page_title: SV Werder Bremen
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: SV Werder Bremen / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Chart of end-season table positions of Werder Bremen in the football league system of Germany. Data source: RSSSF, wikipedia, f-archiv.de, fussball.de Deutsch: Historische Tabellenplatzierungen von Werder Bremen im Fußball-Ligasystem in Deutschland English: Результаты «Вердера» (Бремен) в чемпионате Германии. Указаны места в таблице по итогам каждого сезона.
context_page_description: Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V., commonly known as Werder Bremen or simply Werder, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for their professional football team, who are competing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. Werder hold the record for most seasons played in the Bundesliga and are third in the all-time Bundesliga table, behind Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
  Werder have been German champions four times, have won the DFB-Pokal six times, the DFL-Ligapokal once, the DFL-Supercup thrice, and the European Cup Winners' Cup once. The team's first major came in the 1960–61 DFB-Pokal, a competition they have last won in 2008–09. Their first German championship came in 1964–65, and their latest in 2003–04, when they won the double. In Europe, Werder won the 1992 European Cup Winners' Cup in a final against AS Monaco. They were runners-up in the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, losing against Shakhtar Donetsk in the final.
  Since 1909, Werder have played at the Weserstadion.
context_section_description: On 4 February 1899, FV Werder Bremen was founded by a group of 16-year-old students who had won a football, after they were victorious in a tug of war tournament. The students took the name "Werder" from the German word for "river peninsula", which described the riverside field on which they played their first football games. The club's first match was played on 10 September 1899 against ASC 1898 Bremen, winning 1–0. In 1900, the team was represented at the founding of the German Football Association (DFB) at Leipzig. They then enjoyed some early success, winning a number of local championships. In 1903, all three Werder teams won their local league competitions. In these years, FV participated in qualification rounds for the national championships held by the Norddeutscher Fussball Verband (NFV), one of the seven major regional leagues after the turn of the century, but were unable to advance. Due to the club's early popularity, Werder became the first club in Bremen to charge spectators a fee to attend their games and to fence in their playing field.
  Steady growth after the First World War led the club to adopt other sports (athletics, baseball, chess, cricket, and tennis). On 19 January 1920, the team adopted their current name; Sportverein Werder Bremen. Football remained the club's main sport, and in 1922, they became the first club in Bremen to hire a professional coach; Ferenc Kónya. The team made regular appearances in year-end NFV play-offs through the 1920s and on into the early 1930s, but did not enjoy any success. In the mid-1930s, striker Matthias Heidemann became the club's first international.
  In 1933, German football was re-organized by the Nazi's into 16 first tier divisions known as Gauligen, as Werder became part of Gauliga Niedersachsen. The team scored their first real successes, capturing division titles in 1934, 1936, and 1937, and participated for the first time in the national play-offs. The shape of the Gauligen changed through the course of the Second World War, and in 1939, the Gauliga Niedersachsen was split into two divisions. SV played in the Gauliga Niedersachsen/Nord where they captured a fourth title in 1942. In 1944–45, German football was suspended after only two matches. Like other organizations throughout Germany, the club was disbanded on the order of the occupying Allied authorities after the war. They re-constituted themselves on 10 November 1945 as Turn- und Sportverein Werder 1945 Bremen, which was changed to Sport-Club Grün-Weiß 99 Bremen on 4 February 1946. The team played in the Stadtliga Bremen, and after winning the competition, participated in the northern German championship, advancing to the quarter-finals. They were able to reclaim the name SV Werder on 25 March 1946 before taking part in the play-offs.
  In these years, professionals were not permitted to play in Germany, so it was normal for football players to take on other jobs, often with the club's local patron. In the case of Werder, a number of the players worked at the nearby Brinkmann tobacco factory, and so the side took on the nickname Texas 11 after one of the company's popular cigarette brands.
  Between the end of the Second World War and the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, the club continued to perform, being recognized as one of the top two teams in northern Germany, along with Hamburger SV. In 1960–61, Werder managed to win their first DFB-Pokal, defeating 1. FC Kaiserslautern. The team consisted of future international Sepp Piontek, former international Willi Schröder, and Arnold Schütz, among others. A second place in the 1962–63 Oberliga Nord, behind Hamburger SV, was enough to qualify as a founder member for the 1963–64 Bundesliga. The first goal of the newly created Bundesliga was scored by Borussia Dortmund's Friedhelm Konietzka against Werder. In the league's second season, Werder won their first national championship, finishing three points clear of 1. FC Köln. One of the team's stars was German international Horst-Dieter Höttges. Werder finished runners-up in 1967–68, but then languished in t
caption: Historical chart of Werder's league performance after the Second World War
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