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| Full name | Rot-Weiss Essen e. V. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | RWE[citation needed] | ||
| Founded | 1 February 1907; 118 years ago (1907-02-01) | ||
| Ground | Stadion an der Hafenstraße | ||
| Capacity | 20,650 | ||
| President | Marc-Nicolai Pfeifer | ||
| Head coach | Uwe Koschinat | ||
| League | 3. Liga | ||
| 2024–25 | 3. Liga, 8th of 20 | ||
| Website | www | ||
 Current season | |||
Rot-Weiss Essen is aGerman association football club based inEssen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club plays in the 3. Liga, at theStadion an der Hafenstraße.
The team won theDFB-Pokal in 1953, and theGerman championship in 1955. The latter success qualified them to the first season of theEuropean Cup.
The club was formed asSV Vogelheim on 1 February 1907 out of the merger of two smaller clubs:SC Preussen andDeutsche Eiche.[citation needed] In 1910,Vogelheim came to an arrangement withTurnerbund Bergeborbeck that allowed the two clubs to field a football side.[citation needed] The footballers left in 1913 to set up their own club,Spiel- und Sportverein Emscher-Vogelheim, which changed its name toSpiel und Sport 1912 after World War I. Finally, in 1923, this side turned again toTurnerbund Bergeborbeck to createRot-Weiss Essen.
In 1938,RWE broke into top-flight football in theGauliga Niederrhein, one of sixteen premier divisions formed in the 1933 re-organization of German football under theThird Reich, and came within a point of taking the division title in 1941. In 1943, they played withBV Altenessen as the combined wartime sideKSG SC Rot-Weiß Essen/BV 06 Altenessen.[citation needed] The next season this club was in turn joined byBVB Essen, but played only a single match in a stillborn season as World War II overtook the country.
The club returned to first division football in theOberliga West in 1948, where a series of strong seasons saw them win divisional championships in 1952 and 1955, as well as finishing runners-up in 1949 and 1954 and third in 1950 and 1953. The pinnacle of the club's success came with a 2–1 win overAlemannia Aachen in the 1953DFB-Pokal final, followed by a national championship in 1955 when it beat1. FC Kaiserslautern 4–3. Due to this success Rot-Weiss became the first German side to qualify for theEuropean Cup, losing 5–1 on aggregate to Scottish clubHibernian in thefirst round.[1]
The club remained competitive for the remainder of the 1950s, continuing to finish in the division's top half, but 1961 saw a sharp decline leading to relegation from the Oberliga West at the end of the season. The club then played most of the 1960s as a second division side, though it did make a first appearance in the top-flightBundesliga in1966–67. It returned to the Bundesliga for two seasons in1969–70, and again, for four seasons beginning in1973–74.
Between 1978 and the end of the century Rot-Weiss was a second- or third-tier club, with just one season spent in the regionalOberliga Nordrhein (IV) in 1998–99. During this period, the club was plagued by financial problems that saw it denied a licence in 1984, 1991, and 1994, leading to relegation from the 2. Bundesliga each time as a result. Bright spots during this period included winning theGerman amateur championship in 1992 and an appearance in the1994 DFB-Pokal final, which they lost 1–3 toSV Werder Bremen.
RWE returned to theRegionalliga Nord (III) in 1999, but dropped to the Oberliga (IV) the next season. In 2004, they won promotion back to the 2. Bundesliga, but stumbled to a 17th-place finish and were relegated once again.
In November 2005,Pelé became an honorary club member (membership number 23101940).[2][3]
The team reappeared in the 2. Bundesliga after winning the Regionalliga Nord in2006, but narrowly missed staying up when they lost the critical final match of the2006–07 season 3–0 toMSV Duisburg. Rot-Weiss then became a fourth division side following the introduction of the3. Liga in 2008.
RWE filed for insolvency in June 2010 and were therefore not granted a license to continue playing in theRegionalliga West,[4] but the club were granted a license to play in the fifth-tierNRW-Liga for the 2010–11 season whilst administrators restructured the club's finances.[5][6][7] They won the fifth level NRW-Liga in 2010–11 and returned to Regionalliga West for the2011–12 season.
In March 2014,Marc Fascher was appointed as head coach on a contract until 2015.[8] He was sacked on 31 March 2015.[9]
On 14 October 2017,Argirios Giannikis was appointed as manager of the club on a contract until the end of the season.[10] He led Essen to pick up 13 points from the six games between his appointment and the winter break.[10] On 20 January 2018, Giannikis announced that he would not renew his contract at Essen beyond the end of the season,[11] as it was later announced that he was to becomeVfR Aalen manager for the following season.[12] Having suffered hostility from Essen supporters for this decision, he left the club on 7 April 2018 and was immediately succeeded byKarsten Neitzel.[13]
Rot-Weiss were promoted to the 3. Liga for the 2022–23 season as champions of the2021–22 Regionalliga West, returning to the third tier of German football for the first time in 14 years.[14]
Until 2012 Rot-Weiss played in theGeorg-Melches-Stadion (capacity 15,000), named in honour of a former club president. In 1956, the team's home field became the first stadium in West Germany to have floodlights.[15]
Since August 2012, RWE has played in the newStadion Essen (capacity 20,000). The naming rights to the stadium includeRWE AG.
Fortuna Düsseldorf,Rot-Weiß Oberhausen andWuppertaler SV are local rivals when they are playing in the same league (as took place in the2007–08 season). The club's fiercest rivalry is withMSV Duisburg.[16]
The club also has a big rivalry withFC Schalke 04, from nearbyGelsenkirchen, with whom they contest theRuhrderby; whilst historically the two clubs maintained a good relationship, Schalke's involvement in the1971 Bundesliga scandal, which contributed to Essen's relegation from the Bundesliga in the 1970–71 season, angered Essen fans and allowed a rivalry to develop between the two clubs.[17]
In the past, the local derbies versusSchwarz-Weiß Essen were big events, sometimes followed by more than 30,000 fans, however since their rivals decline the rivalry has waned in importance.[18][19] Although often described in political terms, with the "reds" allegedly beingleft-wing and the "blacks"right-wing, in reality there was no substantive distinction. The rivalry was more based on the geography of the city, a north (RWE) versus south (SWE) city divide.[20] and with northern Essen being predominantly working class historically and the south of the city being generally regarded as a wealthier area, inhabited by the upper-middle class.[21]
The RWE followers have a strong fan friendship withSV Werder Bremen. There is also a friendship withBorussia Dortmund, although some disagreements have taken place since 2018.[22]
The club's honours:
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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(in German)| International | |
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