SV Lichtenberg

Football club infobox
clubname = SV Lichtenberg 47


fullname = Sportverein Lichtenberg 47
nickname =
founded = April 26, 1947
ground = Hans-Zoschke-Stadion
capacity = 10,000
chairman = flagicon|Germany Günter Matthies
manager = flagicon|Germany Werner Voigt
league = Verbandsliga Berlin (VI)
season = 2007-08
position = 2nd | pattern_la1=_redshoulders|pattern_b1=_redshoulders|pattern_ra1=_redshoulders
leftarm1=|body1=FFFFFF|rightarm1=|shorts1=FF0000|socks1=FFFFFF
pattern_la2=_whiteshoulders|pattern_b2=_whiteshoulders|pattern_ra2=_whiteshoulders
leftarm2=FF0000|body2=FF0000|rightarm2=FF0000|shorts2=FFFFFF|socks2=FF0000

SV Lichtenberg is a German football from the city of Berlin. The footballers are part of a larger sports club that currently has over 900 members in departments for bowling, boxing, fitness and aerobics, gymnastics, line dancing, table tennis, and volleyball.

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History

The club was established in 1945 as "Sportgruppe Lichtenberg-Nord" in Russian-occupied East Berlin. It was one of several sides from the district of Lichtenberg that were brought together in 1947 to form "Sportgemeinschaft Lichtenberg 47". The team would play as "Sport Club Lichtenberg" from 1949 to 1969 when "SC" merged with the worker's club "Betriebssportgemeinschaft Elektroproject und Anlagebau Berlin" to form "BSG EAB Lichtenberg". In 1979 the association was re-named "BSG EAB Berlin 47".

The club spent over four decades as an elevator side that moved frequently up and down between the second and third tiers of East German football with only a single season (1950-51) in the top-flight to its credit.

After German reunification in 1990 and the subsequent merger of the football leagues of the two Germanys, the club adopted the name "Sportverein Lichtenberg" and took up play in the Amateur Oberliga Nordost-Mitte (III). A poor season saw the team relegated to the Verbandsliga Berlin (IV) and by the mid-90s they had descended to the Landesliga Berlin (VI). "Lichtenberg" recovered itself in the latter half of the decade and in 2001 captured the championship in what was now the fifth tier Verbandsliga Berlin. The team spent four seasons in the Oberliga Nordost-Nord (IV) until returning in 2005 to the Verbandsliga, where they still play today.

tadium

"Lichtenberg" plays its home matches in the Hans-Zoschke-Stadion which has a capacity of 10,000 (1,000 seats). It was built in 1951 on the site of the old "Sportplatz Normannenstraße" which had a capacity of 18,000.

Named for Hans Zoschke, an athlete and Communist resistance fighter who died at the hands of the Nazi regime in 1944, the stadium was adjacent to the headquarters of the Stasi, East Germany's state police. Local lore has it that Stasi boss Erich Mielke ordered the building torn down after witnessing the close defeat of his pet club, "Dynamo Berlin", from an office window. The building was saved when Zoschke's widow Elfried appealed to Communist party boss Erich Honecker.

Honours

*1. Klasse Berlin (III) champions: 1948
*Kreisliga Berlin (III) champions: 1950
*Bezirksliga Berlin (III East Germany) champions (8): 1955, 1964, 1970, 1971, 1981, 1983, 1990, 1991
*Landesliga Berlin (VI) champions: 1996
*Verbandsliga Berlin (V) champions: 2001

External links

* [http://www.lichtenberg47.de/ Offical team page] de icon
* [http://www.abseits-soccer.com/clubs/lichten.html The Abseits Guide to German Soccer]
* [http://www.f-archiv.de/ Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv] (historical German domestic league tables) de icon