificial surface installed at their Holy Cross Church ground, officially called the Gottfried Tönsfeld Sportplatz. It would enable their excellent work in developing youth sides to be rewarded and complement the new changing rooms and clubhouse.
In Landesliga Hammonia, Teutonia performed creditably near the top end of the table, before a series of mid-table finishes. The club was crowned Landesliga Hammonia champions in 2016-17, winning promotion to Oberliga Hamburg, one of several German fifth-tier national divisions under head coach Sören Titze.
Teutonia ended the 2017-18 campaign in third place, with Aytac Erman and Veli Sulejmani supplying the goals. At the same time the cinder pitch at Gottfried Tönsfeld Sportplatz was replaced with a new artificial turf surface.
The 2018-19 season saw further improvement and a runners-up finish before the side led by Achim Hollerieth was promoted to the Regionalliga Nord. Dietmar Hirsch took over as trainer in 2022-23 and led the side to fourth place, with Maik Lukowicz topping the scoring.
Dani Schahin was appointed as trainer the following season, before Teutonia went down to the Oberliga after a couple of seasons at the fourth level, with Mehdi Saeedi-Madani arriving to take control of team affairs.
My visit
I had no intention of visiting Teutonia during my stay in Hamburg. To tell the truth, I'd never even heard of them until research in the excellent Mikrofon newspaper showed a picture of them in action in their previous day's clash.
I was on the final day of my adventures in Germany. I had enjoyed a superb time, but it quickly became apparent that I may need a return to cross off the many clubs I'd obviously overlooked.
Next to one stop was a poster for the Teutonia match twenty-four hours earlier. I was looking at my basic map of the area to see if it showed where the ground was. There was another poster at the end of the road, so I surely couldn't have been far away.
Unbelievably, I turned the corner, and there was the ground in front of me. The wire netting surrounding the basic venue allowed me to take my photos. The pitch was red cinder pitch, which explained the club's desire to upgrade.
There were a few steps of open terracing down either side of the pitch, with nothing behind the goal bordering Bleickenallee. The other end was the domain of the clubhouse and changing rooms. The entrance to the ground was on the corner of Holstentwiete and Hohenzollernring.