Hansa

Hansa may refer to:

Ships and transportation

Organizations

F.C. Hansa Rostock

F.C. Hansa Rostock [ʔɛf ˈt͡seː ˈhanza ˈʁɔstɔk] is a German association football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the former East Germany and have made several appearances in the Bundesliga.

After being in the Bundesliga for ten years, from 1995 to 2005, Rostock faces a steady decline. In 2012, the club was relegated to the 3. Liga for the second time and is now playing there for the fourth season consecutively.

History

The club was established on 1 November 1954 as the multi-sport Sportclub Empor Rostock. The football squad, however, couldn't be recruited from local Betriebssportgemeinschaften like the squad of the handball section, so a transfer of BSG Empor Lauter's squad from Lauter to Rostock was considered. The area around Lauter, near the Czech border, was well represented in East German football by competitive sides including Wismut Aue, Fortschritt Meerane and Motor Zwickau, so politician Karl Mewis ordered the re-assignment of the footballers of Empor Lauter, over the futile protests of the team's local supporters, to Rostock. This was not an uncommon occurrence in East German football, as clubs were regularly renamed, re-structured, dismantled, or shuffled from city to city at the direction of well-placed communist officials.

Hertha BSC

Hertha Berliner Sport-Club von 1892, commonly known as Hertha BSC or Hertha Berlin (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛʁtaː beː ʔɛs t͡seː]), is a German association football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC was founded in 1892. A founding member of the German Football Association in Leipzig in 1900. Hertha BSC play in the Bundesliga, the top-tier division of German football, after finishing at the top of the 2. Bundesliga table at the end of the 2012–13 season. Hertha BSC have won the German championship in 1930 and 1931. Since 1963, Hertha BSC's stadium is the Olympiastadion.

History

Early years

The club was formed in 1892 as BFC Hertha 92, taking its name from a steamship with a blue and white smokestack. One of the four young men who founded the club had taken a day trip on this ship with his father. The name Hertha is a variation on Nerthus referring to fertility goddess from Germanic mythology.

Hertha performed consistently well on the field, including a win in the first Berlin championship final in 1905. In May 1910, Hertha won a friendly match against Southend United F.C., which was considered significant at the time as England was where the game originated and English clubs dominated the sport. However, their on-field success was not matched financially and in 1920 the staunchly working-class Hertha merged with the well-heeled club Berliner Sport-Club to form Hertha Berliner Sport-Club. The new team continued to enjoy considerable success in the Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg, while also enduring a substantial measure of frustration. The team played its way to the German championship final in six consecutive seasons from 1926 to 1931, but were only able to come away with the title in 1930 and 1931 with BSC leaving to become an independent club again after the combined side's first championship. Even so, Hertha emerged as the Germany's second most successful team during the inter-war years.

Rostock

Rostock (German pronunciation: [ˈʁɔstɔk]; Polabian: Roztoc, Polish: Roztok), is the largest city in the north German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Rostock is on the Warnow river; the district of Warnemünde 12 kilometres (7 miles) north of the city centre is directly on the Baltic Sea coast.

Rostock is home to one of the oldest universities in the world, the University of Rostock, founded in 1419.

The city territory of Rostock stretches for about 20 km (12 mi) along the Warnow to the Baltic Sea. The largest built-up area of Rostock is on the western side of the river. The eastern part of its territory is dominated by industrial estates and the forested Rostock Heath. Rostock is considered as the only regiopolis in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

History

Early history

In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc (*ras-tokŭ, Slavic for "fork of a river"); the name Rostock is derived from that designation.

The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161. Afterwards the place was settled by German traders. Initially there were three separate cities:

Würzburger Kickers

Würzburger Kickers is a German association football club playing in Würzburg, Bavaria.

History

Founded in 1907, the team has played for most of its history as an unknown local side, although they did manage three seasons in the Bezirksliga Bayern, from 1930 to 1933, and two single season appearances in the Gauliga Bayern (1940–41, 1942–43) one of sixteen top-flight division established in the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich.

The club became part of the Landesliga Bayern (II) after the Second World War. Kickers put on some strong performances through the 50s in the Amateurliga Bayern (II-III) but never quite managed a breakthrough. Through the 60s and on into the early 80s the club played as a third division side with the exception of a single season (1977–78) played in the 2. Bundesliga after their divisional title win in the Oberliga Bayern (III) in '77. By 1983 financial difficulties contributed to a slide to fourth division play in the Landesliga Bayern-Nord which became a fifth tier circuit in 1994. Two difficult seasons over 2002–2004 saw the club descend through the Bezirksoberliga Unterfranken (VI) to the Bezirksliga Unterfranken (VII). Kickers recovered and returned to the Oberliga Bayern on the strength of a 2nd place in the 2007–08 Landesliga season. The club met local rival Würzburger FV there for the first Würzburg league derby since 1998–99.