Eimsbütteler TV

The beginnings

The roots of the association lay in the 12 June 1889 formation of the gymnastics club Eimsbütteler Turnerschaft. This club broke up within a month when a number of members left to form Eimsbütteler Männerturnverein. On 1 May 1893 the two groups were re-united as Hamburg-Eimsbütteler Turnverein, while a new association using the name Eimsbütteler Turnerschaft was established 28 December the same year. This club in turn joined HETV to create Eimsbütteler Turnverband on 19 February 1898 with the goal of constructing a common sports hall. The facility was completed in 1910, under the direction of the chairman Julius Sparbier. A football department was established within ETV on 12 May 1906 and the footballers took up play in the A-Klasse Hamburg, the highest league in the city. They sent their first representative to the national side in 1910 and won their first city title in 1915. The team went on to make several appearances in the playoff round of the country's northern regional league in the late 20s and early 30s. In 1926, they lost the final of the regional Nordpokal (North German Cup) to Holstein Kiel by a score of 1–3.

The club's golden years

The Eimsbüttel side enjoyed its greatest success playing in the Gauliga Nordmark, one of sixteen top flight divisions formed in the 1933 reorganization of German football under the Third Reich. The team captured titles there in 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940 and 1942, often in close contests with better known…