On 2 June 1900, Germania 1896 and FG Kaiserslautern merged to create FC 1900. In 1909, the club went on to join FC Palatia (founded in 1901) and FC Bavaria (founded in 1902) to form FV 1900 Kaiserslautern. In 1929, they merged with SV Phönix to become FV Phönix-Kaiserslautern, before finally taking on their current name in 1933.
As a founding member of theBundesliga, FCK played from 1963 to 1996 uninterrupted in the top division. They have won fourGerman championships, twoDFB-Pokals, and oneDFL-Supercup, and rank among the most successful football clubs in Germany, currently occupying eleventh place in theall-time Bundesliga table. The club's international performances include reaching theChampions Leaguequarter-finals in 1999, as well as playing in the UEFA Cup semi-finals twice. Their first league title in the Bundesliga era was won in1991. Kaiserslautern then won the German championship in the1997–98 season, becoming the only team ever to win as a newly promoted team. After a six-year spell in the second tier, in 2018 they were relegated to the3. Liga for the first time. In 2022, Kaiserslautern was promoted again to the2. Bundesliga after winning the promotion playoff match.
Since 1920, Kaiserslautern's stadium has been theFritz-Walter-Stadion, named in 1985 afterFritz Walter, the captain of the West Germany national team who won the World Cup in1954. Walter spent his entire career at Kaiserslautern.
FC Kaiserslautern home stadium Fritz-Walter-Stadion.
Two of the club's predecessors, Bavaria and FC 1900 Kaiserslautern, were part of theWestkreis-Liga (I) when this league was formed in 1908, with the latter winning the first league. The new FV Kaiserslautern finished as runners-up in the league in 1910 and 1912. The team reached tier one in the newKreisliga Saar in 1919, theKreisliga Pfalz in 1920 and theBezirksliga Rhein-Saar in 1931. Throughout the 1930s, they spent time in both the Bezirksliga and the upper levelGauliga Südwest, one of sixteen top flight divisions formed in the re-organization of German football underNazi Germany.[4]
The club's performance improved after 1939, winning the Gauliga Südwest/Staffel Saarpfalz title, but losing the overall division title to Staffel Mainhessen winnersKickers Offenbach. In the 1941–42 season the Gauliga Südwest was split into theGauliga Hessen-Nassau and theGauliga Westmark, and Kaiserslautern took the Westmark title, going on to play for the first time in the national final rounds. They were knocked out 3–9 by eventual championsSchalke 04.[4]
The team finished last in their division in 1944. The following year saw the collapse of league play due to the effects of theSecond World War.[4]
Historical chart of Kaiserslautern league performance
After the war, southwestern Germany was part of the occupation zone held by the French. Teams there were organized into northern and southern divisions, and played to determine which of them would join the new Oberliga. French authorities were slow to loosen their control over play in their zones of occupation, and, in theSaarland in particular, teams in the French areas took longer to join the re-established Germany national league than in other parts of the country. 1. FC Kaiserslautern resumed play in theOberliga Südwest in 1945, and finished the season just one point behind1. FC Saarbrücken. The next season, they won the Gruppe Nord in 1947. FCK'sFritz andOttmar Walter scored 46 goals between them, more than any other entire team.
This marked the beginning of the club's dominance of the Oberliga Südwest as they went on to win the division title eleven times over the next twelve seasons. FCK advanced to Germany's first post-war national final in 1948, but lost 1–2 to1. FC Nürnberg.
Kaiserslautern became a presence on the national scene through the early 1950s, winning their first German championship in 1951 with a 2–1 victory of their own, this time overPreußen Münster. They won a second title in 1953, followed by two losing final appearances in 1954 and 1955. The club also sent five players to the national side for the1954 FIFA World Cup, whichWest Germany won in a final sometimes referred to asThe Miracle of Bern.[5]
Kaiserslautern lost 0–2 toWerder Bremen in the 1961DFB-Pokal final. The side recovered its form in time to again win their division on the eve of the formation in 1963 of theBundesliga, Germany's new professional football league. This secured them one of the 16 places in the new top flight circuit. They were German Cup runners-up in 1972, 1976, and 1981, and were UEFA Cup semi-finalists in1982 (losing narrowly to eventual winnersIFK Göteborg). The club finally won the domestic Cup in1990, and followed up this achievement thefollowing season with their first Bundesliga championship. Both times the manager wasKarl-Heinz Feldkamp.
