Hunfelder SV

Hunfelder SV is a German association football club from the city of Hunfeld, Hesse. In addition to a football section, the sports club has departments for athletics, basketball, gymnastics, handball, table tennis, and volleyball.

History

1909 to 1945

Also the club was only formed in 1919, it was predated by the Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna, which was formed in 1909 and dissolved during the difficult years of the First World War.

To re-ignite sporting live, and especially football, a handful of enthusiasts placed an add in the local newspaper, the Hunfelder Kreisblatte, requesting all interested people to meet on Sunday, 22 June 1919 in a local pub, to form a new sports and football club. The new club started out with football as its only sport, adding other departments later.

In its early days, the club existed under difficult circumstances. Having no regular playing field, it had to ask local farmers for permission to play on their fields, which was usually only granted after the harvest. The club played its first official match on 29 July 1919, losing 1–3 against Adler Neukirchen and playing at Sargenzeller Hohe, was only a friendly but the team soon entered into competitive football, joining the local B-Klasse. A first championship in this league was won in 1925–26.

The club remained stagnant on local level and did not distinguish itself in the following years. The rise of the Nazis to power in 1933 did not initially change this, but from 1936, under the leadership of the new club chairman Conrad Schafer, the HSV slowly improved.

During the Second World War, the club managed to continue to field a team because a hospital of the German army was based in town and recovering soldiers were permitted to field for the club. In the war years, the HSV thereby attracted much stronger players as it usually could, having even a former German international, Hermann Gramlich, in their ranks. Eventually, in December 1944, even this came to a