1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig

Early history

The club was formed on 26 May 1896 out of the football department of gymnastics club Allgemeine Turnverein 1845 Leipzig. However, they lay claim to an earlier date of origin by reaching back to a club that was incorporated into VfB in 1898 – Sport Club Sportbrüder Leipzig – which was one of four football clubs formed in Leipzig in 1893. The union lasted until 2 May 1900 when the two sides went their separate ways again.

The team that won the first German league championship in 1903.

Historical logo of VfB Leipzig, Germany's first national champion

VfB Leipzig was one of the original 86 teams that came together in the city in 1900 to form the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball Bund, or DFB). They were immediately successful at their chosen sport and made their way to the first German national championship final held in 1903. Their opponents were DFC Prag, a German-Jewish side from Prague, which was then part of Austria-Hungary. The DFB had invited "German" clubs of this sort from other countries in order to boost numbers in their new national association.

DFC Prag had made their way to the final under circumstances that had allowed them to avoid playing a single playoff match, while VfB Leipzig had come through some hard-fought matches. Arriving in Hamburg for the match, the heavily favoured Pragers took themselves off on an ill-advised pub crawl the night before the contest and so arrived to the pitch in less than ideal match-shape. The contest against was delayed half an hour as officials scrambled to find a football that was in good condition. The host, FC 93 Altona Hamburg, provided a new ball and 11 minutes in, DFC Prag scored the first goal. At the end of the first half, the score stood at 1–1, but VfB Leipzig then pulled away to emerge as the first winners of the Viktoria Meisterschaftstrophäe ("Victoria Championship Trophy"), representative of German football supremacy, on the strength of a decisive 7–2 victory.

Leipzig played themselves into another final appearance in 1904, but the match was never contested. A protest by FV Karlsruhe over their disputed semi-final with Britannia Berlin was never resolved and the DFB called off the final only hours before its scheduled start. There would be no champion that year. The following season, Leipzig found themselves unable to cover the expense of travelling to participate in their scheduled first round playoff match and so were eliminated from that year's competition. However, they did go on to raise the Viktoria again in 1906 and 1913 and also played in the 1911 and 1914 finals.

In the period leading up to World War II, VfB was unable to repeat their early success. After the re-organization of German football leagues under the Third Reich in 1933, the club found itself in Gauliga Sachsen, 1 of 16 upper tier divisions. While they earned strong results within their own division, they were unable to advance in the playoff rounds. In 1937, they captured the Tschammerpokal, known today as the DFB-Pokal, in a match against Schalke 04, the dominant side of the era.

GDR era

Historical chart of Lokomotive Leipzig league performance after WWII

1. Lok Leipzig team photo, 23 August 1983.

The club, like most other organizations in Germany, including sports and football clubs, was dissolved by the occupying Allied authorities in the aftermath of the war. Club members reconstituted the team in 1946 as SG Probstheida under the auspices of the occupying Soviets. After playing as BSG Erich Zeigner Probstheida and then BSG Einheit Ost, the club merged with SC Rotation Leipzig in 1954 and played in the DDR-Oberliga, East Germany's top flight league, but earned only mediocre results. In 1963, the city of Leipzig's two most important clubs – SC Rotation and SC Lokomotive Leipzig – were merged, resulting in two new sides being founded: SC Leipzig and BSG Chemie Leipzig. East German football went through a general re-organization in 1965, creating football clubs as centres of high-level football, during which SC Leipzig was transformed into 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig, while rivals Chemie Leipzig continued as a Betriebssportgemeinschaft (BSG), or a corporate team. Playing as Lokomotive, the club's fortunes improved somewhat as they almost always finished well up the league table, but they were unable to capture the top honour in the DDR (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik or German Democratic Republic) with losing final appearances in 1967, 1986, and 1988.

Lok earned a clutch of East German Cups with victories in 1976, 1981, 1986 and 1987 against failed appearances in the Cup final in 1970, 1973 and 1977. They also won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 1966 and made an appearance in the 1987 final of the European Cup Winners' Cup, falling 0–1 to Johan Cruyff's Ajax after a Marco van Basten goal.

German reunification

Re-unification in 1990 was followed by the merger of the football leagues of the two Germanys a year later. A poor season led to a seventh-place finish in the transitional league, but an unexpectedly strong playoff propelled the club into the 2. Bundesliga.

