page_title: Arminia Bielefeld
section_title: Post World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Arminia Bielefeld / History / Post World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Chart of end-season table positions of Arminia Bielefeld in the football league system of Germany. Data source: RSSSF, wikipedia, f-archiv.de, fussball.de Deutsch: Historische Tabellenplatzierungen von Arminia Bielefeld im Fußball-Ligasystem in Deutschland Русский: Результаты «Арминии» (Билефельд) в чемпионате Германии. Указаны места в таблице по итогам каждого сезона.
context_page_description: DSC Arminia Bielefeld, or just Arminia, is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of football, field hockey, figure skating and cue sports. The club has 12,000 members and the club colours are black, white and blue. Arminia's name derives from the Cheruscan chieftain Arminius, who defeated a Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
  The club is most commonly known for its professional football team that play in the 2. Bundesliga and mostly played in the first or second tier of the German football league system, among them 17 seasons in the 1. Bundesliga, to which they will return in the 2020–21 season. Arminia's most successful years were the 1920s, the early 1980s and the middle 2000s. In 1947 and in the 1950s Arminia had sunk down to a team playing in a rather local area in the third tier.
  Arminia has been playing their home games at the Bielefelder Alm Stadium since 1926. Since 2004 the stadium has been named SchücoArena through a sponsorship deal.
context_section_description: After World War II, a new league with all teams who competed in the Gauliga Westfalen was formed. Arminia were relegated and failed to win re-promotion. In 1947–48, Arminia were a third division side for the first time in their history. After a dominating season in the Bezirksklasse, Arminia was docked 14 points because they fielded an ineligible player. The next season was already under way when the Landesliga (II) was expanded by two teams. Arminia took their chance, won the league and gained promotion to the Oberliga West.
  The dream lasted for only a year. Arminia beat Schalke 04 4–2 at home but finished only second from the bottom. In 1954, Arminia were even relegated to the third tier, the "Landesliga Westfalen, Gruppe Ostwestfalen", a league only covering the north-eastern part of Westphalia. In 1956, Arminia qualified for a new third tier, the "Verbandsliga Westfalen, Gruppe Ostwestfalen", which encompassed a slightly larger area. Only in 1962, Arminia became a second division side again (then: 2. Liga West, covering the whole of North Rhine-Westphalia). In 1962–63, they struggled to finish on seventh place to secure a spot in the newly formed Regionalliga West, which was situated directly below the new Bundesliga.
  Arminia finished their first seasons in mid-table, but became one of the better Regionalliga teams later on. In 1966, Arminia beat Alemannia Aachen to claim the West German Cup for the first time. A year later, forward Ernst Kuster joined the team and went on to become the club's all-time leading goal scorer. A 0–1 loss to Wuppertaler SV on the last day of the 1966–67 season held Arminia to enter the Bundesliga promotion play-offs. Arminia were runners-up in the 1969–70 season and won their first promotion to the Bundesliga after a 2–0 win at Tennis Borussia Berlin in the play-offs.
caption: Historical chart of Arminia Bielefeld league performance after WWII
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