Eisenhüttenstädter FC Stahl


Eisenhüttenstädter FC Stahl was a German association football club based in Eisenhüttenstadt, Brandenburg, near the Polish border.

History

The club's predecessors were founded as BSG Stahl Fürstenberg Ost in 1950. The community of Stalinstadt was built nearby for the workers of the local ironworks, and so the team was known as BSG Stahl Stalinstadt from 1953 to 1961. Fuerstenberg, Stalinstadt and the village of Schönfließ were merged late in 1961 to form Eisenhüttenstadt, and the club, in turn, became BSG Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt.
Stahl played as a second division side in East Germany's DDR-Liga just two forays into the first tier DDR-Oberliga. In 1970–71, the team was relegated from the Oberliga to Bezirksliga Frankfurt for "damaging the principles of socialist society" when it became too obvious that they were paying their players.
After German reunification in 1990, the side took on its current name and appeared in the last FDGB-Pokal final in 1991, losing to league champions Hansa Rostock by a score of 1–0. This qualified for them for the following year's Cup Winner's Cup. They were eliminated in the first round, by Galatasaray.
That was the high point for the club which slipped into the third tier NOFV-Oberliga Nord. The club became part of the new Regionalliga Nordost in 1994 and played at this level until the league was disbanded in 2000. Stahl then returned to the Oberliga for the next five seasons. Late in 2004, the club went bankrupt, withdrew from competition and had their results annulled. They recovered themselves sufficiently to be able to field a side in Verbandsliga Brandenburg but dropped down to the Landesliga for the 2013–14 season. It won its division and made an immediate return to the Brandenburg-Liga. Stahl was part of a merger creating FC Eisenhüttenstadt in June 2015 and folded into that club one year later.

Honours

The club's honours: