Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz was 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 Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...

, today Gliwice

Gliwice

Gliwice is a city in Upper Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. Gliwice is the west district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population of 2 million...

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

.

History

The team had its origins within the gymnastics club Turnverein Vorwärts Gleiwitz established in 1878. That club formed a football department in 1910 which became independent sometime in 1923 as Sport-Club Vorwärts Gleiwitz. A merger with Rasensportverein 1909 Gleiwitz followed in 1926 creating Sportvereinigung Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz.

The newly formed team took part in local level play with occasional advances to Germany's regional Südost league through the 20s and on into the early 30s. Following the reorganization of German football under the Third Reich in 1933, they became part of the Gauliga Schlesien

Gauliga Schlesien

The Gauliga Schlesien was the highest football league in the region of Silesia , which consisted of the Prussian provinces of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia from 1933 to 1945...

, one of sixteen top flight regional divisions. In 1939 and from 1941–45 the club appeared in the Gauliga Oberschlesien. Over a dozen seasons VR fielded successful sides that captured divisional titles in 1935, 1936, 1938, 1939, and 1940 while finishing in second place in 1937 and 1941. That earned the club appearances in the national playoff rounds where they were each time put out in the early going with the exception of an advance to the semi-finals in 1936 where they dropped a 1:3 decision to Fortuna Düsseldorf

Fortuna Düsseldorf

' is a German association football club based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, currently playing in the second tier of German league football, the 2. Fußball-Bundesliga...

. They lost the subsequent third place match 1:8 to Schalke 04 to finish fourth nationally. VR also took part in qualification round play for the Tschammerpokal, predecessor to today's DFB Pokal (German Cup) in each year from 1935–41 with the exception of 1937.

The team delivered a series of indifferent performances after a second place finish in 1941. Part way through the 1944–45 season the Gauliga Oberschlesien collapsed as Soviet forces advanced into the area in as World War II was being fought to its conclusion. VR disappeared with the end of the war.

Honours

• Gauliga Schlesien
  Gauliga Schlesien
  The Gauliga Schlesien was the highest football league in the region of Silesia , which consisted of the Prussian provinces of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia from 1933 to 1945...
  
   (I) champions: 1935, 1936, 1938, 1939
• Gauliga Oberschlesien (I) champions: 1940
• Oberschlesien champions (II): 1924, 1927