1. FCK won a second German Cup in1996, but were relegated to2. Bundesliga with a 16th-place finish just one week before the Cup final. At the time, Kaiserslautern was one of only four of the original 16 teams that had played in each Bundesliga season since the inception of the league, having never been relegated. This group also includedEintracht Frankfurt (who went down in the same season),1. FC Köln (down in 1998), and "the Dinosaur",Hamburger SV, whose spell ended in 2018.[6]
Otto Rehhagel let the newly promoted FC Kaiserslautern to win the 1998-99 Bundesliga Championship.
FCK won the2. Bundesliga championship and earned promotion to theBundesliga at the first attempt in 1997, They then immediately went on to win the national championship under veteran coachOtto Rehhagel — the only newly promoted team to win the Bundesliga title in German football history.[7][8][9][10] They also played in the1998–99 UEFA Champions League, where they topped a group comprisingPSV,Benfica andHJK Helsinki, but were eliminated in the quarter-finals by compatriotsBayern Munich, who also took back thedomestic title (FCK finished 5th).
Despite coming close to a UEFA Cup final in2001, Kaiserslautern was close to bankruptcy, and at the centre of a public controversy. The club's management –Jürgen Friedrich, Robert Wieschemann and Gerhard Herzog – were forced out. A new team president, Rene C. Jäggi, sold the Fritz-Walter-Stadion to an entity owned by the LandRheinland-Pfalz and the city of Kaiserslautern, while a new coach,Erik Gerets, led the team out of last place and saved them from relegation.
At the start of the 2003–04 season, the club received a three-point penalty imposed by theGerman Football Association for financial misconduct.[vague] Gerets was fired[tone] and replaced byKurt Jara. Jara was unpopular with the FCK faithful[tone] for his defensive football philosophy. Jara quit the position before the season ended, citing irreconcilable differences with club management.
Fans celebrating the club's promotion right before the firstBundesliga home game in four years, which was held against rivalsBayern Munich.
In 2005,Michael Henke, who had served as long-time assistant toOttmar Hitzfeld, became coach. FCK was initially successful, but later returned to bottom of the table. Henke was fired,[tone] and FCK alumnusWolfgang Wolf took up[tone] the trainer's role. Wolf brought in many[quantify] young, home-grown players, but at the end of the 2005–06 season, FCK were once again relegated to the 2. Bundesliga after a nine-year stay in the top flight. They finished the 2006–07 season in sixth place in the 2. Bundesliga, seven points out of the promotion places.
On 20 May 2007, the club announced the Norwegian managerKjetil Rekdal, formerly with Belgian sideLierse, as their new head coach. Rekdal took over on 1 July. After only three wins in 19 games, the club was in 16th place and Rekdal was sacked and replaced byMilan Šašić in February 2008. In April 2008, the club hiredStefan Kuntz as chairman, and with new leadership they saved themselves from relegation to the new3. Liga with a win over already promoted 1. FC Köln on the final day of the 2007–08 season.
Šašić lasted almost the entire2008–09 season, but was dismissed on 4 May 2009 after a run of poor results in the second half of the season, and three days after a 1–5 defeat byHansa Rostock.[11] Alois Schwartz was named interim coach, and he managed the club to a seventh-place finish on the season. in June 2009 the club hiredMarco Kurz as head coach.
Marco Kurz led FC Kaiserslautern to win promotion to the Bundesliga in 2010.
Under Kurz, the club secured promotion to the 1. Bundesliga on 25 April 2010, after four years in the second league. At the start of the2010–11 season, newly promoted 1. FCK had a promising[according to whom?] two-straight wins, including a 2–0 victory over the previous year's Bundesliga champions, Bayern Munich. However, after a 2–1 defeat atMainz 05 and a 5–0 drubbing[tone] at eventual season championsBorussia Dortmund, the club began to struggle, and fell back to just ahead of the relegation zone. The club then had a poor start to the second half of the season – dropping into the relegation zone for several weeks – but managed to rally, earning seven victories in their last ten matches. They ended this run with four straight victories to finish the season at the seventh place.
