During the Second World War, the Betriebssportgemeinschaft tried to keep sport going. That became increasingly difficult over the years. Nevertheless, there were competitions and games again and again both in field handball as well as football. One competitive match at Viktoria in Cologne lasted over six hours because the players and spectators had to keep going into shelters because of air raid warnings. Again and again there were different line-ups because some players were available on home leave and others had been called up.
The players stationed nearby, for example in anti-aircraft units, were picked up for matches and later returned to the units. The sportsmen looked to bring some relief in these difficult times with these events. With the handball players and the athletes there was a brief link in April 1940 between TuS 04 Leverkusen and the Betriebssportgemeinschaft as a Kriegssportgemeinschaft so that enough men could be brought together to be able to maintain competitions.
On Tuesday, 18 August 1942, the members of the club came together for a meeting in the Wiesdorfer Hof near Lützenkirchen, as the restaurant on Kurtekottenweg was popularly known. The Betriebssportgemeinschaft again becomes the Sportvereinigung Bayer Leverkusen 04 and, with immediate effect, joins the subdivision of the NSRL (National Socialist Reichsbund for physical exercise
In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of October. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
Show moreThe Werkself secured victory against Bayern Munich for the first time on 1 November 1986. On matchday 12, Bayer 04 beat the Bundesliga league leaders 3-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Munich and go top of the table.
Show moreTorben Hoffman was born in Kiel on 27 October 1974. In his youth he played for TuS Schwarz-Weiß Elmschershagen. The qualified policeman joined Holstein Kiel in 1993. Two years later he moved on to VfB Lübeck in Bundesliga two. After relegation with Lübeck in 1997 he came to attention of SC Freiburg and they signed the defender. The team relegated from the Bundesliga went straight back up with Torben who moved under the Bayer Cross in 1999 after another year in the Bundesliga. However, he was unable to establish himself at Leverkusen making only sporadic appearances and he was rarely in the starting XI. He played in a total of 30 games for the Werkself.
Show moreThomas ‘Thommy’ Reichenberger was born in Bad Kreuznach on 14 October 1974. The son of a former Bundesliga player – his father Max made 38 Bundesliga appearances for 1860 Munich – played for Eintracht Bad Kreuznach as a youth player before moving up to the first team.
Show moreManfred ‘Manni’ Pomp was born in Aachen on 25 October 1964. His first football club was the Aachen police sports club (PSV) but he signed for Alemannia Aachen after a year.
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