1. FC Lokomotive made a grasp at their former glory by re-claiming the name VfB Leipzig. A third-place finish in 1993 advanced the team to the top-flight Bundesliga, where they finished last in the 1994 season. The new VfB began a steady slide down through the 2. Bundesliga into the Regionalliga Nordost (III) by 1998 and then further still to the NOFV-Oberliga Süd (IV) by 2001. They were bankrupted in 2004, their results were annulled and the club was dissolved.

In late 2003, the club was re-established by a group of fans as 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig. The renewed side had to start in the lowest league eleventh-tier 3. Kreisklasse, Staffel 2 in 2004–05. Even so, they continued to receive solidly enthusiastic fan support: their match against Eintracht Großdeuben's second team in the Leipzig Zentralstadion on 9 October 2004 broke the world record for lower-league attendance with 12,421 spectators. Thanks to a merger with SSV Torgau, the club could play in the seventh-tier Bezirksklasse Leipzig, Staffel 2 in 2005–06. Finishing this league as champions, the team qualified for the sixth-tier Bezirksliga. In 2006, Lok Leipzig also played a friendly match against FC United of Manchester (4–4) and qualified for the 2006–07 Landespokal by winning the Bezirkspokal. Lokomotive Leipzig finished as champions of their group and promoted to fifth-tier Landesliga Sachsen Group for 2007–08 season. The club finished second to Erzgebirge Aue and missed out on direct promotion to NOFV-Oberliga Süd by two points in 2007–08 season. It still had the chance to regain Oberliga status through a relegation play-off with Schönberg, winning the first leg 2–1 at Schönberg. In the return leg, in front of almost 10,000 spectators, the club lost 0–1 but still gained Oberliga promotion via the away goals rule.^[1]

Lokomotive Leipzig finished Oberliga in third place in 2008–09, 12th in 2009–10 and eighth in 2010–11. Lokomotive Leipzig was promoted to Regionalliga Nordost after finishing Oberliga as sixth due to reserve teams of FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt, Dynamo Dresden and Carl Zeiss Jena being ineligible for promotion. Lokomotive finished in tenth place in the 2012–13 season but were relegated to Oberliga Nordost after finishing 15th in 2013–14.^[2][3]

The club stayed in contention for promotion back up to the Regionalliga during the 2014–15 season, having hired former German international Mario Basler as director of sports in early 2015. In the final match of the season, Lok supporters stormed the field after their club had fallen behind 2–0, forcing the match to be abandoned and the club to finish outside of the promotion ranks.^[4] The club finished in first place in the southern group of the NOFV-Oberliga and returned to Regionalliga Nordost for the 2016–17 season.

National

• German Championship
  • Winners (3): 1903, 1906, 1913
  • Runners-up (2): 1904 (uncontested), 1911, 1914
• Central German football championship
  • Winners (11): 1903, 1904, 1906, 1907, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1927
  • Runners-up (3): 1914, 1923, 1930
• DDR-Oberliga
  • Runners-up (3): 1967, 1986, 1987–88
• Gauliga Sachsen
  • Runners-up: 1939
• NOFV-Oberliga Süd
  • Winners: 2016
  • Runners-up (3): 1999^‡, 2000^‡, 2001
• Landesliga Sachsen
  • Winners: 1998^‡
• East German Cup
  • Winners (4): 1976, 1981, 1986, 1987
  • Runners-up (3): 1970, 1973 1977
• German Cup
  • Winners: 1936
• Saxony Cup
  • Winners: 1996^‡
  • Runners-up: 2017

International

• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
  • Runners-up: 1987
• UEFA Intertoto Cup
  • Winners: 1966
  • Runners-up: 1965
  • Group Runners-up: 1967
• UEFA Cup
  • Semi-finalist: 1974
• ^‡ Denotes won by reserve team.

Records (since re-establishment on 10 December 2003)

• Record Victory: 20–0 v Paunsdorf Devils (19 September 2004), v SV Althen 90 II (23 April 2005)
• Record Defeat: 1–15 v Hertha BSC, friendly (23 May 2005)
• Most Goals scored in a Match: 8 Ronny Richter v Paunsdorf Devils (19 September 2004)
• Most Goals scored in a Season: 81 René Heusel (2004/05)
• Record Attendance: Bruno-Plache-Stadion 13,098 v Hertha BSC, friendly (23 May 2005)
• Record Attendance (League): Zentralstadion 12,421 v Eintracht Großdeuben II (9 October 2004 – World Record in a lowest league)
• Longest unbeaten Run (League+Cup): 67 (04/05: 26+7, 05/06: 29+5), 5 September 2004 – 26 May 2006