Borussia Hildesheim

Hildesheim is a Lower Saxony city that has rarely had to choose between two football clubs bearing its name, because for much of the twentieth century it had exactly that: VfV Hildesheim and SV Borussia 06 ran separate histories until they merged in 2003, and the new club kept the older number in its title as a nod to where FC Hildesheim had started the whole story back in 1906. The merged side plays in red and white at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stadion, which holds 6,000, and carries the nickname Die Roten.

The years worth remembering predate the merger. Between 1958 and 1967, under coaches Paul Bornefeld and later Ludwig "Pipin" Lachner, VfV Hildesheim competed in the Oberliga Nord and once beat Hamburger SV 3–0. That run carried them to the quarter-finals of the DFB-Pokal in 1961/62, where 1. FC Nürnberg ended it 11–0. The club has been back in the competition only once since, in 2024/25, after winning the Niedersachsenpokal — a trophy it had also lifted in 1956 and 1976, long before the merger that created today's VfV Borussia 06.

More recently, the Oberliga Niedersachsen title in 2019/20 kept the club in regional contention, and a promotion via runners-up spot in 2014/15 took it briefly into the Regionalliga Nord. A futsal section built its own reputation in parallel, reaching the German Futsal Vice-Championship final twice, in 2007 and 2009, losing the second one on penalties.

No name from the post-merger era carries the weight of Dieter Thun, who played as a striker for the old VfV Hildesheim side before leaving for Werder Bremen and winning the German championship there in 1965 — the one Hildesheim player whose career reached the top flight the club itself never did.