Rot-Weiß Essen

Two works teams from Vogelheim, SC Preußen and Deutsche Eiche, put themselves together into one side on 1 February 1907 and called it SV Vogelheim. The name that stuck came sixteen years later, when the footballers merged with the gymnasts of Turnerbund Bergeborbeck in 1923 — Rot-Weiß Essen from then on.

The peak came on 26 June 1955 at the Niedersachsenstadion in Hanover, where 76,000 watched Essen beat 1. FC Kaiserslautern 4:3 for the German championship. Franz Islacker scored three of them. Fritz Szepan, who had run the team with Karl Hohmann since 1949, was the coach. The campaign lasted one round: 0:4 away to Hibernian, 1:1 at home.

Two years before that they had won the DFB-Pokal, beating Alemannia Aachen 2:1. The 1994 final ended 1:3 against Werder Bremen, and by then the club's problems were administrative rather than sporting — licences refused in 1984, 1991 and 1994, each refusal costing a place in the 2. Bundesliga, and insolvency in 2010.

Promotion out of the Regionalliga West in 2022 returned them to the 3. Liga.

The Stadion an der Hafenstraße holds 20,100, of which 9,040 stand. The Essen derby against Schwarz-Weiß Essen once drew 30,000; Schwarz-Weiß now play in the fifth division.