Rugby Union in Germany - History

History

Rugby union reached Germany through affluent British students who attended renowned private grammar schools in the German Confederation or studied in Heidelberg; others completed their military service in Hanover and played rugby in their spare time. This has influenced German rugby to this day: Heidelberg and Hanover are the centres of the sport in Germany.

The first German rugby team existed at Neuenheim College - now called Heidelberg College - in Heidelberg. Around 1850, the game started to attract the attention of the students. Students under the guidance of the teacher Edward Hill Ullrich were the ones who then founded the rugby department of the Heidelberger Ruderklub von 1872/Heidelberger Flaggenklub' was established. (HRK 1872) in 1891, which today claims to be the oldest German rugby club.

The oldest still existing rugby department within a club is that of DSV 78 Hannover, formed in 1878 by Ferdinand-Wilhelm Fricke.

The first form of competition on national scale was organised in 1900, on 4 November a South versus North game was held, won 11-3 by northern Germany. This annual game became a fixture until 1967, when it was replaced by a state championship. In 1999, the DRV returned to the old north-south game but its importance has not reached former levels.

In 1909, a national club championship was first organised. The champions of the north, FV 1897 Hannover, met southern club FV 1893 Stuttgart and won 6-3 on 14 November 1909.

The German Rugby Federation was set up in 1900, its first chairman being Ferdinand-Wilhelm Fricke. Germany was Olympic silver medallist in rugby union in 1900 and beat France twice in the 1930s.

In 1927, a German national rugby union team was organised. This team debuted on 17 April 1927 in Stade de Colombes in Paris, losing 5-30 to France. In May, Germany won the return match in Frankfurt 17-16 and the 3-14 loss to France in the third international between the two countries on 18 March 1928 set the still valid record for home attendance for the German side, 14,000 spectators.

Long the preserve of the German middle classes, the most prominent German rugby fan/player was the controversial Albert Speer. Indeed, German rugby peaked in the pre-World War II period, when in 1938, Germany beat France 3-0 for the second time. However, during the subsequent years, the war and social upheaval effectively set German rugby back to square one. It was for a period seen as a very English game, which worked against it; as a result it lost its financial support and much of the popularity it had gained in the western and northern cities of Heidelberg, Hanover and Frankfurt.

Like all other German sport federations, the DRV was absorbed in the all-powerful Nazi sports organisation, the Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen, as part of "Department 2", which also served association football and cricket. Hermann Meister, chairman of the DRV, a firm believer in a united Europe and a friend of France, tried to live up to his ideals but rugby by and large offered no more resistance to the Nazis than any other sport.

The sport was decimated by World War II as most of the players were killed. Germany, at its height of performance in 1939, and second only to France in continental Europe, lost virtually its whole national team during the war and never recovered from this.

Of the centres of German rugby, only Heidelberg, future headquarters of the US forces in West Germany, was spared by the bombing raids and the sport of rugby carried low priority in the first post war years. In 1948, the German championship was restored and the golden area of the TSV Victoria Linden begun, the team winning the title six times in a row from 1951 to 1956, an unmatched achievement. As a first English team after the war, the Oxford Greyhounds visited Germany in 1950 and a first international was won against Belgium in 1952. But Germany's national team never reached the strength again it had before the war.

After the Second World War, the DRV was restored on May 14, 1950 in West Germany.

But even rugby was not immune to the Cold War split, one Burt Weiss, an East German rugby player escaped to West Berlin using a snorkel. The DRV continued to offer the East German DTSB to play a rugby friendly, but this was always declined by the East. After a combined team of Lok and Post Berlin happened to play West German side Berliner SC in a tournament in Olomouc in 1985, a ban on participation in international tournamnts with West German clubs was issued by the DTSB.

A Rugby-Bundesliga was formed in 1971 to replace the previously existing regional championships. The hoped for increase in interest however did not materialise and rugby remains a minor sport in Germany, almost exclusevly played by amateurs.

With German reunification, a number of clubs from former East Germany joined the German league system.

In 2000 the German Rugby Federation celebrated its centenary. Centenary celebrations included a banquet in the Heidelberg Castle and the hosting of the European leg of the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Heidelberg, in which the German team came close to upsetting Ireland, who had Gordon D'Arcy in their line-up. The tournament was won by the Welsh team, which featured Andy Marinos and Arwel Thomas.

The highlight of the Centenary season was the Centenary Match against the famous Barbarians. The Barbarians included a host of Welsh, English, Scottish, Irish and Australian internationals including Scott Hastings, Peter Stringer, Shaun Longstaff, Jeff Probyn, Frankie Sheahan, Russell Earnshaw, Shaun Connor, John Langford and Derwyn Jones and won 47-19 against a determined German team.

The German federation tendered to host the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup but the event was awarded to England instead. It did however hold the 2008 Hannover Sevens, the European Sevens championship.

An important part of rugby union outside the structures of the German federation is the Army Rugby Union of the British Army in Germany which holds its own "German" championship. The winner of this competition advances to play the UK Army rugby union champion. The British Army also supported development of the sport in the region by a British Army Germany rugby union team playing the national teams of Germany and its neighbouring countries.

The German Rugby Federation suffered a major crisis in 2011, finding itself close to insolvency, being € 200,000 in debt. The situation was brought on by the annual grant of the German federal ministry of the interior, BMI, not being paid in 2010 after the ministry voiced concerns that the DRV was not using the money for the desired purpose, to support the sport. A legal battle that the DRV chairman Claus-Peter Bach fought with the ministry did not bring the desired result but instead worsened the situation. Bach consequently announced he would not stand for another term in July 2011 and was replaced by Ralph Götz. The DRV was able to secure a private loan to survive and hopes to attract sponsors that had withdrawn under Bach as well as to reach a settlement with the BMI.

In mid-July 2012 the Deutsche Rugby Tag (DRT), the annual general meeting of the DRV decided to approve a league reform proposed by German international Manuel Wilhelm. The new system will see the number of clubs in the Bundesliga increased from ten to 24, the league divided into four regional divisions of six clubs each and the finals series expanded from four to eight teams. One of the main aims of the reform was to reduce the number of kilometres travlled by individual teams and therefore reduce the travel expenses. The DRV also announced at the DRT 2012 that it was able to avoid insolvency and regain its annual grants from the German gouvernment on the condition that it sticks to a strict financial plan that would see the DRV dept free by 2018. Any violation of this plan would see the funding withdrawn and the association confronted with insolvency again.