The home game between FC Kaiserslautern and rivalsBayern Munich at the Fritz-Walter-Stadion.
The following season,2011–12, the club finished in the bottom 18th place, and after two seasons in the top flight, were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga. They remained in that division until2018, being relegated to thethird tier for the first time in club history.
In March 2022, a U.S. consortium consisting ofChien Lee of NewCity Capital, Krishen Sud, Partners Path Capital and Pacific Media Group, bought 10% of the club.[2]
On 24 May 2022, four years after their first relegation into Germany's third division, Kaiserslautern were promoted back to the 2. Bundesliga.[12]
In the2023-24 season, Kaiserslauten made a surprising DFB-Pokal run, winning against fourth division side FC Rot-Weiß Koblenz, Bundesliga side 1. FC Köln, second division side 1. FC Nürnberg and third division side 1. FC Saarbrücken to reach theDFB-Pokal final, the first in 21 years where they narrowly lost 1-0 to the reigning Bundesliga championBayer 04 Leverkusen.
The club's reserve team,1. FC Kaiserslautern II, played as 1. FC Kaiserslautern Amateure until 2005. It made a first appearance in the tier threeAmateurliga Südwest in 1957. It won a league championship in 1960 and 1968 but was not entitled to promotion to professional level. In 1978, when theOberliga Südwest was introduced the team qualified for this new league which it would belong to, with the exception of the 1982–83 season, until 1992. It won promotion back to the Oberliga in 1994 and became ayo-yo team between this league and theRegionalliga above, a league newly introduced in 1994. The team was relegated from the latter in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2007 but each time won promotion back to the league. Between 2012 and 2017, the club played in theRegionalliga Südwest.
The team has also won theSouthwestern Cup on three occasions, in 1979, 1997 and 2008. Through this competition, 1. FC Kaiserslautern II qualified for theDFB-Pokal on three occasions, reaching the second round twice and being drawn against their own first team in 1997–98 where they lost 5–0.[13]
P = Played; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Loss; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points; Cup =DFB-Pokal; CWC =European Cup Winners' Cup; EL =UEFA Europa League; CL =UEFA Champions League. – = Not attended; 1R = 1st round; 2R = 2nd round; 3R = 3rd round; 1/8 = Round of sixteen; QF = Quarter-finals; SF = Semi-finals.
FCK plays its home fixtures in theFritz-Walter-Stadion first built in 1920. In 1985 the stadium and the adjacent street were named for the player who brought the club to prominence after World War II. The facility is built on the Betzenberg, literally "Mount Betze", a steep sandstone hill.
The stadium has a capacity of 49,327 and was a venue at the2006 World Cup, hosting four preliminary round and one group of 16-round matches. The facility underwent a major refurbishment for the tournament with addition of new grandstands and a roof.[28]
Kaiserslautern's Fritz-Walter-Stadion has long been a feared away venue given the intense passion of Kaiserslautern fans: the most faithful[according to whom?] of these supporters are located in the stadium's "Westkurve" (Westside, literally "West Curve", since the stands used to be shaped in a semicircle behind the goals). Bayern Munich once lost a match here in 1973 by a score of 7–4 after leading 4–1 at the 58th minute.[29]
FC Kaiserslautern has a strong connection with theUnited States, especially through the AmericanRamstein Air Base near the city of Kaiserslautern, the largest U.S. military community outside the United States, which has helped create a large fan base of American service members and their families. American player and formerU.S. Men’s National Team forwardTerrence Boyd has also been a forward for the FC Kaiserslautern team, and a U.S. consortium purchased a stake in the club in 2022.[30]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
The basketball department was founded in 1952.[33] The seniors team played in the second German Basketball league from 2002 until 2007.[citation needed] In the 2014–15 season, both the male and female senior teams play in the fourth division.
Thewheelchair basketball teamFCK Rolling Devils was founded in 2009 as a part of the club's basketball department and turned into a separate department in 2013.[34] Since 2014, the Rolling Devils play in the1st German Wheelchair Basketball Federal League.[35] In July 2015, the outsourcing of Rolling Devils into an independent club with 1.FC Kaiserslautern as name sponsor took place and the FCK department was suspended at the annual meeting of 1.FC Kaiserslautern in December 2015.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
