VfL Bergen is a German association football club

Football in Germany

Association football is the most popular sport in Germany. The German Football Association is the sport's national governing body, with 6.6 million members organized in over 26,000 football clubs. There is a league system, with the 1. and 2. Bundesliga on top, and the winner of the first...

 from the city of Bergen auf Rügen

Bergen auf Rügen

Bergen auf Rügen is the capital of the former district of Rügen in the middle of the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Since 1 January 2005, Bergen has moreover been the administrative seat of the Amt of Bergen auf Rügen, which with a population of over 23,000 is...

, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The club was established in 1938 as Einheit Bergen and following World War II was reorganized as Sportgemeinschaft Rugia Bergen in Soviet-occupied East Germany.

History

Over the course of the next four-and-a-half decades the side was known as BSG KWU Bergen (1949), BSG Einheit Bergen (1951), and BSG Lokomotive Bergen (1961). In the 1970s Lok Bergen auf Rügen advanced out of the Bezirksliga Rostock to play three seasons (1972, 1975–76) as a second division side in the DDR-Liga

DDR-Liga

The DDR-Liga was, prior to German reunification in 1990, the second level of football competition in the DDR , being roughly equivalent to the Bundesliga in West Germany.-1950-1955:The league was established with two divisions of ten teams each in 1950...

 of the Deutscher Fußball-Verband der DDR

Deutscher Fußball-Verband der DDR

The Deutscher Fußball-Verband der DDR was since the 1950s the football association of the German Democratic Republic, fielding the East Germany national football team until 1990 before rejoining its counterpart, the German Football Association DFB, which had been founded in 1904....

 (DFV or East German Football Association). Lok fared poorly and never managed to place better than 10th. It was also during this period that they took part in the FDGB-Pokal, or East German Cup, but were unable to advance out of the opening round in six appearances.

Following German reunification

German reunification

German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

 and the merger of the eastern and western German football competitions in 1990 the club changed its name to ESV Lokomotive Bergen and became part of lower tier play. In November 1994 the club was renamed VfL Bergen 94 and the following year won promotion out of Berzirksliga (VII) play to the Landesliga Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Since then they have moved between Landesliga and Verbandsliga Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Verbandsliga Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

The Verbandsliga Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is the sixth tier of the German football league system and the highest league in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...

(V) and are currently part of the Landesliga Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Ost (VII).