VfL WolfsburgTeam
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How it all started: The first ten years Football today in Wolfsburg, is more than ever a magnet which attracts the lovers of "The beautiful game" from the town and surrounding areas. Crowds of between 20,000 and 30,000 regularly come to watch the first team play their matches in the Bundesliga. Was that always the case in Wolfsburg? By no means, because as VfL started up, all they had was an undying will to play sports again especially football. How the club became green and white The local youth trainer at the time was a man called Bernd Elberskirch, who had ten green coloured jerseys at his disposal. Bed sheets donated by the public were sewn together by wives to make the shorts to go with the shirts. The fact that not only the club stuck with green and white as their club colours, but that the town also adopted the colours, makes every VfL fan proud to this day! The difficult first years 1946: At the beginning of the year, the club almost ceased to exist, as all but one of the players moved to what was then 1 FC Wolfsburg, after they had beaten a side called TSV Sülfeld 5-1. "Jupp" Josef Meyer was the only one who stayed. He made his way over to see Willi Hilbert, to discuss how the duo could form a respectable football-playing team. Both "signed" a group of men within the next few days, few of whom had ever played football. Hermann Heuser (later boss of the successful VfL handball team), Heinz Walter (Boxer), Ernst Buchert, the Schwarzenbart brothers, Heinz Birg and others were in the new team, which lost its first match against an English army side 0-8. But the basis was there, and that was the only thing which counted! A year after starting out, the side won their first title (area champions Gifhorn). Sportsmen of the early years VfL began in 1946 with a solitary men’s team. By 1947, they had amassed two senior sides, as well as a youth team and a school team. The next year saw them grow to four youth teams and four school teams. By 1955 VfL had six adult men's teams, five youth and four school teams with 632 members. Willi Hilbert, Josef Meyer, Friedel Geduldig, Andreas Böhm, Hugo Tacke, Viktor Schwab as well as Dr. Willi Wolf and Rudolf Zenker, all made personal sacrifices to lay the foundation to make the club what it is today. One mustn't forget the huge contribution made by Günther Brockmeyer, who joined in 1948 and was on the club board for over forty years. Another unforgettable name of that era was that of a certain Albert Sulewski, who did sterling work for many years in the club's youth programme. |
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