120 years of Bayer 04 Leverkusen: an eventful history

It was on Friday, 1 July 1904 when ‘Turn- und Spielverein der Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedrich Bayer & Co. in Leverkusen’ was founded in the old cafeteria on the factory premises. At the same time, the starting signal for the 3rd Olympic Games of the modern era was given in St. Louis, Missouri, as part of the World's Fair. Today, this parallelism may be seen as a good omen for the Werkself, which would later win so many medals in the Games. The first Leverkusen gold was won by Willi Holdorf at the 1964 Games in Tokyo, 60 years after the decathletes were founded.

At the time, however, the two events generated hardly any media interest worth mentioning. Not a word can be found in the weekend edition of the Opladener Zeitung - Verkündiger und Anzeiger an der Nieder-Wupper of 2 July 1904.

The Kaiser’s breakfast

The headlines there are dominated by world political events and tabloid news such as the fact that Kaiser Wilhelm II “had breakfast with the American Cornelius Vanderbilt on his yacht on Friday”. The few local reports tell of water shortages in the Wupper region and night frosts in the Eifel, “which have caused great damage to the seeds, potatoes and beans”. So, who would be surprised by the founding of another gymnastics club?

Especially as the gymnastics movement in the Rhineland had long been in full bloom. Neukirchen, Opladen, Schlebusch, Wiesdorf, Rheindorf, Hitdorf - there were already so-called “wild” gymnastics clubs here in the 19th century, i.e. not affiliated to the German Gymnastics Association. Paragraph 1 of the statutes of TuS 04, which had just been founded, also stated that the purpose of the club was “the promotion of gymnastics as a means of physical and moral strengthening while at the same time fostering patriotic sentiment”. Only factory employees and their family members were allowed to become members of TuS 04 as associate members.

From 1904, the club crest featured the lion familiar from the company logo. Bayer AG used the Bergisch lion, which can also be seen in the coat of arms of Elberfeld - the town in the Bergisches Land region where Bayer AG was founded. It is a further symbol of the close connection between the plant and the members of the association.

The founding fathers of TuS 04 initially wanted nothing to do with football. After all, they all came from the gymnastics stronghold and Bayer AG headquarters in Wuppertal Elberfeld or Barmen and felt committed to the tradition and spirit of the German Gymnastics Association. This also applied to Wilhelm Hauschild and August Kuhlmann, who had already initiated everything with their letter to the management of the paint factories and their collection of signatures in February and November 1903.

Nevertheless, even at the founding meeting, there were discussions about what kind of club they wanted to be. Many suggested a wide range of sports. In addition to gymnastics, swimming, ice and snow running, rowing, tennis and cycling were also brought into play. The company was open to this in principle from the outset and held out the prospect of expanding the activities at a later date.

When Bayer football got going

Among the young men who worked at the plant, there were many who were tired of military drills in gymnastics. They took a liking to another sport. The German Football Association (DFB) was founded in 1900. In 1903, VfB Leipzig became the country’s first champions. A year later, on 21 May 1904, the world football association FIFA was founded in Paris, which the DFB joined a few days later.

Even in Leverkusen, which did not yet exist as a city, football – imported from England – had long been very popular. The time was ripe. On 31 May 1907, 16 young members gathered in the Wiesdorfer Hof on Kurtekottenstraße (now Titanstraße) to form a football team. On the condition that they “feel primarily as gymnasts and attend at least two gymnastics evenings regularly”, the club board agreed to the project. A first milestone was reached.

In 1907, the football team became the first specialised section of the gymnastics and sports club. When the Bayer football team got going, the TuS had 176 members, around 50 more than in the previous year, including 23 players and four friends from the football section. The swimming team followed a year later, and the fencing team in 1913. And because gymnastics included athletic disciplines such as running, jumping and throwing, as well as games such as hurling, batting and fistball, even in the early years there was a colourful sporting activity under the umbrella of TuS 04.

Historic growth of the Bayer sports family

These are the roots of the Bayer sports family that are still very much alive today, over 100 years later. Werkself players such as Robert Andrich, Alejandro Grimaldo and Piero Hincapie wore the red and white TSV retro caps at the double celebrations as a beautiful symbol of a sense of tradition and unity that is also very much pronounced among the fans. The caps sold like hot cakes. And the interaction also works well in the other direction Bayer giant Dennis Heinzmann, Werkself player Jennifer Souza, epee fencer Alexandra Ndolo and TSV Para athletes such as Markus Rehm, Leon Schäfer and Johannes Floors recently presented the brand new Werkself jersey for the 2024/25 season on the club's social media channels, recalling their favourite moments from the past record-breaking season of head coach Xabi Alonso's team.

In general, the connection that has historically grown between Bayer 04, Bayer sports clubs and Bayer AG was expressed in many joint activities last year. The Bayer Sports Family Matchday and the Bayer Sports Family Week are just two examples. The latter offers fans of the Werkself the opportunity to discover the sports city of Leverkusen. With their ticket for a home game at the BayArena, they can also attend games of the Bayer 04 women's football team, the Bayer Volleys, the Bayer Giants or the Werkselfen free of charge within a week. Regular articles about track and field athletes, volleyball players and the like in the Werkself magazine, on Werkself TV, in the Bayer 04 app and on the club's social media channels are other examples of mutual appreciation. The Bayer Sports Family-Duell content format, in which Werkself players compete against TSV Bayer 04 athletes in their respective sports, is another highlight of this togetherness.

Special-edition jersey

Fans of the Werkself can also look forward to a special Bayer 04 jersey in the coming season to mark the 120th anniversary. In its eventful history, the club has achieved many outstanding sporting successes since its foundation on 1 July 1904, collecting medals, records and titles. The Werkself's double victory puts this historic day in a particularly bright light once again. There is no doubt that the footballers, who were still viewed with scepticism at the beginning of the 20th century, have long played their part in the club's outstanding national and international reputation. And rarely before has the identification with Bayer 04 been so strong, the bond between fans, team and management so close and intense as in recent months.

Of course, there have been structural changes, spin-offs and reunifications in the club as a whole over the years. Things have been lively over the past 12 decades, like any large family. One thing that is certain is that ambitious goals, the pursuit of success, the international focus and the family atmosphere will continue to characterise Bayer 04 and TSV in the future.

Some milestones on the long journey of Bayer football are listed as a timeline below.

Timeline of 120 years of Bayer 04 Leverkusen