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| Full name | Hallescher Fußball-Club e.V. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Chemie[citation needed] | |||
| Founded | 26 January 1966; 59 years ago (1966-01-26) | |||
| Ground | Leuna-Chemie-Stadion | |||
| Capacity | 15,057[citation needed] | |||
| Manager | Mark Zimmermann | |||
| League | Regionalliga Nordost | |||
| 2024–25 | Regionalliga Nordost, 2nd of 18 | |||
| Website | https://www.hallescherfc.de/ | |||
Hallescher FC, formerly known asHallescher FC Chemie, is aGerman association football club based inHalle an der Saale, Saxony-Anhalt. The club currently plays in theRegionalliga, the fourth highest level in theGerman football league system.
For many years, Halle had been inEast Germany's highest league, theDDR-Oberliga, up-until theGerman reunification. However, like many other teams from the former East, it then suffered[tone] the effects of economic and demographic decline in the region in the 1990s and fell down to amateur leagues. Since 2000, Hallescher FC has ended its downward trend and in the 2011–12 season, they finally returned to a professional football league after 20 years of absence. They were relegated to the Regionalliga in 2024.
The origins of the club can be traced back toHallescher Fussball-Club Wacker 1900, founded in 1900 and generally referred to[by whom?] as Wacker Halle, which won the Saale district – named after the riverSaale – of the Central German championship twelve times between 1910 and its last edition 1933. These are all to be considered[by whom?] championships of one of numerous German first divisions. Main rivals here were Hallescher FC and to a lesser extentBorussia Halle,Sportfreunde Halle andSV Halle 98.
Those title qualified for participation in the Central German Championships which Wacker won 1921 and 1928. In the ensuing play-off matches for the German Championship, Wacker reached the semi-finals in 1921, there losing at home in front of a crowd of 12,000 1–5 to the later winners1. FC Nürnberg. In 1928, 10,000 saw a 0–3 quarter-final exit versusFC Bayern Munich. In 1933–34 Wacker became first champions of the newly incepted central German division of theGauliga. In the qualification group for the semi-finals of the national championship, Wacker came with one win and five defeats last behind 1. FC Nürnberg,Dresdner SC andBorussia Fulda. In the next seasons, Wacker finished second and seventh before being relegated as ninth to second division. In 1941, the club returned to Gauliga and achieved third places in the first two seasons and eighth in 1944.
After World War II Wacker Halle was dissolved, like all German clubs. In 1946SG Halle-Glaucha (SG stands for "sports community", Glaucha is an inner neighbourhood) was formed. In 1948, the new club was renamed intoSG Freiimfelde Halle, Freiimfelde being an inner eastern district.[citation needed] In April 1949, the footballers of Freiimfelde, after having won the championship ofSaxony-Anhalt, joinedZSG Union Halle, the Central Sports Community of the People-Owned Enterprises of Halle.[citation needed] The team from Halle reached the final of the Soviet zone, winning the1949 Championship of the Eastern Zone with a 4–1 victory overSG Fortuna Erfurt in front of 50,000 in theOstragehege stadium ofDresden.
Still in the same year ZSG Union became one of the founding members of theOberliga, the first division of theGerman Democratic Republic, the state founded on 7 October 1949 on the territory of the Soviet zone. The team finished the first two seasons on fifth, respectively sixth spot. After the first season the team played asBSG Turbine Halle. Attendance average in 1950–51 was just under 10.000.
In theseason 1951–52 the average rose to 22,170 per match and Turbine won the championship of East Germany, ahead ofSV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden and defendersBSG Chemie Leipzig. The form could not be retained and Turbine finished in 1953 on the 13th spot. Worse,[according to whom?] after this season some of the most important players[according to whom?] likeOtto Knefler and coach Alfred "Fred" Schulz, who led the team to both championships, made off to West Germany in the context of theuprising of 1953 in East Germany. Nevertheless, in the1953–54 DDR-Oberliga Turbine could improve to 8th position.
The East German authorities were motivated by the West German 1954 World Cup win in Switzerland to make improvements to football in their country.[citation needed] A number of BSGs were transformed to "Sport Clubs", often part of major bodies of industry.
This led to the foundation ofSC Chemie Halle-Leuna on 18 September 1954 in Halle. A large part of the football department of BSG Turbine Halle was then transferred to the new sports club. SC Chemie Halle-Leuna was also given the spot in the DDR-Oberliga of BSG Turbine Halle. BSG Turbine Halle continued to exist, but forthwith played in lower leagues. SC Chemie Halle-Leuna exists as Hallescher FC these days.[vague] BothTurbine Halle and Hallescher FC claim the era between 1945 and 1954 as part of their history.
SC Chemie Halle-Leuna was then merged with sports club SC Wissenschaft Halle to form the new sports club SC Chemie Halle on 30 June 1958.
The team would be renamedHallescher FC Chemie in 1966. The name change reflected the separation of football departments from their parent sports clubs all across East Germany, formingfootball clubs, as sports bureaucrats strove to build a powerful national football team. The football department of SC Chemie Halle was separated from the sports club and re-organized as football club Hallescher FC Chemie on 26 January 1966.
AsSC Chemie Halle-Leuna the side won its firstEast German Cup in 1956, and a second one in 1962, this time asSC Chemie Halle. The club played in the premierDDR-Oberliga as a middling side,[according to whom?] with the occasional lapse[vague] that would drop them to the second tier DDR-Liga. Their best result in this period was third place Oberliga finish in 1970–71 that earned them a first-roundUEFA Cup appearance. After holding Dutch teamPSV Eindhoven to a 0–0 draw at home, the team were caught in theHotel 't Silveren Seepaerd fire ahead of the return leg, resulting in the death of midfielder Wolfgang Hoffmann and serious injury to several others.[1] Halle withdrew from the competition immediately.
In 1991, after the last season of the DDR-Oberliga, they were placed 10th in theAll-time DDR-Oberliga table. The club had also formed a significant number of players for theEast Germany national football team, such asDariusz Wosz andBernd Bransch.
WithGerman reunification in 1990, and the merger of the country's eastern and western leagues, the club entered the2. Bundesliga asHallescher FC, the second highest all-German league. However, a lot of[quantify] important[tone] former players had already left the club for Western German or other European clubs and therefore in the1991–1992 season, they finished second to last. Following this, they were relegated to theNOFV-Oberliga. However, this was only the beginning of a steady decline that followed and the club descended down to the Verbandsliga Sachsen-Anhalt (fifth level league) by the 1995–96 season.The 1999–2000 season was a turning point[according to whom?] for Halle, they finally returned to the NOFV-Oberliga where they stayed until 2008. In 2007,Sven Köhler became the team's manager and managed to secure a first place in theNOFV-Oberliga Süd 2007–2008. Hallescher FC was promoted to theRegionalliga Nord. They surprisingly[according to whom?] finished their first Regionalliga season as a runner-up and only narrowly missed their second promotion within only two seasons. Finally, in the2011–12 season, Hallescher FC managed to succeed in a neck-and-neck race[tone] withHolstein Kiel andRB Leipzig and was able to secure the first place. This meant a direct qualification for the3. Liga and marked their return to a professional football league after a 20-year absence. Hallescher FC finished 3. Liga as 10th in 2012–13 and 2014–15 and as 9th in 2013–14 seasons.They were relegated again in 2024 after a 17th-place finish.[2]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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The following players represented theEast Germany national football team whilst playing for Hallescher FC.
