FC Viktoria Köln

FC Viktoria Köln is a German association football club from the city of Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia.

History

Founded in 1904 as FC Germania Kalk it is one of the oldest football clubs in the city. In 1909 Germania merged with FC Kalk to form SV Kalk 04 and in 1911 this club was, in turn, united with Mülheimer FC to create VfR Mülheim-Kalk 04. The club was renamed VfR Köln 04 in 1918 and, in 1926, won its first Western German football championship and entry to national championship play.

After the re-organization of German football in 1933 under the Third Reich into sixteen top flight divisions, VfR played in the Gauliga Mittelrhein taking titles there in 1935 and 1937 but then performed poorly at the national level. In 1941 The Gauliga Mittelrhein was split into the Gauliga Moselland and Gauliga Köln-Aachen, with VfR playing in the latter division. Two years later the club joined Mülheimer SV to play as the combined wartime side (Kriegsspielgemeinschaft) KSG VfR 04 Köln/Mülheimer SV 06. Mülheim had also played in the Gauliga Mittelrhein since 1933 claiming titles of its own in 1934 and 1940, and had similarly poor results at the national level. Play in the Gauliga Köln-Aachen was suspended in the 1944–45 season as Allied armies advanced into Germany at the end of World War II.